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When you use an online catalog to find materials for a research and writing assignment, do you usually start with a keyword search? Many library patrons do! A keyword search may miss some relevant items, though, as it often only searches the most common information, like titles and descriptions, but not useful areas like the tables of contents. To counteract this, Biddle’s online catalog, LOLA, uses “contents notes” to help enrich the results that you find when you do a keyword search, by offering you access to the tables of contents of many English and foreign-language titles in the catalog. Contents notes can be especially helpful for edited volumes. They allow your search to find edited volumes based on the authors or titles of chapters in books, not only the book’s main author and title. Often these notes will allow you to explore other works by a chapter’s author through hyperlinks. Contents notes also allow for more flexible indexing in the catalog and, as a result, make it easier for you to find just the right book or other material for your research project. You can find the authors and titles in contents by searching those very options, or as keywords. For more information, please see Judy Vaughan-Sterling's (Principal Catalog Librarian) detailed handout on how to search using contents notes is available here.
Throughout their law school careers, Penn Law students must complete 70 hours of pro bono service. While fulfilling this requirement, many students may encounter an unfamiliar and somewhat arcane system – the Philadelphia courts. Other students end up involved in a Philadelphia court case through a clinic, or through a summer job. This first encounter tends to be fraught with uncertainty, awkwardness, and the unpleasant feeling that you simply do not know what you are doing. Although these feelings are a natural result of lack of experience, with some simple background on the workings of local courts, sheer terror is avoidable. Clinic instructors and pro bono supervisors provide great guidance on local court rules and procedures. But they cannot anticipate every question and situation. Sometimes, you just have to figure it out for yourself. To complicate matters further, Westlaw and Lexis are usually not very useful for local issues. Luckily, there are a couple of internet resources that are very helpful to anyone navigating our local courts.  The Pennsylvania First Judicial District’s (FJD) website, www.courts.phila.gov, is a great place to start. The site provides a useful breakdown of the organization of Philadelphia’s courts. More importantly, it contains an exhaustive list of forms for a variety of pleadings and motions in civil, criminal and family court cases. Need to request a continuance for your traffic court hearing? There’s a form for that. Need to move the court for a home investigation or drug screening in your child custody case? There’s a form for that too. Need to get court fees waived for your pro bono client? You get the idea. All of these forms are typically accompanied by a detailed instruction sheet for filing. Additionally, the FJD website contains links to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Local Rules, essential reading before you attempt to file something with the court or appear at a hearing. Finally, the FJD also publishes a variety of brochures and manuals on topics ranging from Small Claims Court to Protection From Abuse to Residential Mortgage Foreclosure. Although intended for lay persons, these publications provide a good “big picture” overview for a law student or lawyer in unfamiliar legal territory. Community Legal Services of Philadelphia (CLS) also provides a wealth of information on its website, www.clsphila.org. CLS provides services in a variety of practice areas including housing, consumer law, and public benefits, and the CLS website provides a good background on the essential state and local law for each practice area. For instance, in its section on landlord-tenant disputes, CLS summarizes the key Pennsylvania cases on the implied warranty of habitability and explains Pennsylvania’s law related to security deposits. Finally, Biddle houses a collection of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia materials, including Pennsylvania Forms, the Pennsylvania Bulletin, Pennsylvania Cases and Digests, Pennsylvania Court Rules, and the Philadelphia Code. These resources and more are located on the North side of the 3rd Floor of Biddle.
In preparation for a researcher who was visiting the American Law Institute Archives, I was reviewing some Executive Director files when I came across the following letter, excerpted here:  Who's it from? Archival collections can contain, literally, tens of thousands of items. For this reason, it is practically impossible to catalog each and every letter, report, or minutes. We can help researchers locate relevant materials by drafting a finding aid, many of which appear on the Archives' website. But it's not uncommon to come across, quite serendipitously, blockbuster items like the one above. Fortunately, the discovery of important documents like this letter from FDR isn't a total game of chance in the ALI Archives. Whether it was the work of the former Archivist, or the efforts of a savvy Dean Lewis, this and other letters from the late president are in a folder labeled "Original Letters/Presidents." If you're interested in taking a look at this or any other correspondence between Lewis and President Roosevelt, contact me to schedule an appointment in the Archives.
Have you ever wondered why your Lexis/Westlaw searches yield too many hits or too few? Even if you have mastered the L/WL help screens on boolean (i.e., terms and connectors) searching or asked for help many times from L/WL Reference attorneys, you will eventually hit a brick wall that is not your own fault. I call it the Zen Principle. Computer scientists may call it something else, but it is an inherent principle in all fulltext, online searching. If you understand it, you will start to feel better right away because you will stop blaming yourself and start to appreciate the limits of computers. Let’s start with the principle itself. I will conclude with some suggestions for minimizing its effect. The following statement of the Zen Principle has been adapted from Christopher G. Wren and Jill Robinson Wren, Using Computers in Legal Research: a Guide to Lexis and Westlaw (Madison, Wis., Adams & Ambrose, 1994), Appendix M, p. 767, (Biddle Call No.: KF 242.A1 W74 1994). Recall is the percentage of all relevant documents that are retrieved: Retrieved Recall = ------------ Relevant Precision is the percentage of all retrieved documents that are relevant: Relevant Precision = ------------ Retrieved Recall and precision are inversely related to each other. As recall goes up, precision goes down. As precision goes up, recall goes down. This is the Zen Principle.
Continue reading "The Zen Principle Behind All Online Legal Research" »
Dear Online Search Expert,
I am an experienced searcher. I use Google all the time, but I am new to Westlaw. When I searched the Westlaw databases ALLSTATES, ALLCASES with the terms "power of attorney" and "conservator," it turned up the maximum of ten thousand documents. I modified it as follows: "power of attorney," "conservator," "new york," and I still got the same maximum of ten thousand documents. Something went wrong. What happened?
Frustrated 2L
Dear Frustrated 2L, There are a couple of factors at work here. Let's explore them.
First, we need to look at which databases you selected. If you had chosen a more relevant database, you would have received fewer, but more appropriate results. In short, selecting the right jurisdictional databases limits your results to relevant authority. Similarly in legal practice, selecting a multi-jurisdictional database, whether in Lexis or Westlaw, will cost more than selecting a limited jurisdictional database. Larger more all encompassing databases are more expensive than smaller more relevant jurisdictional databases, resulting in less cost and better results. This will allow you to spend more time with analysis and writing. Second, your search query can be improved. Adding terms narrows a Google search, but adding additional terms does the opposite with Westlaw. This has to do with Boolean connectors, such as AND or OR. Where there is no express connector, Google implies an AND between terms. On the other hand, Westlaw implies an OR, increasing the number of results. Westlaw limits search results at 10,000 to reduce unnecessary strain on its servers, caused by poorly constructed search queries. In your case, adding "new york" would have increased the actual number of results from the hundreds of thousands into the millions. What would I have done? I would have chosen a New York cases database like NY-CS. I would also have wanted "power of attorney" and "conservator" to be near each other in the discussion. To do this, I would have run a search with a proximity connector (such as "/p" to search terms within the same paragraph) instead of an implied OR. Therefore, one search would be: "power of attorney" /p conservator. Using this search, results in 24 manageable cases.
Thanks for asking,
Online Search Expert
Looking for the electronic version of a journal? Looking for the print version? Biddle Law Library can help. Just click on the link to the Library’s A-Z journal list below, and you are on your way. http://kv9zt7xr9l.search.serialssolutions.com/ Once on the A-Z list page, choose a search from the dropdown menu, or feel free to browse. To browse, click on the letter corresponding with the first letter of the journal title.  Biddle’s A-Z list displays search results in an easy-to-read manner. Immediately under the title, a link to library print holdings displays first. This will help you determine what physical journal issues the library has and where they are located. If Biddle offers access to the full-text electronic version of the same title, that information, along with a link to the e-version, will appear below the print holdings. If you don't locate a journal in Biddle's A-Z list, be sure to check the Penn Library's E-Journals link. This will take you to the University's larger journal holdings. Don’t forget to bookmark the A-Z list link! It will definitely come in handy and will save you time.
 NEW BOOK AT BIDDLE: Justifying war? : from humanitarian intervention to counterterrorism / edited by Gilles Andréani and Pierre Hassner ; translated by John Hulsey ... [et al.]. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. JZ6392 .J88 2008 This June 6th (2009) was the 65th anniversary of D-Day. There were large ceremonies in Normandy and at the World War II Memorial in Washington DC. It was moving to see the Normandy Veterans at the ceremony, and it was even more moving to hear some of their stories. As a Vietnam Veteran, I can easily identify with 18-year-olds away from home, fighting in a war zone. The ceremony makes me identify with our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and this is what draws me to books like Justifying war? : from humanitarian intervention to counterterrorism. This book is based on multinational and multidisciplinary dialogues among academics, diplomats, and practitioners, discussing the moral, legal, and political dilemmas raised by the use of force in today’s world. Justifying war? asks: What are the lessons of the recent military interventions, from Kosovo to Iraq? This book raises the question of whether recent wars, such as the Iraq war, are really justified human interventions and counter-terrorism acts, or is a "just war" really a euphemism to justify military intervention? At Normandy the objective was to stop the Nazi terrorism moving across Europe. The "wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan are supposed to be wars against the terrorism of today. But Justifying war? discusses the choices that we do and do not make in interventions. This book also discusses the beliefs and tradeoffs behind these decisions. It made me wonder as I read the book while watching the ceremonies at Normandy: What war will we be waging 65 years from now?
 Although animal law is often spoken of humorously, more and more folks are talking about this area of law. Penn Law offers an upper level seminar on Animal Law, and Penn Law students publish the Journal of Animal Law and Ethics. Penn Law also has an Animal Law Project. Many political philosophers like Peter Singer from Princeton University and Martha Nussbaum from the University of Chicago Law School have written extensively on Animal Rights, an important area of investigation for those interested in animals and the law. So if you are looking for a thought-provoking topic for a comment or seminar paper, or wish to explore the new practice of animal law, there is a wealth of resources available to you. Animal law is a new and growing practice area. The American Bar Association sponsors an Animal Law Committee. On the committee’s webpage you can find some provocative podcasts on topics like “CSI: Testing Animal DNA for Toxic Exposure” and “Estate Planning for Pets.” Many state and local bar associations have animal law practice sections. The New York State Bar Association offers a “ Committee on Animals and the Law.” The committee’s webpage offers a number of useful animal law links. These include law courses, legislative reports, animal law articles, and an animal law student writing competition. There are also a number of blogs on animal law. The ABA hosts one. There is an interesting animal law blog focusing on Pennsylvania law. A favorite of mine is the Pet Trust Law Blog. All of these resources can give you inspiration for unique research topics, as well as suggest new areas of legal practice for you to explore.
When law school journal cite checkers request an electronic document, they often ask, “Is it in PDF (Adobe portable document format)?” The goal of course is to find an original and authoritative document, and not an altered and less reliable document. When it comes to federal government documents such as statutes and regulations, journal students likewise ask, “Is it in PDF?” This is a fair question since electronic government documents may be modified after release by the government. Few journal students or legal practitioners, however, realize that the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has created a mechanism to ensure that a document is official and authentic (see figure 1). Beginning as early as 2005, a GPO paper aptly entitled Authentication, stated “GPO’s authentication initiatives will allow users to determine that the files are unchanged since GPO authenticated them, help establish a clear chain of custody for electronic documents, and provide security for and safeguard Federal Government publications.” To certify that that a document’s contents are authentic and official, many government documents on Federal Digital System (FDsys) (Government Printing Office web site) now use digital signature technology, which contain digital certification and a digital signature (figures 2 & 3). By clicking on the Seal of Authenticity, detailed digital certificate and digital signature information may be obtained, as seen in the below figures. Both the certification and signature ensure that a document’s integrity has been maintained since GPO authenticated and distributed it. In addition, both the digital certification and digital signature may be obtained by clicking on a picture of an eagle, next to the words “Authenticated U.S. Government Information.” When a PDF document is signed and certified by GPO, it will have a blue ribbon icon next to the Seal of Authenticity, indicating that it is a valid document. At this time, public and private laws beginning from the 103rd (1993-1994) to the 111 th (2009-2010) Congress have been authenticated. Other government documents such as the Budget of the United States have also been digitally signed and digitally certified since the 2009 Budget.   
While playing housekeeper in the archives vault recently, I came across an unprocessed collection of essays written by former Penn Law students. What I found particularly interesting about this collection is that most of the essays date back to the late 1800s, in the time before typewriters -- let alone spell check, computers, and EndNote -- were widely used. Word processors were human. Browsing through these essays, which number about 125, I was struck by the manner in which they were forged. I can't remember the last time I drafted an essay in longhand, can you? And the penmanship would make this chicken-scratch expert blush. If I can barely draft a shopping list that doesn't resemble a tablet of mystical runes, will the next generation even know how to put pen to paper? At times students really went all out on the design of the title pages, often using calligraphy, colored inks, and ribbon. Here's a representative example:  And you think plugging in Bluebook citations is a struggle? Try writing out footnotes by hand.  The handwriting looks the same, only smaller! Cute. Truth be told, processing this collection was pretty complicated. These essays were kept together by a range of fasteners: staples, paperclips, string, and scotch tape. Most of these had to be removed because, over time, these fasteners can get rusty or toxic and damage what's really important, the essays. Archivists of the future, I apologize for ever using brads.  Beyond the anachronistic nature of the technology, I was also intrigued by the variety of topics covered in these essays. As far as I can tell, none of the authors went on to fame and fortune. (Although, there does appear to be material from locally famous attorneys, such as George Biddle, namesake of the Biddle Law Library.) This collection provides a fascinating window into what Penn Law students were thinking and writing about long ago. If you're interested in taking a look at these essays, a sampling of them is currently on display in the Biddle Law Library's reference area. For additional information about the collection, check out the finding aid, e-mail me or stop by the Archives.
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The biddleblog is a blog written by the librarians of the Biddle Law Library. It shares the latest news and events at Biddle, legal research tips, and other law-related information with the students, faculty, and staff of Penn Law.
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