Fastcase and the New Jersey State Bar Association

Membership to the New Jersey State Bar Association is free for students! That’s a price that can’t be beat.

So, what is the value?

For one, despite the fact that it’s only October, many of you are starting to think about what you will be doing next summer (i.e. where will you be working). Membership in the NJSBA gives you access to the thousands of other members, which includes both Rutgers and non-Rutgers alumni, among other valuable resources.

One of those resources is Fastcase, a legal database used by many practitioners. Membership with the NJSBA gives you access to the New Jersey Law Libraries on Fastcase. (A small annual fee gives you access to all Fastcase Law Libraries.) The Fastcase system is best known for their search results: search results are highly relevant and also offered on an interactive timeline to better picture the relevancy of each result. For students and faculty interested in learning more about Fastcase, a representative will be on campus on Thursday, November 19 to offer a demonstration of this system. (This event will also be open to members of the NJ Bar, so it will be an excellent networking opportunity for students!)

Additionally, your membership entitles you to the NJSBA’s Daily Briefing. This email push-service provides you with the previous days’ news summaries and decision summaries, both published and unpublished.

Totally worth it. Go ahead and get signed up.

(P.S. if you want to get started using Fastcase without a membership to the NJSBA, visit our A-Z List of Research Databases, click on Fastcase and you’re in! Enjoy!)

Study Guides & Treatises

Now that you’re a few weeks in to this new academic year, and with a long weekend ahead, it’s time to talk study guides and treatises. These supplements can be extremely helpful when it comes to understanding your course materials. These materials can explain the law, often with more detail than provided by a casebook. (Note: they are not a substitute for doing your assigned reading.)

By all means, search the catalog to find the precise study guide you seek. But most of you may not know the exact title or author of a study guide or treatise that you think might be helpful. Should that be the case, use the Law Library’s guide to Guides by Subject. This guide lists over 60 subject areas. By expanding the subject area of your choosing, you will see links to subject-specific resources, which can include study guides and treatises both in the law library and available online, and links to other guides.

Law Libraries’ Catalog

Rutgers Law.

What you saw and what you know: This (new) institution was formed by the merging of Rutgers Schools of Law in Camden and Newark.

What you didn’t see and what you may not know: the task of merging was taken on by the law libraries of each individual institution, as well, to form one unified law library and catalog.

What does that mean for our patrons? More resources!

That’s right, the merging of the law school libraries enables greater sharing of resources between the Camden and Newark campuses. Members of the law school community will be able to view the holdings of both libraries, and even check out those resources, through the unified catalog. Members of the Camden community who would like an item that lives in the Newark Law Library location should simply place a “Hold” on the item while logged in to the system. Please note that the “Hold” feature only applies to generally circulating materials. Users will be notified by the system if their hold request cannot be processed.

Sharing of resources is not limited to books and library materials, however; members of the Camden campus are encouraged to reach out to Newark librarians with any questions that arise.

Welcome New and Returning Students!

Entrance to Law Library

The Law Library would like to take a minute to welcome you to Rutgers School of Law in Camden.  Whether you are new to campus or would just like to get reacquainted with the Law Library, we would like to invite you to come in for a tour.  We can point you towards research materials, study carrels and tables, and printers and scanners on different floors of the library.   We can even show you how to reserve study rooms online.   You can find information regarding all of our Student Services within the law school intranet, at the end of the Academic Information section.

We have 6 reference librarians as well as a friendly a helpful staff ready to assist you with any question that you might have.  For both the new and returning students, we encourage you to bring your questions to any one of the librarians.  Here is a great (and short) article on making friends with a law librarian.

The library has a fantastic selection of resources, both online and in print, at your disposal.  From the Law Library’s main page, you can find a link to databases that might be very helpful to you.

Regular library hours are posted on the library home page. Any changes to library hours will be noted on the home page, with a link to those hours on the library’s Hours page. Changes to library hours will also be posted near the entrance to the law library.

The start of the 2015 academic year is met with some new and exciting developments. We also encourage you to follow our blog so that you can stay up-to-date with this news, ranging from Law School or Law Library announcements or happenings, research-related posts, and anything that may be of interest to our audience.  We also encourage you to contact us if you have any suggestions for content that may be useful or of interest to you!  You can also follow the blog through our Twitter feed (@RutgrsCamLawLib) or by “Liking” us on Facebook (Rutgers-Camden Law Library).

 

Written by CDS.

Law Library Scavenger Hunt

JOIN THE HUNT!

 

The Law Library is hosting a Scavenger Hunt! The game is intended to be a fun way to learn about your library and legal research! The hunt consists of 10 questions that will help familiarize you with the layout of the library along with some available resources and services. Prizes will be awarded for the first 3 participants to answer the most questions correctly.

These prizes are being offered:

• 1st place: $50 gift card to the campus bookstore
• 2nd place: $25 gift card to Starbucks
• 3rd place: $10 gift card to Starbucks

ALL participants will receive a coupon for 50 LexisNexis points!

The questions will be available from the Reference Desk throughout the duration of the contest, and are also available from the Library homepage. Participants are encouraged to stop by the Reference Desk to chat with one of the librarians!

All entries must be submitted electronically to the Reference Department email: lawlib@camden.rutgers.edu by 11:59pm on Friday, August 28, 2015 to be considered to a prize.

Get in the game! Play, learn, win!

We look forward to seeing you in the library!

Law360

Rutgers School of Law-Camden students and faculty can now enjoy unlimited access to Law360! In the past, Law360 resources had been accessible through Lexis.com or Lexis Advance; all of those resources are now available through the stand-alone site, along with all of the other fantastic Law360.com features.

Law360 offers legal news and analysis across 43 practice areas, covering:

• Every major litigation development in the U.S. federal district courts
• Every major lawsuit filed against the world’s 2,000 top companies
• Every major opinion handed down in the U.S. federal courts
• Every major initiative by state, federal and international legislatures
• and more!

(http://www.law360.com/about)

The law school community can take advantage of the special features only offered on the stand-alone Law360 site, which include:

• In-depth features about trends in every practice area
• Interviews with policy makers, corporate counsel and top lawyers
• Expert Analysis by leading practitioners
• Surveys of major litigation trends
• and more!

(http://www.law360.com/about)

Sign up for daily newsletters today to keep abreast of legal news, analysis, commentary, and more in any practice area and/or jurisdiction.

Also, check out the Law360 “Beta Tools” by click on the appropriate links at the bottom of each page. The Beta Tools allow users to track dockets, track attorneys, and track judges!

U.S. Federal Agency Documents, Decisions, and Appeals

A new library collection is available through the Law Library’s HeinOnline database: U.S. Federal Agency Documents, Decisions, and Appeals. This library features:

… the reports, decisions, and records, this library is a complete collection of the official case law of some of the United States most important U.S. Federal Agencies such as: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It also includes more than 65 GPO best selling legal titles (from HeinOnline).

Users can browse this collection by Agency, Agency document, or GPO best sellers.

To access this collection: from the Law Library Homepage > Research Resources > Research Databases > HeinOnline, and the US Federal Documents, Decisions, and Appeals library will be available from the HeinOnline homepage.

Written by CDS.

News From Lexis!

This just in, from LexisNexis ® :

I’m excited to let you know that we’re again offering students unlimited access to Lexis Advance this summer! Here’s an update on the LexisNexis® 2014 Summer Access program, Think Like a Lawyer program, and related teaching tools as you prepare your students for their summer and post graduate positions. We appreciate any assistance you can provide in ensuring your students know about the summer access program and all training opportunities prior to starting their summer jobs.

Summer 2014: All-Access to Lexis Advance®

1Ls & 2Ls: Students may continue to use their current Lexis Advance® ID for any purpose this summer– including work they perform at a law firm, corporation or government agency.

Lexis Advance ID all summer long for:

Any purpose at all
All legal content and news on their current law student ID
Unlimited hours-per-week
Graduating 3Ls, can register for one of our Graduate Program IDs that will extend their access beyond graduation. To learn more, visit www.lexisnexis.com/grad-access.

Think Like a Lawyer

Please share this Think Like A Lawyer link with your students so they can take advantage of training opportunities prior to heading out this summer. As you know, many employers require or highly recommend their incoming associates attend all applicable training offered at their school. Think Like a Lawyer training opportunities include Professional Research Certification designed to include the research skills expected among incoming associates based on feedback from commercial customers. The site also provides links to the summer access and 3L Graduate ID programs.

If you have any questions about your LexisNexis ®  subscription, please do not hesitate to contact (in no particular order):

• Reference Librarians (lawlib [at] camden [dot] rutgers [dot] edu);
• Lexis Representative Melissa Gorsline (melissa [dot] gorsline [at] lexisnexis [dot] com); or
• Lexis Student Representatives, usually seated by the circulation desk of the library.

Posted by CDS.

New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education (NJICLE) Materials

Continuing Legal Education (CLE) courses are intended to maintain the professional development of practicing attorneys. Often, CLE courses yield publications or handouts, which are great resources for research into current practices in certain practice areas.

Where can you find NJICLE materials:

• In the Law Library. In the Law Library catalog, run an Author search for “New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education” (no quotes). You can search within these results to find subject-specific materials by using the “Limit/Sort Search” button above the search bar.
• On BloombergLaw. From the home page, select the Legal Analysis & News tab, and then select Books & Treatises. One of the selections will be for the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education (NJICLE). Select a resource to browse the Table to Contents.
• On Lexis Advance. From the home page, select Browse Sources. In the search bar on the left, search for “NJICLE” (no quotes). By clicking on a resource, you can add that resource to a search, or you can click the link to view the Table of Contents.

For more information about NJICLE, visit their website.

Written by CDS

(HT GBT)

LexisAdvance Offers Resources for Teaching Transactional Law