Lost Anything in Condon Hall?
If you have lost something in Condon Hall (PDA, watch, glasses etc.),
please check the lost & found collection at the Library Circulation Desk. We
are the official collector of unclaimed items for the Law School, but you
may also want to check with the Computer Lab and Academic Services. Several
times a year the unclaimed items are taken to the Husky Union Building (HUB)
in the center of campus.
Book of the Week
by Mary Whisner
The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt, by Teresa A.
Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren & Jay Lawrence Westbrook. HG3766 .S794 2000 at
Classified Stacks
Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Lawrence Westbrook – two
law professors and a sociology professor – have been studying people in
bankruptcy intensively since the 1980s. Their latest book, The Fragile
Middle Class, is a fascinating report. It focuses not on the legal
doctrine but on the social and economic characteristics of the individuals
(and couples) who file for bankruptcy.
The book should be of interest to many in areas outside bankruptcy. For
example, health care policy analysts might want to read the chapter on
sickness and injury. A large portion of people in bankruptcy land there
because of medical bills or an interruption in work due to illness or
injury. Those interested in employment law will also find useful material,
as the authors examine the effects of declining industrial jobs, increasing
part-time and contingent employment, and the limited safety nets of workers
comp and unemployment insurance. If you are interested in commercial law (or
if you are tempted by credit card solicitations), you might want to read the
discussion of rising credit card debt as a factor in consumer bankruptcies.
The book is at once well written and well documented – a wonderful
combination.
The authors’ first book, As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and
Consumer Credit in America, is also available in the Library: HG3766
.S79 1989 at Classified Stacks.
Noah Webster's 244th Birthday
by Nancy McMurrer
October 16 marked the 244th birthday of lawyer and lexicographer, Noah
Webster. After serving in the American Revolution, this Yale graduate
practiced law in Hartford, Connecticut. He wrote grammar and spelling books
that were used across the country and that helped standardize American
spelling and pronunciation. The difficulty he had copyrighting them in the
thirteen states led him to lobby for a national copyright law, which was
passed in 1790.
He strongly believed that the new country's cultural independence would
be aided by developing a distinctive language. His crowning achievements
were the first truly American dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the
English Language (1806), and his exhaustive American Dictionary of
the English Language (1828). Webster was the first to document American
words such as skunk and hickory. He successfully urged altering the spelling
of such words as musick to music and plough to plow, but was not so
fortunate with his suggestion of changing women to wimmen.
For biographies of Noah Webster, go to
http://www.merriam-webster.com/about/noah.htm and
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0851735.html.
Study Aids for Class
There are lots of resources in the Library that can help you study for
class by explaining a case holding or analyzing a legal issue. There are
many types of study aids, some very scholarly and lengthy, others more
narrative and brief.
For example, you may use flash cards, commercial outlines, Nutshells,
Treatises, Hornbooks, or Restatements. An earlier
article in Law Library News explains how you can search the Library
catalog to find these types of study aids.
The University of California Berkeley School of Law Library has created a
helpful list of titles of study aids organized by first year courses (Civil
Procedure, Contracts, Criminal Law, Legal Writing and Research, Property,
and Torts),
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/newstudents/studyaids.html. Find a
title on this list that looks helpful and search
our catalog to see if it is
available in Gallagher Law Library. Ask a reference librarian for additional
suggestions. |
