According to a recent Law.com article, for the first time ever, female law students are sitting in top law review editor positions at each top 16 law school, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. 

According to the article, this achievement is due, in part, to the progress that many law schools have made toward cultivating a more hospitable environment for women, people of color, and first-generation law students. 

The advancement of women to law review leadership positions has been a growing priority in law schools since a 2012 study spotlighted the dearth of women in these roles. In fact, the Cornell Law Review made headlines last year when it elected an all-female executive board, believed to be the first in history for a flagship journal at a top law school.

The article concludes that women in leadership positions at law reviews is part of a growing movement which shows that “women are a strong force in the legal field and will continue to prove themselves.”

During the reading and exam period you must make a reservation to use a library study room.  Mandatory study room reservations begin on Thursday, December 5 at 8:00 am; at that time, all study rooms will be locked, and you must go to the first-floor circulation desk to charge out the key to the room at the time of your reservation.  The link to the study room reservations is on the library webpage.

The reading and exam period is from Thursday, December 5 through Friday, December 20, 2019.

Study Room Policies:

• Study rooms are for the use of groups of two or more students.
• Study rooms may be reserved for the current day and three days ahead.
• Study rooms may be reserved in 30-minute time slots; your time slots must be contiguous.
• You may book up to 8 contiguous time slots (use the grid to select your start time and use the drop-down box to select your end time).
• Study room use is limited to 4 hours per user per day to ensure availability for all users.
• You must use your brooklaw.edu email address to reserve a study room.
• Study rooms are subject to availability and reservations may be modified by library staff at any time.

Hours for the Reading & Exam Period:

• Thursday, December 5 – Thursday, December 20:  8:00 am – 2:00 am.
• Friday, December 21:  9:00 am – 5:00 pm.
• The circulation desk will close at 12:00 am from December 5 – 20.
• The library will close for Winter Break at 5 pm on Friday, December 21 and reopen on Wednesday, January 2, 2019.

Reminders About Noise & Food in the Library:

• Please keep your voices down in reading rooms and study rooms.  Your colleagues are also studying.
• If you need a space for discussion, the collaboration areas are: the Bernsen reference & reading room (1st floor), the library lounge (1st mezzanine), the Nash reading room (3rd floor) and the study rooms.
• Our food policy allows for light snacks in the library.  Light snacks are foods such as those generally dispensed in vending machines: candy, cookies, chips, pretzels, donuts, bagels, etc. — food which can be easily eaten dry and with the hands. No plates or bowls of food which require utensils. No fast foods such as pizza, burgers, etc., which can be messy and odorous. The library reserves the right to determine which food items are acceptable and which are not appropriate for library consumption.
• Brooklyn Law School is a smoke and tobacco free campus.  Smoking or vaping is not permitted anywhere in the school, which includes the library.  If you have any questions, please read Brooklyn Law School’s Smoke and Tobacco Free Policy on BLSConnect.
  

Good Luck on Your Exams & Happy Holidays!

Starting this week, the Library will be hosting a series of 10 minute talks during Wednesday’s lunch time hour (12:45-1:45pm).  These quick talks will be held in the alcove of the newly renovated Library first floor.  We are calling these sessions, Alcove Academy, and they will be focused on quick tips, tools and best practices for conducting research and using technology.   Occurring every other week, the Fall Alcove Academy will inform you on how to conduct docket research, how to format your Bluebook citations, and quick tips on digital security. 

Fall Semester Dates:

Oct. 23: Researching with Dockets

Nov. 6: Bluebooking Academy

Nov. 20: Digital Security Quick Tips

On Wednesday, September 18, Prof. Fajans and Librarian Kathy Darvil will be running their semi-annual workshop on how to research and write a seminar paper in Room 908A.  The workshop is from 4-5:30 PM. Topics covered include sources for selecting your topic, sources for researching your topic, and strategies for effectively organizing and writing your paper.  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 main page, you can access the recording of the 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.

The Brooklyn Law School Library is happy to announce that it recently obtained a site license that provides access to the New York Times for all faculty, staff, and students.  Our license will give you access via the website, https://www.nytimes.com/, as well as the NY Times apps for phones and tablets.

To register, go to https://nytimesineducation.com/access-nyt/, choose Brooklyn Law School from the drop-down, and then follow the instructions to register.  For your initial registration, you must either be on campus or go through our proxy server AND you must use your Brooklyn Law School email account to register.  Once you have registered, you can use your login name and password to access the site from anywhere.  Each year you will need to login from on-campus or using the proxy server in order to keep your access active.

Note that our access does not include e-reader editions, crossword puzzles, or the cooking app – those still need to be purchased separately.

If you have questions, send an email to askthelibrary@brookaw.edu.

This past weekend marked the 50^th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a pivotal point in LGBTQ history.  The New York Public Library is commemorating this event with an exhibition featuring photographs by two photojournalists, Kay Tobin Lahusen and Diana Davies, that captured major events in the gay rights movement in the 60s and 70s, alongside ephemera, periodicals, and other items from the library’s archival holdings.  The exhibition is free and open until July 13^th at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in Manhattan.   Be sure to check it out before it closes!  The NYPL has also provided book recommendations, podcasts, and other resources to learn more about the LGBTQ civil rights movement.  (https://www.nypl.org/stonewall50)

The BLS Library also has several LGBTQ resources. Check out our research guide for books, journals, major federal cases, legislation and a list of organizations advocating for LGBTQ rights. 

The first day of summer was June 21, and heading into July it sure feels like summer! For those of you sticking around BLS to study, the Library will be open 9am-12pm every day but Sunday (10am-12pm). The Library will be open from 9am-5pm on July 4th. Reference Services will not be available for those days.

As the count down to the bar begins, please remember to take care of yourselves! A good night’s sleep is valuable as we get closer. If you need a brief distraction, games and puzzles are available. Ask the Reference Librarian on duty for more information!

The first floor of the Library remains closed this for construction. Circulation, Reference, and Reserve services will be on the 3rd floor of the Library, near the internal staircase. Printing and scanning services will also be available on the third floor. If you have questions, you can always, Ask the Library.

Kudos to you all! After commencement, you may be ready to leave BLS, but BLS will not leave you.  Brooklyn Law School offers many services to its alumni.  2019 graduates can access the BLS network and are able to print until August of the year following graduation.  For May 2019 graduates, you have access until August 2020.   

In addition, graduates can register for Westlaw’s Grad Elite program.  The Grad Elite “Practice-Ready” program provides access to Westlaw Edge and other practice tools for 18 months post-graduation, for up to 60 hours each month. These hours can be used for work-related research.  Through this program, you can research using Westlaw Edge, Practical Law, Drafting Assistant Essential, and Westlaw Doc & Form Builder.

To register for this program, log in to your existing Westlaw account and click on the Practice Ready Solution link in the screen’s upper right-hand corner.  On the Practice Ready page, you will see a link for graduates to extend their access.

Besides access to Westlaw for 18 months post-graduation, Brooklyn Law School Alumni Association members have unlimited access to the library’s print resources and limited access to certain digital resources for research purposes while in the library.  Books, however, cannot be checked out.

While in the library, members have access to LexisNexis Academic, a stripped down version of Lexis.  LexisNexis Academic contains federal and state case law, statutes, and regulations.  It also has a limited run of law reviews, and features Shepards.  To use the database, go to the library home page, select Complete Database List, and then select LexisNexis Academic.

Finally, if you ever run into a research quandary, remember you can call, (718) 780-7567, or email, askthelibrary@brooklaw.edu, the reference desk.  Reference librarians are here to help!