Library Information

Library Operating On A Modified Schedule Today

Due to inclement weather, the Library will be operating on a modified schedule today, Thursday, February 13. The Library will be open from 10am to 8pm, with the rest of the school building remaining open later for studying.  We expect to return to our regular schedule tomorrow, Friday, February 14.

In addition, the Mendik Library’s Valentine’s Day Info Hunt Raffle–previously scheduled for today– has been postponed. We will announce a new raffle date early next week.

Stay warm and travel safely!

Celebrating Black History Month: NYLS and the First African-American Newspaper

Celebrating Black History Month has always taken on special significance at NYLS, particularly when you consider how closely entwined our community is with African American heritage. Consider, for example, our connection to the historical publication of Freedom’s Journal.

Freedom’s Journal, founded in 1827 to provide a voice against racism and intolerance, was the first newspaper published in the United States by and for African Americans. A number of sources place its home at 236 Church Street, which is today encompassed by NYLS’s 57 Worth Street building. This neighborhood was home to a large number of free northern blacks who, at that time, constituted a small minority in the city.

Freedom’s Journal denounced slavery and lynchings and advocated for black suffrage. It also published articles on how the U.S. legal and political systems helped to perpetuate slavery. But the publication itself was not long-lived. Founding editor John Brown Russwurm published the last issue in 1829, shortly before emigrating to Liberia.

To learn more about Freedom’s Journal, seek out a copy of the Fall/Winter 2010 issue of New York Law School Magazine, which contains a more in-depth article regarding NYLS’s connection to the newspaper.  You can also access a copy of the article here.

 

Find Love in the Library…

An early Happy Valentine’s Day from the Mendik Library! As a Valentine’s treat, here’s an opportunity to be entered into a drawing to WIN more great prizes, such as:  1,000 Lexis points, 1,000 Westlaw points, NYLS Guest Cards (good for food purchases as well as printing and copying), or valuable study aids and texts (see a sampling of titles below).

Click here to access the Valentine’s Day Info Hunt – Questions from Cupid (use Internet Explorer for best results).  Each slide includes one question (there are only 6) and easy, step-by-step instructions. Press enter to reveal each step.

Click here to access an answer sheet or pick up a copy at the Reference Desk. Either submit your completed answer sheet at the Reference Desk or e-mail it to reference@nyls.edu by 5:00 PM on Thursday, February 13. The drawing will take place outside the library entrance on February 13 at 5:45 PM. You need not be present to win, but an additional entry form will be added for each student who does attend!

 

Among the titles the winners will choose from are:

Acing Criminal Procedure

Administrative Law: Examples and Explanations

Black Letter Outlines: Administrative Law

Closed Chambers: The Rise, Fall, and Future of the Modern Supreme Court

Legal Ethics

Legal Reasoning, Writing, and Other Lawyering Skills

Origins of the Dred Scott Case: Jacksonian Jurisprudence and the Supreme Court, 1837-1857

Plain English for Drafting Statutes and Rules

Principles of Constitutional Law

Principles of Business Organizations

Regulation of the Legal Profession

The Lawyer’s Practice

Wills, Trusts, and Estates: Questions and Answers

Late Hours for Bar Studiers

Beginning on Sunday, February 2, the Library will have extended late hours to accommodate members of our community who are studying for the February bar exam.  On Sunday through Thursday – the most popular nights for bar studiers – the Library will remain open until 1 am.  The extended hours will be in effect through Tuesday, February 25.

During extended hours, security guards will patrol the Library.  There will be no Library staff to assist you.  The Circulation Desk and the Reserve area will close, and all Circulation transactions must be complete by the regular times – 10 pm on Sundays, 11 pm on other days.

Library Study Hall

Effective Monday December 2, all study areas and computer labs in the Mendik Library will remain open late night and early morning hours.  The late hours extend to 2 a.m. every day, and the Library space reopens at 7 a.m. every morning.  This Study Hall schedule will remain in effect through the end of the exams period.

During the Study Hall period all areas behind the Circulation Desk, including the Reserve Collection and the Reserve Reading Room, will close at 11 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, and 10 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The Library opens for business at 8 a.m. on weekdays, and 9 a.m. on weekends.

During late night and early morning Study Hall hours there are no librarians on duty; security guards patrol Library rooms and study areas.  All Circulation transactions, including borrowing and return of books, as well as charge-out and charge-in of Reserve materials, must be completed by regular closing time.  Policies regarding food, drink and quiet study remain in effect.

Late and early Study Hall is for NYLS students only; you’ll need your NYLS OneCard ID to stay to stay in the Library or to enter the Library after 11 p.m. Please have your ID ready to show the guard.

Anyone Order a Pizza? – 2013 First Week Pizza Survey Results

For the seventh consecutive year the Mendik Library surveyed 1Ls during First Week library tours about some of their digital inclinations. Below is a quick summary.  You can see all the survey questions (and the responses) here.

In addition to telling us their favorite pizza topping (answer below), 318 members of the classes of 2016/17 responded to questions about:

  • their preferences in electronic communication;
  • their social networking activity;
  • their usage of Twitter, E-Books, Blogs, and Podcasts; and
  • the devices (Smartphones, Tablets, E-Book Readers, etc.) they owned.

Some earlier trends are continuing, including an increased use of social media, though this year witnessed an upsurge in the use of Instagram (with a concomitant decrease in Facebook usage).  E-mail as a preference in electronic communication resumed what had been a steady decline while text messaging continued to grow.  E-Book usage also continued its gains.  The latter is consistent with a fifty-percent jump in students’ ownership of iPads or other Tablet devices.

  • The percentage of students who preferred E-mail to other forms of electronic communication resumed its decline after a small upward blip last year.  Only 32% prefer E-mail, the lowest number we’ve seen in seven years.  By contrast . . .
  • the preference for mobile-based text messaging continued its steady ascent, jumping almost 10 points to 58%.  Draw your own conclusion but those reporting a preference for BlackBerry Messaging, was zero!
  • continued a trend of increasing daily use, with 60% claiming use more than once per day, compared to 52% last year and the sixth straight year witnessing an increase.
  • Among “Smartphones,” BlackBerry lost more than half its users, dropping from 15% to 7%.  The iPhone surged once again, to 77% (up from 62%) but the Android seems to have stumbled, retreating from last year’s 21% to 16%.
  • Ownership of an iPad or other Tablet grew by half, from 30% in 2012 to 46% this year.
  • Ownership of E-Book Readers increased this year, from 16% to 23%, up from 4% when the question was first asked in 2010.
  • Although Facebook remains the dominant social networking site for these students, at 54%, Instagram has marked an aggressive gain to 24%, picking up the twenty percentage points Facebook lost from last year.  Almost 11% of the class, the same percentage as last year, does not use any social networking site . . . but those who are users . . .
  • Questions about Twitter appeared for just the third time; although the number of students who have a Twitter account jumped to 53% (from 38% in 2011 and 46% in 2012),  Tweeting “occasionally” is the only category that saw a noticeable increase, reaching 22% compared to last year’s 17% and 2011’s 14%.  The number of Twitter feeds students follow has increased again only modestly – those following more than five feeds increased from 32% to 35% but the number following between one and five feeds remained flat.
  • The number of blog/RSS subscribers and readers has continued to decline slowly, down to 28%.
  • Podcasts finally experienced a slight uptick with the percentage of students who downloaded or listened to 1-5 Podcasts growing from 20% in 2012 to 30% in 2013, and those who downloaded or listened to more than five Podcasts increased marginally (from 15% to 16%).  The number of students who did not know what a Podcast was matched last year’s highest level ever, 13%.
  • Continuing what had become a steady trend, the popularity of Macs compared to PCs increased once again, reaching 64%, up from 57% last year.
  • When it comes to web browsers, two majors (Firefox and Internet Explorer) each lost a little more ground to Google Chrome, which is now favored by 34% of incoming students.  Firefox fell from 23% in 2012 to 18%; IE fell from 16% to 13%.  The only thing stopping Chrome seemed to be Safari, which climbed from 27% to 34%.
  • Google continues to reign as the undisputed search engine of choice (94%), with Yahoo advancing over last year to 3%, and Bing bringing up the rear with 2%.  AOL scored a zero with these students.
  • For only the fourth time, we asked students which electronic devices they owned.
  • Along with the increasing ownership of Tablet devices, more students are taking advantage of E-Books – 68% (up from 59% in 2012) said they have used their computer or another electronic device (e.g., iPad or other Tablet, Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader or Smartphone application) to view an E-Book.
  • Finally, Pepperoni came out on top once again as students’ favorite pizza topping, pulling in a hearty 30% of the vote compared to Mushrooms, the nearest contender with 14%.  At 13%, Extra Cheese fell back to third place.

For more information and the complete survey results, click here.

 

Halloween Treats (and Tricks)

REMINDER:   The Haunted Halloween Info Hunt drawing is almost here!  Winners can earn 1,000 Westlaw points, in addition to many other prizes, including study aids, OneCard Guest Cards (good for food purchases as well as printing and copying) and Barnes and Noble gift cards.

The drawing will be outside the library entrance at 5:45 pm this Thursday, October 31.  And what’s Halloween without candy?  Stop by and fill up your bag with Halloween treats . . . and maybe a few (research) tricks.

Submit completed entries by 5 pm.  For more information, click here.