Electronic Legal Research

Have You Tried Loislaw Yet?

Loislaw is a comprehensive, user-friendly, low-cost electronic legal research service.  It offers access to a wide range of primary and secondary materials for federal as well as all fifty state jurisdictions.  Secondary sources and bar association materials are somewhat limited in the law school edition.  Loislaw also offers an electronic clip service, a citator (GlobalCite), and a variety of productivity features and services. 

Once students register for Loislaw, they have access throughout their law school program.  Service continues through summers and there is no restriction on use.  Best of all, it’s available free to law students for 6 months following graduation.  If you’d like help with Loislaw, stop by the Reference Desk or contact The Loislaw Support Group at 1-800-364-2512.

To sign up for Loislaw you need to get New York Law School’s code for registration.  Once you have the code follow the instructions for registration found here.  Look for the New to Loislawschool.com link.

New Look for Lexis

Lexis has just introduced a brand new interface. The change in look is not dramatic and after a few uses, you should feel right at home. The new design lets users experience the enhanced features at their own pace.  To oversimplify, the gray background has become white and the top tool bar has moved over to the right side. The “Related Content” section in the left frame of the search results screen has case background information, related secondary source links, and tools to allow one to move easily around and within documents.  Lexis has also introduced Lexis for Microsoft Office, a productivity tool that automates certain Lexis research tasks and frees users from having to leave a Word document or Outlook message to sign onto Lexis.  It is now available on all Mendik Library computers and you can download it to your laptop or home computer (including Macs).

First CALR Survey Winner

One lucky OneL has already won a $25 bookstore gift card and more chances to win remain!

If you are a OneL and have had your required CALR training but have not yet participated in the CALR survey, please click here. After completing the survey, follow the on-screen instructions for a chance to win. If you have not yet had your CALR training, you will receive a survey invitation via email after you have completed the class.

If you haven’t yet signed up for a CALR session, please do so right away as our last class is on October 20. Instructions for registration can be found here.

And the Gift Certificate Goes To . . .

We are pleased to announce the second winner among those who participated in our ongoing CALR survey.  OneL Jeremy Rockman has won a $25 NYLS Bookstore gift certificate.  Congratulations, Jeremy!

You still have a chance to win!  If you are a OneL and and haven’t yet taken the CALR opinion survey, please click here. After completing the survey, follow the on-screen instructions for a chance to win. Good luck!

Grow Your CALR Skills

Now that the scheduled CALR classes for first year students have concluded, we wanted to remind you of the many opportunities that remain to continue to develop and hone your newly acquired skills.  The representatives from both LexisNexis (Nejat Bumin) and Westlaw (Stefanie Efrati) offer a variety of specialized and more advanced classes, including classes that will enable you to achieve “Certification” as a researcher on one or both systems.  Certification can be a valuable credential in the eyes of prospective employers.  There’s never a charge for any of these classes or for Certification itself and we encourage you to pursue as many of these opportunities as possible.  We also encourage you to pursue additional CALR instruction with us.  Each semester we offer a series of Research Skills sessions (40-50 minutes each), all designed to make you a better and faster legal researcher.  Look for the Research Skills Workshops link on our web page.   And don’t forget the for-credit classes we offer each semester — Advanced Legal Research (3 cr) and Legal Research: Practical Skills (1 cr).

 

And the First Winner Is . . .

We are pleased to announce the first winner among those who participated in our recent CALR survey.  OneL Nicholas Tambone has won a $25 NYLS Bookstore gift certificate.  Congratulations Nick!

More chances to win remain!  If you are a OneL and have had your required CALR training but have not yet participated in the CALR survey, please click here. After completing the survey, follow the on-screen instructions for a chance to win. If you have not yet had your CALR training, you will receive a survey invitation via email after you have completed the class.

If you haven’t yet signed up for a CALR session, please do so right away as our last class is on October 22. The sign-up binder is at the library reference desk.

Mendik Library Research Skills Sessions

As it does each spring semester, the Mendik Library Reference Staff is offering a group of Research Review Sessions focusing on the research tools and skills most legal employers require.

These sessions run for either 40 or 50 minutes and are taught in L403 (Mondays, Tuesdays  & Thursdays) or L715 (Wednesdays).

You need to sign up in advance for any of the sessions you wish to attend.  You may sign up in person (binder on Circulation / Reference Desk), by phone (431-2332), by e-mail (reference@nyls.edu) or AOL Instant Messenger (nylslib).

For more information on the sessions, click here.

Sessions

Date

Time

Class

Room

Note

Mon, March 02, 2009

5:10 – 5:50

CALR: Bring in your problems

L403

(4th Floor of 40 Worth)

Tues, March 03, 2009

5:00 – 5:50

Agency Law, Rules, Regulations & More

L403

(4th Floor of 40 Worth)

Wed, March 04, 2009

5:10 – 5:50

Citation Workshop

L715

(7th Floor of 40 Worth)

Thurs, March 05, 2009

5:00 – 5:50

Getting Started on a N.Y. Legal Research Project

L403

(4th Floor of 40 Worth)

Mon, March 09, 2009

5:10 – 5:50

Loislaw: A Low-Cost Alternative to Lexis and Westlaw

L403

(4th Floor of 40 Worth)

Tues, March 10, 2009

5:10 – 5:50

Citation Workshop

L403

(4th Floor of 40 Worth)

Wed, March 11, 2009

5:00 – 5:50

What is a Legislative History and Why you Should Care

L715

(7th Floor of 40 Worth)

Thurs, March 12, 2009

5:10 – 5:50

Premium Databases for Specialized Research

L403

(4th Floor of 40 Worth)

Mon, March 16, 2009

5:10 – 5:50

Tax Workshop

L403

(4th Floor of 40 Worth)

Tues, March 17, 2009

5:10 – 5:50

CALR: Bring in your problems

L403

(4th Floor of 40 Worth)

Wed, March 18, 2009

5:00 – 5:50

Getting Started on a N.Y. Legal Research Project

L715

(7th Floor of 40 Worth)

Thurs, March 19, 2009

5:10 – 5:50

Loislaw: A Low-Cost Alternative to Lexis and Westlaw

L403

(4th Floor of 40 Worth)

Mon, March 23, 2009

5:10 – 5:50

CALR: Bring in your problems

L403

(4th Floor of 40 Worth)

Tues, March 24, 2009

5:10 – 5:50

Power Googling

L403

(4th Floor of 40 Worth)

Wed, March 25, 2009

5:10 – 5:50

The Law Books Your Boss Uses: Loose-leaf Services

L715

(7th Floor of 40 Worth)

Thurs, March 26, 2009

5:10 – 5:50

Citation Workshop

L403

(4th Floor of 40 Worth)

First Year Students: Register Your Lexis & Westlaw Passwords

Every first year student who attended a Library tour during First Week received
a LexisNexis activation code and a Westlaw password contract. 
You must use these documents to create your Lexis and Westlaw passwords,
which you’ll be using for the rest of your law school career.  The codes
in these documents are time-sensitive; if you do not register your passwords
within the next two weeks, the codes will expire!

You must have  both a Lexis and a Westlaw password registered in order to
participate in your upcoming mandatory Computer Assisted Legal Research
training session.  Thus you should register both passwords right away!

To register your passwords, follow the simple instructions on these Webpages:

For Lexis: http://www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool/login.aspx

For Westlaw: http://lawschool.westlaw.com

If you’ve misplaced your registration documents, or you have any difficulty
with the registration process, please contact the Library Reference Desk at
212-431-2332.

If you did not attend a Library tour, you will need to attend a makeup tour to
get your registration documents.  Makeup tour dates will be announced
shortly.

Summer Extension of Lexis Passwords

Follow these directions to request summer access to LexisNexis:

Log on at www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool (Law School Home page) and click the Register for Summer Access logo in the left side navigation bar. On the Summer Access Program page, click the red “Summer Access Registration” link in the middle of the page. On the final page, check the box on the upper right to certify your particular use, select a reason for use in the drop-down menu, and click SUBMIT. You must click SUBMIT or your password will not be registered.

If you do not register, your LexisNexis law school ID will be limited only to career materials as of June 1, 2008

Important: Graduating students must register for summer access as well. Access will run through August 1, 2008. Students who have changed their expected graduation date since first issued a LexisNexis ID their first year must contact customer service (800-45 LEXIS) to change their graduation date on the LexisNexis system.

Please contact your LexisNexis representative, Nejat Bumin, Esq., at nejat.bumin@lexisnexis.com with any questions or concerns.