This Week in the Law Library …

This week in the Law Library we’re teaching technology in law practice, preparing for final exams, continuing to celebrate American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month, and previewing U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments.

This Week’s Research Sessions

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Technology in Law Practice

Shannon Kemen, Legal Technology & Research Instructional Services Librarian
Room 107
11:10am – 12:05pm

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Technology in Law Practice

Shannon Kemen, Legal Technology & Research Instructional Services Librarian
Room 107
11:10am – 12:05pm

Final Exams Are Coming And We Can Help!

Stressed about exams? The Law Library can help! The Law Library has many resources to help you prepare for final exams, including 24/7 access to online study aids. These study aids can be an important tool to help you succeed in law school but the different types of study aids serve different purposes. Check out our Exam Study Guide for a look at the different study aid types to which we subscribe and how they can help you with exams.

Looking for a place to study? Reserve a study room through TWEN or study in the carrels in the basement (use your ID to swipe in after 5pm), the second floor Law Library Reading Room, the fourth floor Quiet Reading Room, or the open seating on the fifth floor.

When you’re ready for a short break or need to decompress, the Law Library offers puzzles and coloring pages and colored pencils in room 110, the Law Library Services Suite (use your ID to swipe in after 6pm). Best of luck to everyone!

Selected Study Aids to Help with Outlining

There are issues with using commercial outlines. Your professor is emphasizing different things. You miss nuances and context. Reading an outline is not an effective learning technique. Studies have shown that if the reader has to decide which material is most important and has to think about the meaning of the text and how the different pieces relate to one another, they perform better on tests later.[1] Also, studies have shown that “writing about the important points in one’s own words produced a benefit over and above that of selecting important information….”[2] So, if you are using commercial outlines, be sure and use the review questions and practice tests. You may find it helpful to look at other outlines for structure. But be aware that each of your professors may have different ideas of what is important and what is not. Tailor your outline to the class. Also, each class is different from year to year so relying solely on other people’s past outlines may not be a good idea. Don’t just read the outline. Use it as a guide but make your own!

Outlining Basics

Available through CALI, this CALI lesson teaches you why, when and how to create outlines when preparing for your law school exams. On completion of the lesson, the student will be able to: 1. Recognize the importance of outlines as a learning and test preparation tool in law school, thus making the outlining exercise more valuable. 2. Develop outlines during an optimum timeline. 3. Create outlines that offer the student a tool that improves comprehension, synthesis, and exam performance.

Black Letter Outlines

Available through the West Academic study aid subscription, the Black Letter Outline Series is designed to help students recognize, understand and master the primary principles of law by gaining a good understanding of the rule of law first before applying it to complex fact patterns. They contain comprehensive outlines of particular areas of law, a capsule summary of each outline, practice examinations, and examples and review questions.

Emanuel Law Outlines

Available through the Aspen Learning Library subscription, the Emanuel Law Outlines series is a study aid that outlines the law, gives exam tips, and offers chances for you to quiz yourself.

Gilbert Law Summaries

Available through the West Academic study aid subscription, Gilbert Law Summaries give students a detailed, comprehensive outline to prepare for exams. Each title also includes a capsule summary that is perfect for last minute review. Students can also test their knowledge.

Quick Review (Sum and Substance)

Available through the West Academic study aid subscription, this series contains capsule summary outlines each section with a clear and concise explanation of legal concepts and terms, along with exam hints, strategies, mnemonics, charts, tables and study tips.

Be sure and see our Exam Study Guide for more information!

American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month

This month is American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month! In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed a joint congressional resolution designating November 1990 as “National American Indian Heritage Month.” Similar proclamations have been issued every year since 1994. Celebrate with us as we explore the contributions and history of the Native people in the United States of America.

5 More Selected Resources to Learn More About American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage

American Indian Histories and Cultures

Explore manuscripts, artwork and rare printed books dating from the earliest contact with European settlers right up to photographs and newspapers from the mid-twentieth century. Browse through a wide range of rare and original documents from treaties, speeches and diaries, to historic maps and travel journals.

Bibliography of Native North Americans

Bibliography of Native North Americans (BNNA) is a bibliographic database covering all aspects of native North American culture¸ history¸ and life. This resource covers a wide range of topics including archaeology¸ multicultural relations¸ gaming¸ governance¸ legend¸ and literacy. BNNA contains more than 80¸000 citations for books¸ essays¸ journal articles¸ and government documents of the United States and Canada. Dates of coverage for included content range from the sixteenth century to the present.

Ethnic NewsWatch

Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW) is a current resource of full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives. The complete collection also includes the module Ethnic NewsWatch: A History™, which provides historical coverage of Native American, African American, and Hispanic American periodicals from 1959-1989. Together, these resources present an unmatched, comprehensive, full-text collection of more than 2.5 million articles from over 340 publications. Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the resources is the inclusion of unique community publications not found in any other database, as well as top scholarly journals on ethnicities and ethnic studies.

Independent Voices: Native Americans

Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw an increase of Native American activism and the rise of “Red Power” as an activist movement demanding greater educational and economic opportunities and tribal rights. At the same time, U.S. policy toward Native American tribes provided greater opportunities for indigenous people to manage local government and local issues. This led to the establishment of an active Native American press, with publications like NARP Newsletter, Many Smokes, and Native Movement, that championed such key issues as Native American rights, religious freedom, equal education, and preserving community, language and tribal sovereignty.

McKenney & Hall: History of the Indian Tribes of North America

McKenney & Hall: History of the Indian Tribes of North America is a collection of 125 images of lithographic and chromolithographic plates. Thomas Loraine McKenney (1785-1859) served as Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1824 to 1830. In that capacity he commissioned and collected portraits of Native Americans for his Gallery in the War Department. McKenney’s goal was to publish a record of vanishing peoples: portraits, biographical sketches and a history of North American Indians. He accomplished this in the first issue of the History of the Indian Tribes of North America, published in three volumes between 1838 and 1844. James Hall (1793-1868) provided the text. A supplemental bibliography to McKenney & Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America is available.

November Arguments at the United States Supreme Court

US Supreme Court - corrected

From SCOTUS Blog:

November 28, 2022

Ciminelli v. United States – whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit’s “right to control” theory of fraud — which treats the deprivation of complete and accurate information bearing on a person’s economic decision as a species of property fraud — states a valid basis for liability under the federal wire fraud statute.

Percoco v. United States – whether a private citizen who holds no elected office or government employment, but has informal political or other influence over governmental decision making, owes a fiduciary duty to the general public such that he can be convicted of honest-services fraud.

November 29, 2022

United States v. Texas – (1) whether state plaintiffs have Article III standing to challenge the Department of Homeland Security’s Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law; (2) whether the Guidelines are contrary to 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c) or 8 U.S.C. § 1231(a), or otherwise violate the Administrative Procedure Act; and (3) whether 8 U.S.C. § 1252(f)(1) prevents the entry of an order to “hold unlawful and set aside” the guidelines under 5 U.S.C. § 706(2).

November 30, 2022

Wilkins v. United States – whether the Quiet Title Act’s statute of limitations is a jurisdictional requirement or a claim-processing rule.

Footnotes

  1. John Dunlosky, et al., Improving Students’ Learning with Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions from Cognitive and Educational Psychology, 14 Psychol. Sci. Pub. Int. 4, 19 (2013).
  2. Id. at 15.

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