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Law Library News

Law Library News Archive
May 19, 2003
Sarah Hollingsworth, Editor.

Future Interests

Only those with their heads in their laptops might still be unaware that Gallagher Law Library will be closing for the summer after June 13, 2003. If you foresee a need to have access to particular legal research materials, you can find out about the closure by visiting the Law Library's home page, http://lib.law.washington.edu/, and following the link, More info, found under the Law Library News heading, to the "update" website, http://lib.law.washington.edu/announce/movenews.html. The Circulation Department reports its coffers remain full to overflowing with lost items looking for their owners. Check in with the staff if you have lost jackets, sunglasses, casebooks, personal papers, etc. These items will not be packed and transferred to Gates Hall, so beat the quarter-end rush and see if you can connect with some of your misplaced items of personal property. Mark your calendars for this once-a-year opportunity to immerse yourself in a power-packed afternoon review of fundamental research skills across a broad spectrum of legal topics, as well as career planning and summer job advice, including sessions on: Legal Drafting, Getting the Scoop on Jobs and Careers, Administrative Law Research, Secondary Sources, Federal Legislative History, Washington Practice Materials, What You Always Wanted to Know About Legal Research But Were Afraid to Ask, Washington State Legislative History, Internet Legal Research, and Making the Most of Your Summer Job. The program will be held on Thursday, June 19, 2003 from noon until 5:00 pm at Seattle University's School of Law. Registration details are available on the Law Library's home page, http://lib.law.washington.edu/.

Full Access to LexisNexis and Westlaw During the Summer

--Nancy McMurrer

Access to both LexisNexis and Westlaw are restricted during the summer to job-search databases. However, if you are:

then you may sign up with LexisNexis and Westlaw for full access to their services for the summer.

For summer access to LexisNexis, go to http://lawschool.lexis.com. Scroll down until you see the SUMMER ACCESS paragraph. There you will find more information and a link for extending your ID.&

For summer access to Westlaw, go to http://lawschool.westlaw.com. Scroll down until you see the EXTEND YOUR WESTLAW PASSWORD paragraph. Click on the register here link to keep your Westlaw password active all summer. Note: you MUST register before June 20, 2003. Registration is available right now, so take that step before you forget. In addition, you will need to enter your �real� Westlaw password, rather than one you may have created. If you have forgotten it, please email anna.guerra@thomson.com or contact the reference office, either in person, by telephone at 543-6794, or by email at lawrefst@u.washington.edu.

One last note about extending your Westlaw password: Full access is available for those participating in externships that satisfy the public service requirement. Ignore the statement at the Westlaw registration website that suggests the contrary; it is not applicable to the public interest externships at this law school.

Book of the Week: A Murder in Virginia

-- Mary Whisner

Suzanne Lebsock, A Murder in Virginia: Southern Justice on Trial (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003) (HV6533.V8 L43 2003 at Classified Stacks)

1895. A quiet farm in rural Virginia. A white man returns from the field to find his wife lying in a pool of blood, brutally murdered with an ax. He rings the farmyard bell to summon neighbors.

There is no �SVU� or �CSI� to investigate. Criminal investigation at that time and place is a matter for the local citizens. The murder is the talk of the county.

An African-American man is arrested. He implicates three black women, but his story shifts each time he tells it. Were they really involved?

In this fast-paced work, historian Suzanne Lebsock (UW History Dept.) tells the story of the investigation, the trials, the community uproar, and the procedural moves that gained the defendants new trials. In addition to a gripping story, the book offers much food for thought � about justice, lawyering, race relations, and community.

For additional descriptions of selected books, see the Book of the Week Archive, http://lib.law.washington.edu/news/BookWeekArchive.html.

Trivialities: Library Workers

Some fairly famous people got their start by working in a library. Can you identify them from the following list?

Al Capone

a. Pasternak, Hoover, and Presley

Mao Tse-tung

b. Capone, Mao Tse-tung, and Casanova

Giacomo Casanova

c. Mao Tse-tung and Pasternak

Boris Pasternak

d. All of the above

J. Edgar Hoover

Elvis Presley

Drop off your best guess in the Reference Office, together with your name and email address, and take home one of our fabulous prizes! 

Congratulations to both David Orange and Zeshan Khan for correctly answering last week's trivia quiz which involved matching quotations about the law with their authors.  The correct answers were:   

  1. Felix Frankfurter said, "To some lawyers, all facts are created equal."

  2. Robert Frost said, "A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer."

  3. Clarence Darrow said, "The trouble with law is lawyers."

  4. Will Rogers said, "You can't legislate intelligence and common sense into people."

  5. Benjamin Franklin said, "Where there is hunger, law is not regarded; and where the law is not regarded, there will be hunger."

Closing Thoughts: On the Search for Knowledge

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. When we enquire into any subject, the first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated of it. This leads us to look at catalogues, and at the backs of books in libraries.---Samuel Johnson (Boswell's Life of Johnson)