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 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.
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
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.
This is a reminder that seminar room L402, located on L4 of the Library, has been designated as a quiet study zone for NYLS graduates who are studying for the upcoming Bar Exam. Students are asked to yield seats in this room to Bar studiers, and all users of the room are asked to observe the strictest silence.
We thank you for your cooperation.
Hope you all had a relaxing and rejuvenating winter break. Alas, all good things must come to an end.
All of us at the Mendik Library wish for you a rewarding and fulfilling semester. We’d love to be a part of your success and hope you will let us help you with all your research projects and information needs.
Good luck and best wishes for a great semester! We’re looking forward to strengthening our partnership.
The Mendik Library Staff
The Mendik Library, along with the rest of the law school, is closed today (Friday, January 3) due to the snow storm. Please check www.nyls.edu for up-to-date school closing information.
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.
Even before the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth in 1621, Thanksgiving had been celebrated in the U.S. in various ways, on various dates. For example, Spanish explorers held a Thanksgiving feast in Texas in 1541. During the 1700s, many colonies observed the day with prayer and fasting. After the Revolutionary War, a number of Presidents issued proclamations declaring various Thanksgiving Days. A war-weary President Lincoln issued one such proclamation in 1863. After some decades of confusion over exactly when in November the nation would observe the holiday, in 1941 Congress finally set it as the fourth Thursday.
While closed Thanksgiving Day, the Mendik Library will be open the following Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
In observance of the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, the U.S. Government Printing Office has made the official, digital version of the Warren Commission Report available on FDsys, the Federal Digital System housing electronic government documents.
The Warren Commission was created by President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the JFK assassination. With 26 volumes of supporting documents, the 900-page Report includes numerous photos, maps and diagrams from the scene in Dallas, Texas. FDsys has also made available post assassination audio tape recordings. Conspiracy theorists and aspiring presidential historians alike should be sure to check them out!