Resources to Find Notices of Upcoming Calls for Papers, Symposia, and Conferences

The law library recently subscribed to PapersInvited, which is a database of calls for papers issued by journal editors, organizations, and other conference organizers. PapersInvited collects announcements from all disciplines, including law, and from domestic, foreign, and international organizations. Users may browse by subject area or register to receive an e-mail of new announcements in their areas of interest.

Although we think PapersInvited, which also provides symposia and conference-related information, is a terrific tool, it is not comprehensive. Three other resources are listed below:

Legal Scholarship Network: LSN’s listing of professional announcements is frequently updated and fairly extensive. Announcements include conferences, competitions, calls for journal and book entries, as well as deadlines for awards, grants, and fellowships. Listings include opportunities in both the United States and abroad.

Chase College of Law: Chase maintains a short list of law school symposia.

McGeorge Law Library Faculty Development Opportunities Bulletin: The Bulletin is published several times each year. Issues include conference and symposia announcements.

New Photography Display: American Justice through Immigrants’ Eyes

Thanks to the American Bar Association, we are currently hosting a traveling exhibit of photographs which depict United States immigration policies from the perspective of people seeking refuge in our country.The exhibit was created by the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration, and features black and white photographs by photojournalist Stephen Rubin.The exhibit includes fifteen photographs accompanied by text describing the circumstances of the persons portrayed in the photographs.The exhibit is enhanced by text that describes the realities of immigration detention.The exhibit will be on display through early April.

New Micromedia Cabinet

Library users tend to be apprehensive when confronted with material in “microformat.” The chance of using this type of archival resource is greater than you might think. Approximately one third of our entire library collection resides in the micromedia room (Room 204 in Reserve). The library’s extensive collection of current and historic legal materials in microfiche and microfilm include large sets of early English and U.S. law reports, Congressional materials, international law documents, periodicals, bar journals, and briefs from the U.S. Supreme Court, Washington State Supreme Court, and the Washington Appellate Court. Two reader-printers are available in the micromedia room that allow users to not only view and copy but also to scan information to a PC. Images scanned to a PC can be used for e-mail, faxes, electronic distribution via the Internet, and inclusion on web sites.

The library’s 200,000 volume equivalent in microformat would require another floor of the library to house if the material existed in paper. As a relatively young collection (the library started in 1972) we continue to purchase new archival material and update supplements for existing collections as necessary. The library recently purchased and installed a new microform cabinet to accommodate a growth spurt in the micromedia collection. Library staff worked diligently to relocate thousands of fiche to the unit adding needed growth space for the foreseeable future.

New Reference Librarian: Tina Ching

The law library recently welcomed our newest reference librarian, Tina Ching, to Seattle University. Tina received her B.A. from Willamette University in 2001, her J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law in 2004, and her M.L.I.S. from the University of Washington in 2005.

Before coming to Seattle University, Tina was a reference and electronic services librarian at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Ross-Blakley Law Library in Tempe, Arizona. She also worked at the King County Law Library while attending library school. She is a member of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), the Western Pacific Association of Law Libraries (WestPac), and the Law Librarians of Puget Sound (LLOPS).

Stephanie Wilson Edits New Publication: Sexual Orientation and the Law:
A Research Bibliography Selectively Annotation the Legal Literature through 2005

http://library.seattleu.edu/record=b593527

The American Association of Law Libraries Standing Committee on Lesbian and Gay Issues recently published the above title. This extensive monograph was a collaborative venture of law librarians across the country, including Stephanie Wilson, who served as an associate editor of the volume.

The volume describes articles, monographs and government documents about sexual orientation and the law published between 1993 and 2005. The bibliography captures literature on a range of issues, including discrimination, family law, health, and gender identity.

To keep the bibliography current, the editors created a database to house periodic updates. Sexual Orientation and the Law: A Research Bibliography of Legal Literature Discussing Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Bisexual Persons, Their Rights and Their Families, which allows researchers to search recent annotations, or browse by topic or author. New selections will be annotated and posted on a quarterly basis.

Teaching the Millennial Generation

Building on a presentation first offered at the SU Connects Conference, Kerry Fitz-Gerald presented “The Millennials are Coming: Who are they, what do they want, and should we give it to them?” at a faculty development workshop in October. This hour-long discussion covered the demographics of the newest generation of students, and addressed pedagogical issues related to their unique learning styles. The presentation was videotaped, and is available on the Media Law Video Server.

New & Notable

The law library recently added International Law in Domestic Courts (ILDC), a new online service from Oxford University Press and the University of Amsterdam Center for International Law. This database covers the national treatment of international law issues by domestic courts from over 65 jurisdictions around the world. It begins with cases from 2000. Coverage includes approximately 31 non-Western states with strong representation from Africa and Asia. Value-added features like headnotes and analytical commentary, generous key-passage translations of all non-English decisions, keyword searching, and document full-text in the original language make ILDC an especially versatile resource. Oxford updates the service bimonthly.

You’ll find International Law in Domestic Courts listed under the online resources tab in the law library’s Research Portal. It is available off-campus with an SU email login and password.