Reviewed by Tim Von Dulm, Head of Reference Services

Are you new to the law and confused about how to read legal citations and approach legal research problems? Maybe you would like to learn about how to conduct federal legislative histories?  Perhaps you are looking for credible and authoritative recommendations for legal self-help resources?  Or maybe you are already familiar with the basics of legal research but would appreciate ready access to a reliable legal research reference resource to serve as a refresher for any questions you might have.

If any of these situations apply to you, then consider yourself in luck.  The Public Access to Legal Information Committee of the Southern California Association of Law Libraries (SCALL) recently published a revised version of their wonderful legal reference resource Locating the Law: A Handbook for Non-Law Librarians, 5th ed. ("Handbook").

The Handbook includes twelve chapters and four appendices directly relevant to the most common issues faced by legal researchers.  Although a significant portion of the text is understandably devoted to California legal resources and agencies,  chapters within the Handbook on "Basic Legal Research Techniques," "How to Read a Legal Citation," "Federal Law" and bibliographies and appendices on "Self-Help Resources" and "Common Abbreviations in the Law" contain relevant advice and information to researchers across jurisdictions.   Conveniently, most of the chapters and appendices facilitate the research process by including direct hyperlinks to many of the resources and agencies discussed therein. 

So what's stopping you?  Get crackin' on the legal research.  And if you still come across some thorny research problem that the SCALL Handbook cannot assist you with, don't hesitate to stop by and talk with one of the knowledgeable and friendly Biddle reference librarians, who are familiar with numerous alternative resources and who are happy to assist with your research. 

By: Rodney A. Smolla (New York and London: New York University Press, 2011).

 

As many law students know, CALI (The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction) is a non-profit which offers over 850 interactive tutorials in approximately thirty-two law school subject areas. Did you know, however, that CALI can now help you bridge the gap between law school and legal practice, by focusing on how technology is impacting the field?

Beginning on February 10th, CALI will offer a free nine-week webcast program on Digital Law Practice. Each week, a different speaker will discuss topics such as "Social Media for Lawyers," "The  Virtual Law Office," and "Free Legal Research Tools." The thirty minute presentation will be followed by a question and answer period, and the class will include an interactive homework assignment. If you are wondering how you can possibly fit in another course, relax, there are no midterms, finals or papers!

To sign-up for the course, which does not require a user account, visit the CALI registration page.  To stay current on future webinars, you may register for the CALI Webinar Mailing List. 

If you are new to CALI, you may create a user account, which requires an authorization code, available at the reference desk.

By Jeff Grillo, Associate Director for Technical Services

Have you ever purchased a used book?  Perhaps you bought a casebook for a class online via amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. Maybe you visited your local used book store.  Have you ever sold an old textbook that you no longer needed?  Maybe you listed it online or sold it back to the campus bookstore.  Biddle Law Library often purchases used books.  The used book market has helped the library to remain fiscally responsible, and still meet the research needs of the Penn Law community.

Now here is a tougher question.  Are you familiar with the first-sale doctrine?  This doctrine is sometimes referred to as the "right of first sale."  Copyright law protects the rights of individuals and businesses that want to sell books that they have already purchased.  In other words, there is no copyright infringement when a person or business resells a book that they previously purchased.  At that point, the first-sale doctrine kicks in.

By Ellen Qualey, Reference Librarian

The Biddle Law Library will offer a wide variety of legal research training opportunities throughout the spring semester. Prepare for your summer or professional work experience by attending trainings specific to your jurisdiction or professional interest!

Drop-ins are welcomed, although we encourage you to register online. Feel free to contact individual instructors with questions.

All trainings are on Wednesday afternoons from 12 - 1 pm in room T-320.

• Get Published! January 18
• Basic Internet Searching Other than Lexis and Westlaw, January 25
• Federal Legislative History, February 1
• Federal Statutory Legal Research, February 8
• Administrative Law: Federal Rules and Regulations, February 15
• Using HeinOnline, Beyond PDFs of Journal Articles, February 22
• Federal Tax Research, February 29
• New York Legal Research, March 14
• California Legal Research, March 21
• Pennsylvania Legal Research, March 28
• Westlaw and Lexis Search Strategies, April 4
• Cost-Effective Legal Research, April 11

 For workshop descriptions, training materials and to register online visit Biddle's Legal Research Training page.

In 1970, Morris Wolf, Esq., a senior member of the Philadelphia bar, donated to the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a manuscript letter by Thomas Jefferson. Written on August 30th, 1814, from Jefferson at Monticello, the letter outlines a course of law study and readings Jefferson had prepared “near[ly] fifty years ago for the use of a young friend.” Addressed to General John Minor, the letter is most likely written for Minor’s son, John, who studied law for a short time.

Reproductions of the letter are on display (the original can be viewed by request) in the Gateway of Biddle Law Library. Accompanying the letter are selections from the rare books room at Biddle. The books on display are those recommended by Jefferson as proposed readings on pages three and four of his letter.  The texts were all printed between 1768 and 1805, and would perhaps have been the actual books that the young law student in 1814 would have had on his bookshelf.

Included in the exhibit are the books The Law of Evidence by Sir Geoffrey Gilbert, printed in 1805; Coke’s Institutes by Sir Edward Coke, printed in 1711; The Law of Uses and Trusts by Sir Geoffrey Gilbert, printed in 1811; Blackstone’s Commentaries, George Tucker’s edition, printed in 1803; A Treatise of Equity in Six Books, by Sir Geoffrey Gilbert, printed in 1792; A New Abridgement of the Law by Matthew Bacon, printed in 1768.

The exhibition will be up through March of 2012. 

You may already know and love HeinOnline for its collection of law reviews, administrative materials, Supreme Court decisions, treaties and more. Now you can enjoy the easy-to-read PDF format on the go (and without printing) by downloading the new HeinOnline app for iPhone and iPad. Users can browse the available titles, find sources by citation, or use Hein’s search features. Visit the iTunes app store to download. Penn Law community members should download the app on campus in order to authenticate under the University’s subscription. The authentication will be good for 30 days; afterwards users must return to campus to re-authenticate.

Biddle Law Library has recently acquired several electronic resources useful for those interested in foreign law research.

Israel Law Reports, the reporter for key Supreme Court of Israel decisions in English translation, is now available as part of HeinOnline. By selecting the Israel Law Reports library on HeinOnline, you can browse the published cases or conduct keyword searches on the contents to find cases on a particular topic. The Israel Law Review is also available as part of this library. If you prefer to see the cases in hard copy, Biddle also receives Israel Law Reports, formerly Selected Judgments of the Supreme Court of Israel, in print, as well as reporters for the Supreme Court and rabbinical courts in the original Hebrew.

Manupatra is the leading database of Indian law. It contains full-text cases from the Supreme Court of India and the state High Courts, as well as decisions of various specialized tribunals, commissions and boards.  In addition to the text of national and state legislation and regulations, Manupatra offers commentaries on selected key acts and a variety of other useful secondary sources. Material in Manupatra can be searched by subject or keyword, and cases include citator functionality. Because access to this database involves an extra step, please see the LOLA entry for Manupatra for instructions on how to start using it.

While vLex is a globally-oriented database presenting primary and secondary legal resources for 134 countries and international organizations, it is particularly helpful for those researching the law of Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. vLex provides the full text of constitutions, legislation and legal codes, plus law journals, newspapers, and treatises, all searchable in multiple languages. Please note that although vLex includes a translation feature, the translations produced are not official and are only intended to help researchers use the material within vLex.

For assistance accessing and using these and other Biddle foreign law databases, and with help planning and conducting research in foreign law, email Gabriela Femenia, Foreign and International Law Librarian, at gfemenia@law.upenn.edu, or stop by Tanenbaum 412.

Like Penn's subscription to ProQuest Congressional (formerly LexisNexis Congressional), ProQuest Legislative Insight provides full-text PDF scans of many legislative documents. Unlike ProQuest Congressional, Legislative Insight organizes these documents by their affiliation with a particular piece of (passed) legislation.

For example, if you want to research Public Law 90-209, the National Park Foundation Act, you can search Legislative Insight for this particular law by name or citation. Since this Act is included in Legislative Insight's database, all documents affiliated with this act are available as full-text PDF scans. In ProQuest Congressional, whether or not the full text of the same documents is available depends on the year the document was created and ProQuest Congressional's subscription coverage.

Try turning to Legislative Insight first if you are researching a bill that was passed into law. While not all laws are included in this database, if Legislative Insight covers that bill you will have the full text of that particular legislative history available to you. If it is not available, make sure to still consult ProQuest Congressional or ask a reference librarian for assistance.