Each year on May 1st, the United States celebrates Law Day. First designated in 1958 by President Eisenhower, Law Day celebrates the rule of law and its contributions to Americans’ many freedoms. This year’s theme is “Your Vote, Your Voice, Our Democracy: The 19th Amendment at 100,” commemorating the constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote. 

The Law Library of Congress has a Law Day Research Guide, with links to legislative and executive documents as well as books, journal articles and speech transcripts. Additional information on Law Day and materials relating to this year’s theme are on the ABA’s Law Day web page.

If you’ve got 30 minutes we can help hone your Bluebook skills!

The Library is offering a series of online Bluebook classes via Zoom beginning Wednesday April 8 at 5:15 p.m.  The complete schedule can be found here.

The classes are intended for any member of the NYLS community who has questions about using the Bluebook.  While the Bluebook may look daunting at first glance, spending a few minutes learning how to use it can save you hours of anguish during crunch time when your brief, paper or Journal assignment is coming due.

Remember, you can gain access to the online Bluebook by following these instructions (bottom of page).

If there are other research classes you would find helpful, send your suggestion(s) to reference@nyls.edu. We will try our best to offer additional online instruction via Zoom.

 

February is Black History Month, and a recent HeinOnline blog post offers “5 Easy Ways to Research Black History in HeinOnline.”  The post highlights five of its research databases, including Slavery in America and the World.  You can access the blog post here, and you can access all the HeinOnline databases here.

Can you find love in the Library? Yes, you can! Click here to access our Valentine’s Day Info Hunt.

WIN study aids, Lexis points, NYLS swag, and other useful items, while having fun doing some easy legal research about some offbeat cases. Each question comes with step-by-step instructions to get you to the answer.

Print the PDF entry form (or pick up a copy at the Reference Desk) and drop it in our Reference Desk Raffle Drum by 5:00 pm on Thursday February 13. Then join us outside the library at 5:30 for some sweets and the prize drawing at 5:45pm.

Legislation signed in 1983 marked the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a federal holiday. It is celebrated on the third Monday of each January. In 1994, Congress designated the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday as a national day of service, now led by the Corporation for National and Community Service.

This year, the NYLS community is honoring Dr. King’s legacy through a service project for God’s Love We Deliver on January 24, 2020.  NYLS students and staff will be volunteering to assist in the preparation and delivery of nutritious, high-quality meals to people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other serious illnesses, who are unable to provide or prepare meals for themselves. The effort is being organized by NYLS’s Impact Center for Public Interest Law.

For the twelfth consecutive year, the Mendik Library surveyed 1Ls during First Week about some of their digital inclinations. For the complete survey and how they compare to results over the past five years, click here. For results back to 2007, click here.

Spoiler alert—pepperoni once again repeated as the most popular pizza topping, this time based on the preferences of 366 members of the classes of 2022/23. These students also responded to questions about:

• their preferred platforms for electronic communication;

• their usage of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Twitter, Blogs & Podcasts;

• the digital devices they owned and used, including Macs v. PCs, Smartphones, Tablets and E-Book Readers.

Some highlights:

Communication

• Text messaging remains the dominant preference at 77%, four points lower than the previous year. Email saw a slight uptick from 11% to 16%.

Social Media

• Instagram continues to dominate (56%) as the social networking platform of choice for these students. Only 11% labeled Facebook as the social networking platform they used most often.

Preferred Devices

• When it comes to the computer students use most often, Macs are favored over PCs 3:1.

E-Books

• Roughly 70% of students reported having used an e-textbook for undergraduate or graduate school classes, an increase from 62% in the previous year.

• Significantly, only 17% of students preferred using an e-textbook to a print textbook, which is consistent with data from prior years.

Pizza

• Pepperoni continues to reign supreme as students’ favorite pizza topping, pulling in 26% of the vote. Extra cheese was its closest competitor at 19%, followed by mushrooms at 11%.

Let us help polish off your research!  The Mendik Library has scheduled 30-minute research “open houses” at 1:00-1:30 p.m. on November 11-14 and November 18-21, all in room L203. If those times don’t work you can always get research help from the librarians at the reference desk, either in person, by email (reference@nyls.edu) or by phone (212.431.2332).

Does your phone or laptop need a charge? Stop by the Library’s Circulation Desk and the juice is on us; no charge to charge – it’s free! Charging is limited to 30 minutes if another student needs the charger too. Otherwise, you can fill ‘er up.

The Mendik Library will be closed on Labor Day, Monday September 2, 2019. It will be reopened for its regular hours on Tuesday September 3, 2019. Check the Library’s home page for all hours information.