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Welcome Back – Spring 2016 Semester!

Welcome back to your Spring 2016 Semester at BLS.

The first day of classes is Tuesday, January 19th.

Here are the library’s hours from January 19th  –

Monday – Thursday            8am-12pm
Friday                                    8am-10pm
Saturday                               9am-10pm
Sunday                                 10am-12pm

On Monday, January 18th, Martin Luther King Day, the library will be open from 9am-10pm.

On Monday, February 15th, Presidents Day, the library will be open from 9am-10pm.

For additional information on library hours, see library hours.

Return Your Library Books Before the Break

Attention all students! Remember to return your library books on or before Tuesday, December 22, 2015. It is the due date for all semester loans. If you do not turn in your books on or before December 22, you will incur fines. If you are unsure whether or not you have items checked out to you or if you have incurred any fines, you can log into your library account from the SARA catalog. You log into your account with your BLS credentials (first name.last name and your BLS password). Once logged in, you can see the items currently checked out to you, along with the items’ due dates. If you would like, you can renew any overdue item. You can also view your complete fine history, including outstanding fines and fines paid. Finally, you can review and update your personal information the library has on file, including your mailing address, phone numbers, and email address.

Privacy and Data Security

securityThe Brooklyn Law School Library has long provided access to Bloomberg Law to the law school community. BLS users now have access to a new legal intelligence platform: the Privacy & Data Security through the Practice Centers tab where users can click on Intellectual Property. At the top left corner of the page is a purple banner that reads “Looking for Bloomberg Law: Privacy & Data Security >> Access Now.” There, users will find analysis and news in an increasingly critical area for legal professionals.

Announced late last month, this newest Bloomberg Law tool was launched to address the need many legal practitioners have to quickly educate themselves on privacy and data security trends shaping legal practice, compliance and business operations. Data security runs the gamut from maintaining the integrity of simple personal information such as names, social security numbers and other private information to more complex business issues like those last month in the European Court of Justices’ invalidation of the long standing U.S. “safe harbor” agreement in the case of Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner. Privacy and data security laws can change overnight and the Privacy & Security Data Resource Center helps explain them.

In addition to aggregating news and information in this area of law, the platform features tools to help users develop perspective on the items most likely to impact specific industries or business units. For example, the platform’s “chart builder” allows practitioners to compare laws on breach notification, privacy and data security laws across regional jurisdictions. It also has “heat maps” that highlight areas of developing case law and legislation, and provide direction to applicable documentation for easy review.

Bloomberg Law: Privacy & Data Security has a collection of portfolios offering insight and guidance from leading privacy and data security authorities. Written by expert practitioners, titles include Cybersecurity and Privacy in Business Transactions: Managing Data Risk in Deals and Cross-Border Data Transfers. There are also treatises with expert practitioner insights and guidance to help make sound decisions and plan with confidence. Titles include Practical Guide to the Red Flag Rules: Identifying and Addressing Identity Theft Risks and Cyber Liability in the Age of the New Data Security Laws.

GoliathThe BLS Library has many titles in its collection on the subject of data security. One of the latest is Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World by Bruce Schneier (Call # HM846 .S362 2015). The publisher of the 383 page NY Times bestseller says “Your cell phone provider tracks your location and knows who’s with you. Your online and in-store purchasing patterns are recorded, and reveal if you’re unemployed, sick, or pregnant. Your e-mails and texts expose your intimate and casual friends. Google knows what you’re thinking because it saves your private searches. Facebook can determine your sexual orientation without you ever mentioning it.

“The powers that surveil us do more than simply store this information. Corporations use surveillance to manipulate not only the news articles and advertisements we each see, but also the prices we’re offered. Governments use surveillance to discriminate, censor, chill free speech, and put people in danger worldwide. And both sides share this information with each other or, even worse, lose it to cybercriminals in huge data breaches.

“Much of this is voluntary: we cooperate with corporate surveillance because it promises us convenience, and we submit to government surveillance because it promises us protection. The result is a mass surveillance society of our own making. But have we given up more than we’ve gained? In Data and Goliath, security expert Bruce Schneier offers another path, one that values both security and privacy. He shows us exactly what we can do to reform our government surveillance programs and shake up surveillance-based business models, while also providing tips for you to protect your privacy every day. You’ll never look at your phone, your computer, your credit cards, or even your car in the same way again.”

Oyez, Oyez, Happy Halloween

HalloweenOn October 31, 2005, during oral arguments in the case of Central Virginia Community College v. Katz, 546 U.S. 356 (2006), a light bulb blew out and made a gunshot-like sound. A lively exchange among the Justices ensued, according to the transcript of the oral arguments on Oyez, Chicago-Kent’s free law project that makes the US Supreme Court accessible to everyone. Oyez, which is available in Brooklyn Law School’s SARA Catalog, has transcript-synchronized and searchable audio, plain-English case summaries, illustrated decision information, and opinions. It also provides detailed information on every justice throughout history and offers a panoramic tour of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of several justices.

The spirited exchange that afternoon was the only time a sitting US Supreme Court Justice said “Happy Halloween” from the bench. The comments from the transcript are below:

SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR
A light bulb exploded.
JOHN G. ROBERTS, JR.
I think we’re… I think it’s safe.
STEPHEN G. BREYER
A light bulb went out.
JOHN G. ROBERTS, JR.
It’s a trick they play on new Chief Justices all the time.
[Laughter]
ANTONIN SCALIA
Happy Halloween.
John G. Roberts, Jr.
We’re even… yeah, we’re even more in the dark now than before.

Hat Tip to Victoria Sutton author of Halloween Law: A Spirited Look at the Law School Curriculum.

Reinventing the Library

libraryReinventing the Library, a NY Times Op-Ed by Argentine-born Canadian anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist and editor Alberto Manguel is worth reading for anyone interested in the future of libraries. Recognizing that the dismantling of libraries occurs in periods of economic crisis when cutting funds to culture seems so easy to some, the author envisions a future as more than a simple matter of economics. He states:

Libraries are resilient. Intent on surviving in an age where the intellectual act has lost almost all prestige, libraries have become largely social centers. Most libraries today are used less to borrow books than to seek protection from harsh weather and to find jobs online, and it is admirable that librarians have lent themselves to these very necessary services that don’t traditionally belong to their job description. A new definition of the role of librarians could be drafted by diversifying their mandate, but such restructuring must also ensure that the librarians’ primary purpose is not forgotten: to guide readers to their books.

Libraries have always been more than a place where readers come to read. The librarians of Alexandria no doubt collected things other than books: maps, art, instruments, and readers probably came there not only to consult books but also to attend public lectures, converse with one another, teach and learn. And yet the library remained principally a place where books, in all their various forms, were stored for consultation and preservation.

The Op-Ed article notes that libraries are forced to take on functions that society is too miserly  to fulfill, and meeting those obligations diminishes funds for buying new books and argues that in changing the role of libraries without preserving the centrality of the book, we risk losing something irretrievable. But libraries deal with more than Books. They also offer Information. A bibliocentric view of libraries stresses the importance of printed texts and ignores the expanding nature of library services. Such a view may contribute to library image problems. Increasingly, libraries offer information services not just printed books. Brooklyn Law School Library provides both. Recently, BLS Library hosted its Fourth Annual Library Databases Research Fair. This week and next, BLS Library Director Janet Sinder scheduled Bluebooking for Success workshops on using the Blue Book geared to first year students and others. Where possible, BLS Library purchases books in eBook format. This means users can access books online through home computers, library computers and mobile devices. It is not just printed books that “show us our responsibilities toward one another, help us question our values and undermine our prejudices, lend us courage and ingenuity to continue to live together, and give us illuminating words that might allow us to imagine better times.”

With libraries changing from print to digital repositories and information centers, consider two recent Second Circuit Court of Appeals decisions:  Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google and Authors Guild, Inc. v. HathiTrust, 755 F.3d 87 (2d Cir. 2014). Both decisions expand access to collections available in libraries, making material accessible in new ways to researchers and readers and providing access for print-disabled persons. Court opinions validating book scanning shows how libraries are changing. They must now deal in information that it is used and produced in diverse new ways. All libraries, both public and private, are adjusting. Libraries remain as important as ever to information literacy and the preservation and of culture and learning.

Supreme Court To Decide If and When RICO Reaches Extraterritorially

On October 1, 2015, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to the Second Circuit decision in European Community v. RJR Nabisco, 764 F.3d 129 (2d Cir. 2014). In granting review, the Court will determine whether or not RICO has extraterritorial reach. In examining this issue, the Court may also rule on how to decide whether RICO claims involving multinational parties are domestic ones, and how to determine whether it is an improper or proper extraterritorial claim.

If you would like to learn more about the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), check out the library resources below.

Seminar Paper Workshop: September 16th from 4-5:30

This week Prof. Fajans and Librarian Kathy Darvil will hold their semi-annual workshop on how to research and write a seminar paper. Topics covered included sources for selecting your topic, sources for researching your topic, and how to effectively organize and write your paper. The workshop will be held in Room 401 on Wednesday, September 16th from 4:00-5:30 PM.
If you are unable to attend the workshop, you can access an online research guide which contains a recording of the workshop, links to and descriptions of all the research sources discussed, and the writing and research presentations. The online guide is available at guides.brooklaw.edu/seminarpaper. From the guide’s landing page, you will be able to access a recording of this year’s presentation, Professor Fajans’ slideshow on how to write your seminar paper, and Kathy Darvil’s online presentation on how to research your seminar paper. If you should need further help selecting or researching your topic, please stop by the reference desk for assistance.

NYC Charter Revision Commission Materials Available on BrooklynWorks

fca0bafe8dd2aa68fafbfd4e4291b5c9Recently, the Library completed a digitization project of the papers of Brooklyn Law School’s former dean, the Honorable David. G. Trager. The documents published relate to Judge Trager’s work on two successive New York City Charter Revision Commissions: December 1986-Novemer 1988 and December 1988-November 1989. The digitized documents were selected from materials he donated to the Brooklyn Law School Archives. To access the entire collection, you can contact the reference desk (refdesk@brooklaw.edu) and make an appointment to visit the archives.

Judge Trager was born in Mount Vernon, New York and graduated from Columbia University in 1959 and Harvard Law School in 1962. After four years in private practice, he dedicated his life to public service, fulfilling many roles, including law clerk, federal prosecutor, teacher, state investigation commissioner, administrator, and jurist. From 1974 – 1978, he served as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Afterward, he began a fifteen-year tenure at Brooklyn Law School, first serving as Professor of Law (1978 – 1983) and then as its Dean (1983 – 1993). In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed him to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He attained senior status on March 1, 2006. Judge Trager passed away on January 5, 2011 at the age of 73.

 

Getting Schooled on New ABA Standards at the AALL Convention

aallSeveral BLS librarians attended the annual meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries held in Philadelphia, PA, July 18-21, 2015.  Hundreds of law librarians, working in law schools, law firms, and courts, attend this annual convention.  While Philadelphia was hot and steamy, the programs were cool and enlightening, and the objective of attendance is always to bring back new perspectives for our work that will be useful for our constituencies, whether they are law school students and faculty, or law firm and court attorneys.  One of the programs I attended was entitled: ” Get Schooled on Learning: Learning Outcomes and Assessment for Legal Research Instruction under New Standards 302, 314, and 315.”

In August 2014, the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates concurred in the new Standards 302, 314, and 315, among others, proposed by the ABA’s Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar.  These standards require schools to establish “learning outcomes” for measuring competency in several areas, including legal research.  While learning outcomes have been used for many years in primary and secondary education, this is a new area of interest and concern by law schools.

The speakers, from several different law schools, gave a historical perspective on how education reform began in the 1980s in the K-12 programs with an interest in learning-centered education and assessment. The idea was that by focusing on student learning and measurement, improvement would be made in the students’ education.

Transferring this to the legal realm, the question became: Is student learning leading to successful attorneys?  The goal of law school is to develop ethical, skilled, knowledgeable attorneys.  In order to do this, the plan was to develop learning outcomes for the legal curriculum and then assess these outcomes; in other words, to measure what students had achieved.

Standard 302:  States that a law school shall establish learning outcomes that provide competency in several enumerated areas.

Standard 314:  States that a law school shall utilize both formative and summative methods in its curriculum to measure and improve student learning and provide meaningful feedback to students.

Standard 315:  States that the dean and faculty of a law school shall conduct ongoing evaluation of the law school’s program of legal education, learning outcomes and assessment methods; and shall use the results to determine the degree of student attainment of competency and make appropriate changes to improve the curriculum.

Learning outcomes are the foundation of assessments and it is important that the learning outcomes produce skills and abilities that students can actually use in the practice of law.

Assessments are the measure of what students have achieved.  There are two types of assessments: formative and summative.  Formative assessments can be thought of as classroom discussions, electronic discussions, any kind of regular feedback that allows for frequent contact between student and instructor.

Summative assessments can be made through papers, exams, projects, etc. — long-term semester driven assessments that focus on the outcome of a program or course.

It was emphasized that law librarians should be involved in this transition to implement these new standards as instruction is provided to teach law students competency in legal research, whether the courses are in first year legal research and writing, advanced legal research, or specialized legal research courses. I found this to be a very enlightening and useful presentation.

Try the International & Foreign Law Research seminar!

This fall, do you plan to:

  • Write a paper on an international, comparative or foreign law topic?
  • Source-check foreign statutes & cases for a journal?
  • Develop your knowledge about an aspect of a foreign legal system that might be of interest to a future employer, such as China’s anti-corruption laws or Canada’s anti-spam law?

If so, consider enrolling in my 7-week International & Foreign Law Research seminar, which begins on Wednesday, September 9.  The main course requirement is a 15-17 page legal research memo on an international or foreign law problem of interest to you.  in the memo, I ask you to use resources that we have evaluated throughout the course.  Last semester, we also started a new class tradition: students read a problem prior to class, broke into class teams to conduct international law research, and then argued issues before a mock international court.

Please feel free to email me with questions about this seminar!

Jean Davis, Associate Librarian for International Law                                                 jean.davis@brooklaw.edu