June Is On Its Way... Join the Law Library in Recognizing the Great Outdoors Month!

Every year, June is celebrated nationally as the Great Outdoors Month.  The President's proclamation of Great Outdoors Month urges all Americans to explore the great outdoors.  A great way to experience the outdoors is by enjoying state parks and national parks and public lands.  The State of South Dakota Game Fish and Parks Agency manages over 60 state parks and recreation areas.  The U.S. National Park System (NPS) comprises over 400 areas covering more than 84 million acres.  You can use the NPS Advanced Search tool to locate a park by name, location, or activity.

The management of parks and public lands and the regulation of wildlife and wilderness is an important role of the government at both the state and federal level.  Accordingly, in conjunction with the Great Outdoors Month, the Law Library is featuring a display which offers resources on these topics.

Selected titles from the display include:

Federal Land Management Agencies / Pamela D. Baldwin, editor

Modern Public Land Law in a Nutshell / by Robert L. Glicksman and George C. Coggins

Federal Wildlife Statutes: Texts and Contexts / by Dale D. Goble and Eric T. Freyfogle

Mountains Without Handrails: Reflections on the National Parks / by Joseph L. Sax

Wilderness and the American Mind / by Roderick Nash

Western Public Lands and Environmental Politics / Charles Davis, editor

These American Lands: Parks, Wilderness and the Public Lands / by Dyan Zaslowsky and T.H. Watkins

Our Common Lands: Defending the National Parks / David J. Simon, editor

Regulating Eden:  The Nature of Order in North American Parks / by Joe Hermer

Indian Country, God's Country: Native Americans and the National Parks / by Philip Burnham

From Conquest to Conservation: Our Public Lands Legacy / by Michael P. Dombeck, Christopher A. Woods, and Jack E. Williams

A Handbook on International Wilderness Law and Policy / Cyril F. Kormos, editor

Point of "Order" - The Difference Between Orders, Rulings, Opinions, Judgments and Decrees

Do you know the important differences between these legal terms of art?  A recent entry on the LawProse blog explains the official meaning of each of these terms.  The blog is written by Brian Garner, who is the editor-in-chief of Black's Law Dictionary and the author of Garner's Modern American Usage.  

If you're interested in sharpening your writing and legal vocabulary skills, you might want to check out other entries on the LawProse blog, including Garner's tips of the day.  Also, don't forget about Black's Law Dictionary available in the Law Library's Reference collection.

Library Hours - Memorial Day

The McKusick Law Library will be closed to the public on Monday, May 26 for Memorial Day.  The Law Library will resume its normal summer hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. weekdays on Tuesday, May 27.  Law students may continue to access the Law Library 24/7 throughout the weekend, using their ID cards. 

On-Campus Network Access Outage Sunday May 18

University ITS has issued an alert that on-campus access to the USD network will not be available on Sunday, May 18 from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m..  While the Law Library is closed to the public, students and faculty who might be planning to visit the Law Library for research, work and study are advised that the following services will be unavailable on-campus:

-USD website (usd.edu)
-Portal (my.usd.edu)
-Exchange Email
-Printing
-Departmental Fileshares
-Internet Access

However, the ITS alert indicates that users will be able to access USD resources from off-campus locations.  Questions about the outage can be directed to the USD Help Desk (contact information is available here.)

The Right To Be Forgotten - EU Court Opinion Addresses Right to Control Personal Digital Footprints

In a recent decision from the European Court of Justice, a Spanish man won a ruling against Google, after arguing that Google infringed his right of privacy when sensitive information from a newspaper about a former repossession of his home appeared in search results.  He took his case originally to the Spanish Data Protection Agency, which ordered Google to remove the links.  Google subsequently appealed.  (See a full article here from NPR and an NPR interview with Meg Ambrose, a professor of communication, culture and technology at Georgetown University.)

A news release issued by the Court summarized the opinion by stating that one could request the removal of links to personal data that appear in search results if such data seem "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed." Importantly, the court determined that under the applicable EU Directive, a "search engine operator is responsible for the processing that it carries out of personal data which appear on Web pages published by third parties" and that a search engine operator is a "controller" with respect to that processing.

The decision interprets the EU's Directive on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data, and does not affect Google's operations in the United States. However, some efforts are being made in the U.S. with regard to the so-called "right to be forgotten."  Meg Ambrose, in her interview with NPR, references a recent California law giving minors a recourse to remove content that they posted online. 

On a related note, the first week of May was Choose Privacy Week, an ongoing program of the American Library Association (ALA).  More information and resources are available from the ALA's Choose Privacy Week website here.  The McKusick Law Library also offers resources related to online privacy.  See our previous post here from Data Privacy Day (Jan. 28, 2014).

Senate Confirms First Native American Woman as a Federal Judge

On May 14, 2014, the U.S. Senate confirmed Diane Humetewa to serve as a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.  Humetewa, a Hopi tribal citizen, will be the first Native American woman to serve on the federal bench.

Biographical information about Humetewa and details of her appointment are available here, from Native News Online.net. A statement on the confirmation by U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp is available here from Turtle Talk, the Indigenous Law and Policy Center Blog at Michigan State University College of Law.  Humetewa was nominated last September by President Barack Obama (more information here from Indian Country Today). 

Related resources in the McKusick Law Library:

Gender & Justice: Why Women in the Judiciary Really Matter, by Sally J. Kenney

Federal Judges Revealed, by William Domnarski

The Directory of Minority Judges in the United States

Changes to USD Wireless Networks - May 15

University of South Dakota ITS recently issued an alert, indicating that on May 15, changes will be made to the University's wireless networks.  The alert is available here.  Below is a summary of the alert:

University users with devices registered on the SDSecure wireless network are advised that the device registration will expire on May 15 and the devices will need to be reregistered.  Members of the University will be required to read and acknowledge the Acceptable Use Policy to reconnect to the network.

The SDGuest wireless network will be changing names to SDVisitor, with the intent to improve the overall wireless experience and make it easier for visitors to find the correct network.  

The Law Library is Seeking Summer and Fall Work Study Students

The McKusick Law Library at the University of South Dakota School of Law is seeking applications for work study student assistants for the Summer 2014 Session and the 2014-2015 Academic Year.  Students may be undergraduates, or graduate/professional/law students. 

Duties include:

· Assisting with the maintenance of the library’s collection, including shelving and shifting books, looseleaf filing, labeling books, and filing pocket parts

· Working at the Library’s Circulation Desk, checking books in and out and answering general questions

· Scanning documents and other clerical tasks

· Other special projects as assigned

Skills required: You must be punctual, reliable, detail-oriented, be able to lift and move library books, and have good customer service skills. Because the library staff will train you, previous library experience is not required.

Work-study verification is needed prior to hire date, but all interested students are encouraged to submit application materials at any time (prior to receipt of official work-study authorization), as the Law Library will pre-screen applicants as soon as materials are received.  Students who begin in the summer session and who show promise with training will be strongly considered to continue for the academic year under the work study program.

To apply: Please send a brief email of interest to llibrary@usd.edu, attention of Sarah Kammer, Library Assistant, and attach a one-page resume. Your resume should include your contact information, educational background, work experience, and contact information for two educational or work references.

For more information on applying for Federal Work Study funding, please contact the USD Financial Aid office.

Law Library Reference and Circulation Hours for Summer

Effective today, Monday, May 12, the McKusick Law Library will be moving to its summer schedule for reference and circulation services.  Reference and circulation services will be available from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  The Law Library will continue to be open to the public from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Law students continue to have access to the Law Library 24/7 using their ID cards. 

Congratulations to Our Graduates!

The McKusick Law Library would like to congratulate the graduating Class of 2014 of the University of South Dakota School of Law!  Today's Hooding Ceremony celebrated a tremendous accomplishment achieved by three years of hard work and dedication by the Law School's graduating students.  The University will confer the Juris Doctor degrees as part of the 127th Spring Commencement, to be held tomorrow, May 10, at the DakotaDome.  More information on Commencement (including the names and hometowns of all graduates) is available here, from the official USD press release.

New Displays for the Month of May

Several important observances are held each year during the month of May, and the Law Library is featuring new displays to highlight these observances:

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, designated by law in 1992 to recognize the "history, concerns, contributions, and achievements of Asian and Pacific Americans" (106 Stat. 2251).  The month of May was chosen in light of two important historical dates:  May 7, 1843, the date that the first Japanese immigrants arrived in the United States, and May 10, 1869, the date of completion of the first transcontinental railroad, which was built with significant contributions from Chinese pioneers.  More information is available from the Library of Congress here.  The Law Library's display includes information from the Library of Congress, as well as several titles from the library's collection that discuss the history of Asian and Pacific Americans in the United States, including: A Legal History of Asian Americans: 1790-1990, by Hyung-chan Kim; The Native Hawaiian Rights Handbook, edited by Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie; Democracy and Race: Asian Americans and World War II, by Ronald Takaki; Jewel of the Desert: Japanese American Internment at Topaz, by Sandra C. Taylor; and In Search of Equality: The Chinese Struggle Against Discrimination in Nineteenth-Century America, by Charles J. McClain.

May is also Jewish American Heritage Month, an annual celebration of Jewish Americans' contributions to American history, culture, and society.  The Library of Congress website offers additional information about Jewish American Heritage Month as well as an online exhibition titled "From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America."  The Law Library is featuring a display that offers information from the Library of Congress exhibition, as well as the following titles from the library's collection:  Faith and Law: How Religious Traditions From Calvinism to Islam View American Law, edited by Robert F. Cochran, Jr. (featuring Part 5 on Judaism); Defending the Human Spirit: Jewish Law’s Vision for a Moral Society, by Warren Goldstein; and Torah and Constitution: Essays on American Jewish Thought, by Milton R. Konvitz.


In addition, May is Older Americans Month, a time to "acknowledge the contributions of past and current older persons to our country" and for the nation to pay tribute to older persons in our communities (from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Older Americans Month website).  Statistics from 2013 on older Americans as a population group are available here from the DHHS Administration on Aging.  In 2013, about one in every seven members of the population was an older American (65 years or older), up from one in eight in 2012.  These changing demographics highlight the importance of older Americans and their need for legal services.  Accordingly, the Law Library is featuring a display which offers many of the library's print and electronic resources on elder law.