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March 28, 2005.
Kristy Moon, editor.
Welcome Back!
This is the final quarter of the academic year. As you
start thinking about graduation or your summer job, don’t forget to check the
Law Library News for information that may be helpful to you. Here is a preview
of two upcoming events:
- National Library Week, April 11-15
Our theme for this year is
“banned books.” Take a look at our display of banned books and enter the
crossword puzzle and “Count Chocula Candy” contests for chances to win prizes.
- Bridge the Legal Research Gap, May 25 & June 21
This is the tenth year that the
University of Washington and Seattle University law libraries will be jointly
sponsoring this event. This year, the program will be offered twice, once at
Seattle University on May 25 and again at UW on June 21. Stay tuned for
details.
Get More from Google No. 2: Cache and Carry
--Cheryl Nyberg
Have you ever encountered the dreaded “Error 404: Not
Found” message when searching the Web? One answer to this problem is Google’s
cache.
When the Googlebot spider visits a website, it makes a
copy of the webpage and carries it back to Google. You can view that cached
image whenever your Google search retrieves a website. The Google cache can
show you pages that have been completely removed from the Internet or have been
assigned new URLs.
The next time you come across a “Not Found” message, run a
Google search for specific words relating to the document or the website. Maybe
the cached image will allow you to carry on your research!
For Google tip No. 1, see
http://lib.law.washington.edu/news/2004/Nov29.html.
Book of the Week: Specialized Legal Research, edited by Penny A. Hazelton
--Vicenç Feliú, Reference Intern
Suppose you are drafting a business
contract and run across a complicated customs issue, or you do criminal defense
work and are approached to represent a client facing a court-martial. Where
would you go to quickly learn how to research issues in specialized areas of
the law? Because legal practice is becoming more complex and specialized,
non-specialists need a research guide that provides the “layout of the land”
and teaches them how to research in topical areas in which they have little
familiarity.
The recommended book for such
situations is Specialized Legal Research (KF 240.S63 1987 at Reference
Area), a collection of detailed guides for researching in specialized areas of
substantive law such as:
- Securities Regulation
- UCC
- Federal Income Taxation
- Copyright
- Federal Labor and Employment
- Environmental Law & Land Use Planning
- Admiralty & Maritime
- Immigration
- Military & Veterans
- Banking
- Patent & Trademark
- Government Contracts
- Customs
Unlike typical research guides that
simply list legal resources available for a particular topic, Specialized
Legal Research identifies resources that are “hidden” to non-specialists,
evaluates them, and teaches how to carry out the research.
The guide is updated regularly; the last update was in 2004 to chapters on Immigration, UCC, Admiralty & Maritime,
and Patent & Trademark. The updates to the Immigration and UCC chapters were
done by Gallagher law librarians Ann Hemmens (in collaboration with Seattle
attorney Lourdes Fuentes) and Jonathan Franklin, respectively. The Immigration
law chapter includes select statutes passed after September 11, 2001 and
pending legislation which shows the fluid and changing situation in this area
of the law. The UCC chapter explains the complexities associated with UCC
research and provides a wealth of tips in researching the UCC.
Specialized Legal Research
is the "go to" resource for practitioners who are not specialists in the topics
covered. Consulting this book before starting the research process can you
save innumerable hours of work as this will help you navigate through
unfamiliar areas of the law.
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