Summer Access to Legal Research Platforms

Law students often ask us about whether or not they are able to use their access to WestlawNext, Bloomberg Law, and Lexis Advance over the summer, at an internship, or after graduation.  Each platform has its own policy regarding summer, employment, and post-graduation use.  See below for details!

WestlawNext:

Continuing Students: WestlawNext may only be used under certain circumstances over the summer or outside of regular academic use.  Those circumstances include:

• Summer Law School Classes
• Law Review and Journal Work (including write-on competitions)
• Project for a Professor
• Moot Court
• Unpaid Non-Profit Public Interest Internship/Externship or Pro Bono Work that is Required for Graduation 

If you meet one of these circumstances, you must register for summer access, and can do so here.

Graduating Students:  You may register for access to WestlawNext for 6 months after graduation (until November 30, 2015) through the GradElite program. 

Lexis Advance:

Continuing Students:  Any law student with a registered Lexis Advance ID will automatically have summer access and can use that access for either educational or commercial purposes.

Graduating Students:  Lexis offers graduating students a complimentary ID that provides access through December 31, 2015.  However, you must sign up for the ID using your student credentials here.  

Bloomberg Law:

Continuing Students:  Law students with Bloomberg Law accounts have full access over the summer with no restrictions on use.

Graduating Students:  Students automatically receive an additional 6 months of access after graduation without having to register. 

Free Coffee For Finals!

The Law Library and Law School are pleased to again provide free coffee at the Circulation/Reference Desk during the finals period.  The coffee will be available from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. weekdays throughout the finals period (Monday, April 27 through Friday, May 1, and Monday, May 4 through Friday, May 8).

Please stop by for a caffeine boost!  Styrofoam cups, sugar and coffee creamer are provided, but feel free to bring the container of your choice.

Celebrating the Magna Carta at 800: Law Day is May 1

Each year, Law Day is celebrated on May 1.  Law Day is a national day set aside to celebrate the rule of law and how law and the legal process contribute to the freedoms that all Americans share. 

The 2015 Law Day theme is "Magna Carta: Symbol of Freedom Under Law" in commemoration of the 800th anniversary of the issuance of the Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215.  Today, the Magna Carta remains an enduring symbol of liberty and the rule of law.  One of the Magna Carta's most frequently cited provisions is Chapter 39, which states that "No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions . . .  except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land."

In recognition of Law Day and this year's theme, the Law Library is currently featuring a display which highlights many of the Law Library's materials concerning the Magna Carta.  Included on the display are the following titles:

Magna Carta: Text and Commentary / A.E. Dick Howard

Magna Carta / J.C. Holt

Magna Carta and the Tradition of Liberty / Louis B. Wright

Magna Carta and the Idea of Liberty / Edited by James C. Holt

The Road from Runnymede: Magna Carta and Constitutionalismin America / A. E. Dick Howard

For more information about this year's celebration of Law Day, visit the American Bar Association's Law Day website here. For more resources and an interactive timeline, visit the Magna Carta: Icon of Liberty website.  The Library of Congress also has a website companion to its Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor exhibition which ran from November 6, 2014 to January 19, 2015. 

New Study Aids Available for Checkout

Law school exams are right around the corner, and there's no better time than now to explore all the study aids the Law Library has to offer.

In fact, the Law Library has recently added several of the titles in the Examples & Explanations series to its collection.  These titles are available for 24-hour checkout along with the other materials in the Study Aids & Academic Success Collection, such as the Nutshell series titles.  The Examples & Explanations series is noted for its use of hypothetical questions to test your knowledge of concepts.  More information is available here from the publisher, Wolters Kluwer.

The Law Library is currently featuring a display highlighting the Study Aids & Academic Success collection.  The display also features information about CALI lessons available on exam-taking skills as well as substantive course topics.  The display also features information about the Law Library's Academic Success LibGuide, available here.   

Thanks for Celebrating National Library Week!

The Law Library would like to thank all the faculty, students, and staff who participated in National Library Week by sending in their "shelfies" for the electronic bulletin boards!

We would also like to congratulate Liz Chrisp, the winner of the Law Library's M&M counting contest.  Liz's guess of 2155 was the closest to the actual total of 2272 candies in the jar.

The Law Library appreciates your continued support!

Tribal Implementation of the Violence Against Women Act

On April 1, 2015 the ABA Journal posted an online article entitled Indian Tribes Are Retaking Jurisdiction Over Domestic Violence on Their Own Land.  The article details how tribes are working to implement the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2013.  As described on the U.S. Department of Justice website, "VAWA 2013 recognizes tribes' inherent power to exercise "special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction" (SDVCJ) over certain defendants, regardless of their Indian or non-Indian status, who commit acts of domestic violence or dating violence or violate certain protection orders in Indian country. This new law generally took effect on March 7, 2015, but also authorized a voluntary "Pilot Project" to allow certain tribes to begin exercising SDVCJ sooner."

On Tuesday, March 31, the University of South Dakota School of Law, Acting U.S. Attorney Chris C. Myers, District of North Dakota; and Deborah R. Gilg, U.S. Attorney, District of Nebraska; co-sponsered a conference on Tribal Implementation of the Violence Against Women Act.  A press release regarding the conference is available here.  The Press Release also provides a link to the agenda for the conference.

Law Library Director Jackson attended the conference and was able to discuss resources with representatives from some of the tribes participating in the pilot program. Associate Dean Graham participated as a panel member.

April 12-18 is National Library Week

Next week, April 12 through 18, is National Library Week.  Law students, faculty and staff are invited to join in celebrating this important event!

We are still seeking your "shelfie" photo submissions for display on the law school's electronic bulletin boards during National Library Week.  The photos can be taken anywhere in the Law Library or next to your own personal shelf of books!  Please send submissions to Sarah Kammer by 9:00 a.m. on Monday, April 13!

The Law Library is also featuring a display on the main level of the Law Library for National Library Week that features information about the Law Library staff and our student workers.  It also highlights some of the materials in our collection pertaining to law librarianship as well as publications of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), such as AALL Spectrum and Law Library Journal.  You can browse AALL publications via their website here. 

The display also features works published by Law Library Director, Darla Jackson.  More of Director Jackson's publications are available here on her USD School of Law Selected Works author page. 

American Bar Association Offers Free Student Memberships

A recent article in the ABA Journal announced that the American Bar Association is now offering free memberships to students at ABA-approved law schools. 

Students who join will "have access to the ABA Job Board, free career advice webinars, complimentary continuing legal education seminars and member discounts [and] will also receive four digital and print issues of Student Lawyer magazine, plus a digital subscription to the monthly ABA Journal."  A link to register is available here.

Interested in some of these resources without signing up for a free membership?  The Law Library subscribes to many of the ABA magazines and publications, including the Student Lawyer.  Recent issues are available on the circular rack just inside the double doors to the library.  If you have a few free minutes, feel free to pick one up and browse through some articles.

Recent issues are also available online here.  Article topics from the March 2015 issue range from surviving your first year on the job, choosing law school courses, writing effective letters (by Bryan Garner), and applying for clerkships.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month - Display and Resources

Did you know:

• Nearly one in five women in America has been a victim of rape or attempted rape (from the President's proclamation of Sexual Assault Awareness Month)

• As stated in the Proclamation, many men are also sexually assaulted or abused each year.  In fact, in the U.S., about 10% of all sexual assault victims are male (from the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) website)

• In 2012 alone, 62,939 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in the United States (from the U.S. Department of Justice website)

Join the Law Library in raising awareness about sexual assault by visiting our display on the lower level of the Law Library.  The display features print and electronic resources about the topic of sexual assault and also highlights provisions of the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization of 2013 which address sexual assault.  More information about Sexual Assault Awareness Month is available from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) here. 

LibGuide and Display to Accompany Thurgood Marshall Lecture to be Held April 14

This year, the USD School of Law/BLSA Thurgood Marshall Lecture will be held on April 14, 2015 at 4:00 p.m. in the Law School Courtroom.  This year's speaker is Judge Curtis L. Collier, Senior United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee.  The title of Judge Collier's lecture is "The Lawyer: A Force for Change in Society."  The Law Library has updated its Thurgood Marshall Lecture LibGuide to include additional information on Judge Collier.  The LibGuide, available here, also features additional reading information about Thurgood Marshall, including his personal life and career, his Supreme Court jurisprudence, and his lasting impact on American civil rights and constitutional law. 

The Law Library is also featuring a display which includes many of the titles and articles included in the LibGuide, such as:

Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary / by Juan Williams

Making Civil Rights Law: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1936-1961 / by Mark V. Tushnet

Making Constitutional Law: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1961-1991 / by Mark V. Tushnet

Supreme Justice: Speeches and Writings - Thurgood Marshall / J. Clay Smith, editor

Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Justice Thurgood Marshall / Carl Thomas Rowan

Law Library Hours: Friday, April 3 through Sunday, April 5

The McKusick Law Library will be closing to the public at noon on Friday, April 3.  Also, there will not be any Sunday circulation/service hours for law students on Sunday, April 5.  Law students will continue to have 24/7 access to the library using their University ID cards.

The McKusick Law Library will reopen to the public on Monday, April 6 at 7:45 a.m.