Welcome to the Class of 2017!

The McKusick Law Library staff would like to welcome all the incoming first year students to the University of South Dakota School of Law!

We hope that you found the law library orientation and tours helpful.  If you are reading this post, you have navigated successfully to the Law Library's website.  While here, we invite you to take a quick look at the Library's LibGuides, Research Databases, and online catalog, while orientation is still fresh in your mind.  If you have any questions over anything covered at orientation, please don't hesitate to ask!

Also, if you are looking for study aids and other academic success materials, don't forget about the display on the lower level which was pointed out on the tour.  More materials are located on the main level in the Reserve Room and the Study Aids and Academic Success collection.  For even more information, take a look at the Law Library's Academic Success LibGuide, available here. 

Hackcess to Justice: Hackathon Challenges Participants to Create Apps to Fill Legal Needs

Last Thursday and Friday, lawyers and software developers from around the country participated in "Hackcess to Justice," a 2-day programming session (aka "hackathon") held at Suffolk University School of Law in conjunction with the ABA Annual Meeting.

According to an article from the ABA Journal, the hackathon's main purpose was "to use technology to create tools that would expand access to justice for individuals who might not otherwise know whether they needed help and how they could obtain legal representation."  Specifically, the participants were to create apps to solve problems identified by the Legal Services Corporation, including self-assessment, document automation, and expert services. Prizes were awarded to the designers of the the most successful apps.

Prize-winning apps created at the hackathon include:

PaperHealth, a "form automation app [which] creates living wills and health care proxies for individuals and emails them to designated hospitals and health care providers."

Disastr, an app that "provides information, resources, real-time news and alerts and legal representation forms for people affected by natural disasters."

Due Processor, "an interactive tool that allows users to determine their eligibility for indigent legal service in Massachusetts, and for criminal defendants to calculate their state prison sentences."

For more information about "Hackcess to Justice," visit their official website here. 

Law Library Hours for the Fall Semester

Effective today, August 11, the Law Library will be returning to its schedule for the academic year.  The Law Library will be open to the public from 7:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, during which time circulation and reference services are available.  Circulation and reference services are available to law students until 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.  Law students will continue to have 24/7 access to the Law Library using their ID cards. 

Beyond Boundaries: Highlights from the AALL Annual Meeting

Law Library Director Darla Jackson recently attended the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) in San Antonio.  The theme for this year's conference, held July 12-15, was "Beyond Boundaries."

Below are some photos of highlights from the Annual Meeting:

Director Darla Jackson attended the Deans and Directors meeting.










The Keynote Speaker was Andrew Keen, who is "the host of 'Keen On', the popular Techcrunch chat show, a columnist for CNN, and a regular commentator for many other newspapers, radio and television networks around the world" (from the Annual Meeting program).  He is a frequent speaker on the "impact of digital technologies on 21st century business, education and society" and focused his talk on the impact of these technologies on the legal information profession.

Director Jackson presented a poster at the poster session titled "Beyond Traditional State Court Brief Resource Boundaries: Creating a Repository of State Court Briefs."

Representatives from HeinOnline offered a presentation of their products and services.

Casebooks and Study Aids: What You Need to Buy, What You Can Borrow

Are you an incoming first-year law student or a returning 2L or 3L and starting to think about purchasing your casebooks and supplies for the new year?

Law students will often ask the law librarians if the library has an available copy of the required casebooks for law school courses.  According to the Law Library's collection development policy, the library does not purchase law school casebooks.  In some cases, the library may have older editions of casebooks available that have been donated to the library or otherwise acquired, but these older editions should not be relied upon for course reading.  If a professor has indicated that a casebook is required for a course, it is highly recommended that you purchase the text!

While the Law Library does not collect casebooks, there are a variety of library materials that are available to students to supplement course reading, such as Hornbooks and Nutshells.

Hornbooks are one-volume texts, usually hardbound, that give an overview of a particular area of law, and can be used to supplement your casebook.  West publishes the official "Hornbook" series, but the term can be applied to similar texts from other publishers.  The current Hornbooks are available in the Reserve Room.  They can be used in the Reserve Room or checked out by students for 2 hours.  Older versions of Hornbooks are available on the Lower Level and check out for 4 weeks.

Nutshells are paperback books that offer concise explanations on a variety of different legal topics, including first-year subjects.  The most recent editions are located in the Study Aids and Academic Success collection on the main floor of the library, just beyond the double doors.  The Nutshell titles check out for a 24-hour period.  Older versions of Nutshells are also available on the Lower Level and check out for 4 weeks.  Because the law continually changes, when using superseded law materials, you need to be aware that the materials may contain inaccuracies and updating the law may be necessary.  

ABA Annual Meeting to Offer Debut of Magna Carta Exhibit

The Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association (ABA) will be held August 7 to 12 in Boston.  Several events at the meeting have been planned in conjunction with the kickoff of the ABA's celebration of the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta signing, which occurred in June of 1215.

The ABA Journal reports that a collaborative exhibit of the ABA and the Law Library of Congress will debut at the ABA Expo, titled Magna Carta: Enduring Legacy 1215-2015.  According to the Library of Congress press release, the exhibit "will feature facsimiles of Magna Carta-related rare documents and artifacts from the collections of the Library of Congress . . . [and] as many as 16 freestanding banners will depict images of the materials and tell the story of Magna Carta and its catalyst role in promoting the rule of law."  The traveling exhibit will continue on tour to public buildings throughout the U.S., including courthouses, universities, and libraries.  A stationary exhibit featuring one of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta will be on display at the Library of Congress from November 2014 to June 2015. 

Also, this year's keynote address at the ABA Annual Meeting will be given by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who will discuss the Magna Carta in his speech, including both its historical and current significance (see here for an article from the ABA Journal). 

Interested in more information about the Magna Carta?  The National Archives website here offers background information, images and translation, as well as an in-depth article titled The Magna Carta and Its American Legacy, which examines the Magna Carta and its influence on American constitutionalism.  The McKusick Law Library also offers the following titles in its collection:

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

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

Magna Carta and the Idea of Liberty / James C. Holt, editor

The Road From Runnymede: Magna Carta and Constitutionalism in America / by A.E. Dick Howard

August is National Golf Month - Law Library Display

August is National Golf Month and the Law Library is currently featuring a display with several titles that focus on Golf and the Law.

Did you know that there are a number of golf-related court cases at both the federal and state level? The Little Green Book of Golf Law by John H. Minan (featured on the display) discusses eighteen of these cases, which address disputes over patent protection for golf ball design, the use of reclaimed water on golf courses, as well as liability for golf cart accidents, defective club design, property damage, and more. 

Other titles on the display include: Fair Ways: How Six Black Golfers Won Civil Rights In Beaumont, Texas by Robert J. Robertson and Golf and the Law: A Practitioner’s Guide to the Law and Golf Management by Thomas H. Sawyer.

For those who might be interested in the intersection of baseball and the law, the Law Library has also placed several baseball-related titles on the display, including Legal Issues In Professional Baseball, edited by Lewis Kurlantzick, Baseball and the American Legal Mind, edited with introductions by Spencer Weber Waller, Neil B. Cohen, and Paul Finkelman, Legal Bases: Baseball and the Law, by Roger I. Abrams, One Man Out: Curt Flood Versus Baseball, by Robert M. Goldman, and Baseball and Antitrust: The Legislative History of the Curt Flood Act of 1998, edited by Edmund P. Edmonds and William H. Manz.