WestPac

The Western Pacific Chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries held its annual meeting in Seattle on October 13-15.

This meeting brought together approximately 80 sensibly dressed law librarians from California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, and Washington. Kristin Cheney was a panelist on the session titled, "Moving, Remodeling, Building: The Experts Speak."

Kerry Fitz-Gerald and Stephanie Wilson presented a session titled, "Repackaging Traditional Exhibits = Great Outreach Effort," in which they discussed various library exhibits and websites.

Stephanie Wilson also moderated a session about archives and preservation issues.

The Library hosted a reception for meeting attendees, which included Kelly Kunsch's infamous behind-the-scenes library tour.

 

Librarians who attended the meeting were very impressed by our presentations and facilities. To quote one attendee, "Wow, this seems like a fun place to work!" And another, "Great presentation! Can't wait to steal it!"

New Databases

The Library is pleased to announce that we now subscribe to the online Loislaw Secondary Law Collection. This extensive collection of treatise materials covers a variety of legal topics including antitrust, bankruptcy, business practice, construction, corporate governance, corporate law, drunk driving, elder law, employment law, estate planning, evidence, family law, litigation, insurance, Internet, personal injury, product liability, real estate, securities, and more. Follow the directions on our database by title page for accessing this collection. (Please note that this collection cannot be accessed through our Loislawschool.com subscription).

Muslim World Journal of Human Rights

In response to the increased interest in the intersection of human rights and Islamic Law, the Library recently added a subscription to the Muslim World Journal of Human Rights, a new electronic publication from Bepress. This title covers human rights as viewed through an Islamic prism. The emphasis is not solely limited to jurisprudential facets but encompasses the interaction of these rights with the greater Muslim society. This is a peer-reviewed publication with a stellar editorial board of leading scholars in both Middle Eastern studies as well as human rights. You can easily sign up for e-mail notification for new issues using the link you will find on the journal site. The Muslim World Journal of Human Rights joins several other important serial titles that are held by the library: UCLA Journal of Islamic & Near Eastern Law, Islamic Law & Society, and the Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law.

Photo submission categories included:

Librarians as Information Evaluators, Librarians as Information Managers, Librarians as Expert Researchers, Librarians as Teachers, Librarians as Trainers, and Librarians as Mentors. Out of all the AALL law libraries that participated, Seattle University Law Library placed first in the category of Librarians as Expert Researchers, second in the category of Librarians as Mentors, and third in the category of Librarians as Trainers. AALL will feature the contest winners and more photos in the December 2005 issue of AALL Spectrum and will additionally use these photos in future AALL publications and brochures. All photos submitted by the Seattle University Law Library were taken by Charity Braceros, Circulation Assistant Supervisor.

Library FAQs

The FAQ for Journal Staff is intended to answer general questions about recurring issues in writing and editing for members of the Seattle University Law Review and the Seattle Journal of Social Justice.

The FAQ for Independent Studies assists students who are completing independent study paper assignments.

The FAQ for Law School Staff orients new law school staff to library services and procedures.

Class Presentations

Throughout the fall semester, the librarians have been involved in teaching legal research. Kristin Cheney is teaching a semester long course on Advanced Electronic Legal Research and Methodology. Stephanie Wilson and Barbara Swatt Engstrom taught several classes on citators for Legal Writing I students. Kelly Kunsch taught the annual research refreshers for the Legal Writing II students. Bob Menanteaux taught a class on researching international sustainable development issues and Kerry Fitz-Gerald taught classes on researching in the area of corporate acquisitions and securities. The librarians also gave introductory research and library tours to almost 200 first year students. If you are interested in having a librarian present a research instruction class tailored to your course, please contact your librarian liaison or Kristin Cheney.

NWIUG

The annual Northwest Innovative User’s Group conference was held in Portland, Oregon on October 20th & 21st with Kara Phillips, Charlotte Parsons, Michael Zubitis, Kent Milunovich, Susan Kezele and Barbara Swatt Engstrom in attendance. Kara Phillips, Susan Kezele, Barbara Swatt Engstrom and Jan Hartley from Seattle University's Lemieux Library presented a session titled "Evaluating Patron Privacy on Innovative Interfaces." This session highlighted the need for librarians to be aware of the types of patron information that are stored in circulation, cataloging and acquisitions databases that could potentially be subject to a Patriot Act search. The session was well attended and very well received. It was especially timely in light of the case, Doe v. Gonzales (cv-05-4896), which involves the employment of the Patriot Act to seize library records and the attendant gag order provision of the Act. The Doe case is currently being heard in the 2nd circuit.

The court documents filed in the case may be viewed at:
http://action.aclu.org/reformthepatriotact/
nsl_legal.html.

National Conference of State Legislators 2005
Joint Fall Seminar

Following a successful presentation at the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), held in Seattle in August, librarian Kerry Fitz-Gerald was invited to travel to Chicago to speak at a NCSL research and training workshop. Over 70 people crowded into a small room to hear her presentation "Evaluating Internet Resources." The session was very well received with a number of attendees promising to take the tricks and techniques back to their staff. Said one attendee, "My staff all use the Internet, but not very well. This information will be invaluable for teaching them to weed out dud sites."

Is an Annual Report in Your Library's Future?

Kristin Cheney’s article Is an Annual Report in Your Library's Future? was published in the summer 2005 edition of Law Library Journal, law librarianship’s premier scholarly journal. Kristin's article discusses the mechanics and methodology of preparing an annual report in an academic law library setting.

Training Sessions

As the semester began, librarians attended vendor trainings on several new products.

One Lexis update covered LexisNexis Congressional, which contains federal legislative history from 1970 forward. Another Lexis training covered LexisNexis Statistical Universe which indexes and abstracts statistics from federal and state governments, international organizations, trade and business organizations, universities, and more. The BNA representative provided training for BNA's online product that contains more than 100 titles and is especially useful for current awareness on a large number of legal topics. Finally, a Westlaw update introduced some of that service’s new products including: 50 state survey, West dockets, Westlaw Watch, and Westlaw's Knowledge Management system.