Tag Archives: resource highlight

05.03.23
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Finding Study Aids for your Corporations Course

We get it. If you’re taking Corporations, you may be thinking “I’ve made it this far in law school, why do I need additional assistance?”

Even if you don’t need it, per se, the Law Library wants to emphasize that these resources are still there for your enjoyment and intellectual enrichment. These resources are still invaluable for those in particular that have “too much on their plate” and need a little help.

The Study Aid Finder has a “Recommended Electives” tab for upper-level students.  These courses are courses with subject matter often tested on the bar.  You may not even be taking any of these courses, and may not have a course exam to prepare for, but for those 3L’s and 4LP’s, the July bar exam is right around the corner. These resources could be useful for bar prep even if you don’t have a final in these courses.

As with the other posts highlighting the Study Aid Finder, going to the menu on the left of the screen and clicking “Recommended Electives” gives a drop-down menu of various courses that are not required for graduation but often tested on the bar exam:

Clicking on “Corporations,” as with the other courses, brings you to a box with “Digital,” “Physical,” and “Audio and Video” tabs. A portion of the “Digital” tab is displayed above. We’ve previously taken a look at the Glannon guide[s] and Examples and Explanations series, so let’s look at something different this time: the Emanuel CrunchTime series.

Clicking the link brings us [again] to the Aspen Learning Library:

Unlike the other resources we’ve investigated in this blog series, there is no “read online/read offline” option – only a “View Inside” option.

Clicking “View Inside” brings us to essentially an e-book within the browser:

Unlike the other resources we’ve evaluated in this series, the e-book options aren’t as comprehensive. There’s not a search menu button, a table of contents menu button, etc. That does not mean this resource is not valuable though.

With this resource, we are more or less limited to digitally turning the page. That’s not a bad thing though! Looking at the table of contents, this resource has a lot to offer:

As can be seen, there’s around at least 140 pages of exam questions in various formats
(with explanation). This is a great way to test your application of the material, or, alternatively, a great way to learn through experience.

Clicking on the “Physical” tab brings a list of resources that are similar (some are identical) to those in the “digital” tab. These can be accessed physically in the Law Library, or the ISBN is provided and one can Google it and find a vendor-of-choice to obtain the book.

The “Audio and Video” tab has a list of resources that are, well, audio and video! These resources are not as comprehensive oand don’t provide quite the depth that other resources have, but, for those on the go, these resources provide a great opportunity for learning in traffic, in the gym, nursing a child, etc.

The amount of resources available can be overwhelming, but I’d recommend skimming a few, see which resource resonates with you, and going from there. You can’t go wrong. Happy hunting and best of luck on your upcoming exam!

05.01.23
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Finding Study Aids for your Professional Responsibility Course

In a previous post we focused on Property Law for the 1Ls, but they are not the only ones who need help!

All of you 2Ls out there likely have your Professional Responsibility final to get past before the summer. The rules of Professional Responsibility are there for a good reason. Unfortunately for us law students though, there’s a little more to them than “don’t touch your client’s money” and “communicate with your client[s].” Thankfully we have the awesome professors at GSU to help us out with these – and the amazing Law Library (and librarians and other staff and students assisting the library) to help us learn them.

Back to the study guide – to get to Professional Responsibility, we click on the “2L Courses” tab in the left menu. This brings down a drop-down menu of selected 2L courses:

Clicking on “Professional Responsibility” will bring you to a box with digital, physical, and audio/visual resources to aid your study, just like the other courses we’ve reviewed in this blog series:

We previously took a peek at a Glannon guide, so let’s take a look at a different guide this time around.

Clicking on the Examples and Explanations for Professional Responsibility (a.k.a., the “E&E” guide) again brings us to the publishers website and the Aspen Learning Library:

As you can see, it’s compatible with a variety of electronic devices (computer, tablet, phone) and can be accessed online or offline (note: offline reading must be done through the Aspen Learning Library App, available for PC/Mac/Android/iOS).

Utilizing the “Read Online” tab, you are brought to the table of contents, and from there, you can search the ToC, scroll through the ToC, etc. Chapters are broken out into the major topics (possession, gifts, title, etc.). The chapters discuss the topics generally, and provide some examples with explanations (hence “E&E”).

As this is another Aspen Learning Library resource, the interface is similar (if not identical) to that of the Glannon guide discussed previously:

Going to the “Duty of Competence” section, for example, is something that none of GSU students should have to worry about, but, you’re going to get tested on it on the final, the MPRE, and the bar. The top left icons bring one to the Aspen Learning Library and Table of Contents, respectively. The five menu buttons on the top right provide a “text to speech” function, a button for supplemental material, a full screen viewer option, a settings option (allows one to change the font size and font), and a search option. The chapter then ends with some examples. Other resources in the “digital” tab include the Glannon series, the Emmanuel crunchtime series, and others. 

Clicking on the “Physical” tab brings a list of resources that are similar (some are identical) to those in the “digital” tab. These can be accessed physically in the Law Library, or the ISBN is provided and one can Google it and find a vendor-of-choice to obtain the book.

The “Audio and Video” tab has a list of resources that are, well, audio and video! These resources are not as comprehensive or have the depth of examples (a.k.a. “Hypos”) that other resources have, but, for those on the go, these resources provide a great opportunity for learning in traffic, in the gym, nursing a child, etc.

The amount of resources available can be overwhelming, but I’d recommend skimming a few, see which resource resonates with you, and go from there. You can’t go wrong. Happy hunting and best of luck on your upcoming exam!

04.08.23
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An Easy Way to Find the Best Study Aids for your Course

The GSU Law Library is an absolutely fantastic resource for exam preparation.  A former colleague of mine would tell the tale of when he was in school, after he got the syllabus for a given class, he’d hit the library and look for resources to supplement his in-class experience…and would end up CALI’ing the class.  Anecdotal humble brags aside, we may not be in the beginning of the semester, but it is never too late to look around for resources that can help bolster your understanding of a given subject.

This is especially true with exam season coming up around the corner. Despite the high caliber of GSU’s professors, everyone has a different learning style, and the way material might be presented in class may not “fit” with one’s learning style. Others may just want more practice and to review a different presentation of their course material to help solidify the information in their brain (in neuroscience we call this “memory consolidation”).

Fortunately for you, GSU really goes the extra mile to ensure and promote the success of its students. The Law Library has put together a Study Aid Finder to help students get the most out of what the Library has to offer for us students to knock out those pesky exams with flying colors. This is the kind of resource I really wish someone could have handed me on day 1 of law school…let’s take a look, shall we?

First thing’s first – the Study Aid Finder can be accessed at: https://libguides.law.gsu.edu/studyaidfinder. 

The landing page has an introduction that one can read if one so pleases, but the interesting stuff can be found on the menu bar on the left-hand side of the page:

Clicking on one of the menu bars will expand the course selections:

Clicking on a given course will then lead you to a collection of study aids for that particular course. You’ll see digital formats that can be accessed with your GSU credentials and can be viewed on laptops, mobile devices, etc. If you’re a luddite like myself and prefer paper, there’s a link for information for the physical printed book. There’s also an audio and video tab with some resources for those of us on the go. It’s not like Atlanta has any traffic or anything, but, if it did, listening to audio while on your way to T-deck is a great use of time.

Happy hunting!

08.31.22
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Introducing the “Bioethics: Inclusive Voices” Video Series

The Center for Law, Health, and Society and the Law Library are excited to bring you Bioethics: Inclusive Voices, a series of short, high-quality videos exploring the diversity of the bioethics field.

Professor Leslie Wolf organized the project, which was funded by the Greenwall Foundation. Like so many of us, she had to adapt to the changing circumstances of Covid-19, turning what had first been conceived as a series of speakers into an innovative series of 6-12 minute videos on important yet under-discussed issues within bioethics.

Professor Leslie Wolf was the principal investigator for the project.

The videos fall into two distinct groups: ‘Career Journeys’ and ‘Diverse Scholars’. The former relay the personal stories of diverse scholars who pursued bioethics from different starting points, such as student activism or the practice of medicine. According to Wolf, the goal here was “to encourage more students form diverse background to consider bioethics as a career.”

In comparison, the “Diverse Scholars’ videos address a wide variety of diversity-related bioethics topics. Some are filled with highly practical insights, such as Fordham Professor Kimini Paul-Emile’s Dealing with Racist Patients, while others focus on vital big-picture issues, such as Professor Anderson’s Health Injustices Caused by Segregation and Housing.

A still from Professor Anderson's Health Injustice Caused by Segregation and Housing video.
A still from Professor Courtney Anderson’s Health Injustices Caused by Segregation and Housing video.

Although many different audiences will find these videos intriguing and useful, they are primarily intended as resources for teachers, at both the graduate and undergraduate level. As such, each features a set of discussion questions, as well as a list of resources for further exploration. Moreover, the high production quality on display here–in the form of the appealing visual aids that accompany each speaker and the professional sound throughout the series–will help ensure that students are fully engaged.

Bioethics: Inclusive Voices is one of the many great resources you’ll find in the Law Library’s “Reading Room,” our home for faculty scholarship, video recordings of important GSU Law events, historical law school materials, and much more. Check it out!

02.21.22
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Resource Highlight: HeinOnline’s Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture, and Law

In case you haven’t read the news, scholarly research into slavery’s influence on our legal system is highly relevant to many ongoing debates. The law library can help with your research in many ways, but today I’m going to highlight HeinOnline’s Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture, and Law. Whether you are doing legal research that relates to slavery, or interdisciplinary research on other aspects of slavery that touches upon the law, this rich collection gathers a wide range of useful primary and secondary sources that might otherwise be cumbersome to identify and locate.

When it comes to primary legal sources, Slavery in America and the World aims to be comprehensive. It includes:

  • Every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery;
  • Every federal statute dealing with slavery; and
  • All reported state and federal cases.

The way the collection organizes these sources by jurisdiction and then presents them chronologically is obviously a great match for a research project focused on historical developments; however, even if the historical timeline itself is not a major focus of your research, this organization still provides some valuable context. It’s quite useful.

This database also cuts a wide swath when it comes to gathering primary historical sources (i.e., contemporary accounts of slavery). HeinOnline says it includes every pre-1920 English-language legal commentary on slavery, including many obscure articles and journals that are otherwise difficult to find. It supplements those legal commentaries with hundreds of newspapers and pamphlets discussing slavery from a variety of perspectives.

A photograph of former slaves in the time period following the Emancipation Proclamation.
Via wikimedia.

Slavery in America and the World also helps to contextualize this impressive range of primary sources with useful secondary materials. It includes a fairly thorough and relatively up-to-date collection of modern legal scholarship on slavery, as well as an extensive bibliography of books on the topic.

Slavery looms large over American history and American law, and there is no shortage of sources on the topic, which can make research feel overwhelming, even for the experienced researcher. Slavery in America and the World helps to make it more manageable by gathering so many of the most important resources in a single place and organizing them in an intuitive and approachable manner. If you are just getting started, the collection has a clear and easy-to-navigate LibGuide to help point you in the right direction. Of course, as with any of the GSU Law Library’s many resources, librarians are also here to help you use them effectively in your research.    

01.26.22
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PowerNotes Helps Manage Research Across Multiple Research Services

The GSU College of Law Library recently added PowerNotes (Premium) to its Database List. This is perhaps somewhat misleading as PowerNotes is not a research database, per se, but rather a research outlining and management tool. There is a stripped-down free version of PowerNotes; however, the law library acquired institutional access to its premium service (including unlimited projects and other upgrades) for the GSU College of Law community.

PowerNotes uses a browser extension to help with online research, specifically gathering and keeping track of source materials, and organizing and creating a writing outline. Users can install either the Chrome or Firefox browser extension; these are the only browser options at the moment. Once installed, use your campus email address to create an account. Now, you can create a project and begin searching on a preferred research platform or across the web, generally. PowerNotes works with any webpage you browse, including legal subscription services such as Westlaw Edge, Lexis+, and HeinOnline (which provides a LibGuide on how to use PowerNotes on its platform). This is perhaps its most significant feature– centralizing your research regardless of where the source material resides online.

When users find relevant information, they can highlight the text, save it, assign a topic to it and annotate it. The text is saved with a link back to the source. Citation information is automatically collected and put in a preferred citation format, say bluebook. At any time during the research process, users can revisit their projects and reorganize, rename, or expand their topics and quotes.

PowerNotes has compiled a helpful instructional video library. Also, the law library will host training on PowerNotes on Tuesday, March 1 @ 3:15 PM and Wednesday, March 2 @ 5:10 PM. Both sessions will be 45 minutes and satisfy a topic session for the Law Library’s Applied Legal Experience, Research, & Technology (ALERT) Program.

In the interim, if you have questions or problems accessing PowerNotes, contact Librarian Manion. Do good research.

01.24.22
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Introducing Aspen Learning Library (formerly known as Wolters Kluwer Online Study Aid Library) & its Companion App

In this post, Law Library GRA Ross Crowell takes a closer look at a resource with a fancy new name but lots of familiar (and very helpful) content.

If you’re a regular user of the law library’s online study aid collection, you’ve probably noticed the recent change in nomenclature: what was formerly known as the Wolters Kluwer Online Study Aid Library is now called Aspen Learning Library. It’s got all of the same study aids, and you can still find it in the same place on the library’s database list, but it now features a new interface and a new app (rather sensibly called the Aspen Learning Library App), which you can find on the App Store, Google Play, and for desktops. I downloaded it on my MacBook and have enjoyed the ease of being able to access all of these great study aids in just a few clicks. Instead of having to log onto the GSU Law Library website and then log in again to access these study aids, they are now accessible simply by opening an app. In addition, unlike the generic IPC Reader app that some students used for these study aids, this one is designed specifically for these resources.

Here is a look at the desktop app’s interface. As of now, there are 211 different study aids that are accessible through the app. 

You’re sure to see some familiar titles. All 1L course study aids are available here, along with study aids for many other courses such as Admin Law, Corporations, Wills Trusts & Estates, and Constitutional Law. One favorite I accessed via the app are the Casenote Legal Briefs, which provide detailed briefs for many cases. Personally, I wish I would have used this study aid for Con Law during my 2L year, as it would have made my life a lot easier by simplifying the long cases that I struggled to understand. These briefs can be great when you are struggling with a case, as they provide condensed and simplified explanations. 

In addition to the Legal Briefs, the app also has Examples & Explanations for many popular electives and core classes. I enjoy using these study aids around finals time, as they can be a good way to do practice problems and then check your answers. There are several other types of study aids available in the app, but these two are the ones that I use the most. 

Feel free to download the app, get logged in, and access all of these great study aids to get you through the semester. To get started, I downloaded the app here. After starting the app, I signed in through “OpenAthens”, searched Georgia State University, then logged in with my GSU credentials. Hopefully, you find that this app will be beneficial to you for the semester and the rest of your time in law school.
04.17.17
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Summer and post-graduation password use

As exams draw closer, so does summer work and graduation. Curious about what you can do with your Bloomberg Law, Lexis, or Westlaw passwords? Read on…

Summer use for returning students:Beach view
Bloomberg Law and Lexis passwords can be used for any purpose, without restrictions, over the summer. Westlaw can be used for non-commercial research such as coursework; GRA work; Law Review, Moot Court, or STLA research; non-profit work; clinical work; or work for an official College of Law externship. Westlaw, through your academic account, cannot be used when a client will be billed.

Post-graduation use:
Bloomberg Law and Lexis are available for 6 months after graduation. Westlaw provides a 6 month extension after graduation for usage up to 60 hours per month. You will see a pop up when you log on to Westlaw beginning a couple of months before you graduate.

Lexis is also providing a graduation gift of a free subscription to one of three services. You will be able to select a free subscription to Law360, Lexis Practice Advisor, or Lexis for Microsoft Office. If you are doing public interest work for a 501(c)(3), excluding government work or law firm work representing a non-profit, you may qualify for a Lexis ASPIRE ID. For more information on Lexis graduate programs, go to lexisnexis.com/grad-access.

If you have questions, please contact the appropriate College of Law representative.
Bloomberg Law: Terry Stedman
Lexis: Tracy Templeton
Westlaw: Sue Moore

02.21.16
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Meet govinfo: Federal Law Research Gets a Makeover

govinfo

By: Chloe Martin

This month, the U.S. Government Publishing Office introduced the world to govinfo, a beta website that will eventually replace the Federal Digital System (FDsys) as the go-to resource for federal primary law from all three branches of government. Read our Q&A to learn more.

How does govinfo differ from FDsys?

The content available for access will not change, but govinfo offers some new and improved features:

  • New ways to browse content (alphabetically and by category);
  • Responsive design for better display on mobile devices;
  • More choices for sharing pages and content on social media;
  • Enhanced search filters; and
  • The brand new “related documents” feature which will display other documents within govinfo that relate to or reference a particular document.

Who can access govinfo?

Everyone. Govinfo, like FDsys, is available to the public.

What major resources are available to search and browse on govinfo?

  • The Federal Register
  • The Code of Federal Regulations
  • The Federal Budget
  • The U.S. Code
  • Congressional Bills
  • Statutes at Large
  • The Congressional Record
  • Congressional Calendars, Hearings, and Reports
  • U.S. Court Opinions, including SCOTUS decisions

How can I access govinfo?

Visit https://www.govinfo.gov/

The GPO is requesting public feedback on its new site; visit this survey to tell the GPO what you think!

07.02.15
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The United States Law Week

There have been many major legal developments in the United States over the past several weeks. The Supreme Court has issued several landmark opinions in regards to healthcare, marriage, housing, and congressional redistricting. In addition, the U.S. Congress has debated and passed notable pieces of legislation related to trade authority and national security. Moreover, several executive agencies have issued notices, proposed rules, and final regulations regarding topics such as contracting with inverted corporations and overtime pay.

The United States Law Week, published by Bloomberg BNA, is an excellent source for keeping up with key legal developments. This weekly publication provides news and analysis, Supreme Court docket summaries, and several other useful tools for staying abreast of recent legal news. One well known feature of this resource is its “Circuit Splits” table, which provides a monthly summary of splits between the federal courts on significant legal issues. Circuit splits is excellent way to forecast which issues may find their way in front of the Supreme Court of the United States.

You can access the United States Law Week online through Bloomberg BNA (GSU Campus ID and Password Required) or through Bloomberg Law (Username and Password Required).