BerkeleyLaw Library News

New Hearing Requested for Prop 8 Ruling

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:59:10 PST

On February 22^nd backers of Prop 8 requested a new hearing before the full Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, asking that the court’s February 7^th, 2-1 ruling declaring the proposition unconstitutional be reconsidered by the full court. A new hearing will only be granted if a majority of the court’s 25 judges agree to review the earlier hearing.

Supreme Court to Hear Affirmative Action Case

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:00 PST

On February 21st the U.S. Supreme Court granted cert to Fisher v. University of Texas, (docket 11-345), a case brought by Abigail Fischer, a white woman, challenging the University 's admission policy.  Fisher claims she was denied undergratuate admission to the University because she is white.  The case will decided in the term beginning October 2012.

Holiday Reading 2011

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PST

Neither rain, nor sleet nor catastrophic failure of CalMail shall keep the BerkeleyLaw Library from publishing its annual Holiday Reading List. Great list - enjoy - and Holiday Greetings to all of you from all of us at the BerkeleyLaw Library.

Criminal Law & Criminal Justice Books

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:45:52 PDT

Reviews of recent titles. A joint project of Rutgers School of Law-Newark and Rutgers School of Criminal Justice.

Fall 2011: What's New in the Law Library?

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:00:00 PDT

We now have a Kindle that we loan out to law students for use in the library. Read today's major newspapers and a selection of magazines.

The library has a listing of the most useful mobile apps for law students.

The three group study rooms in the library are available to Berkeley Law Students: how to book those rooms.

Philip Selznick Oral History

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:00:00 PDT

A year after the passing of Law & Society great Philip Selznick, a beloved professor at the law school, the Regional Oral History Office of the Bancroft Library at University of California, Berkeley, has made available his oral history, conducted by Roger Cotterrell (Queen Mary, University of London). (Posted to Legal History Blog by our own Prof. Karen Tani.)

New Books

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

The list of new titles available in the Law Library has been posted:http://www.law.berkeley.edu/library/dynamic/newAcquisitions.php

The list is arranged alphabetically by Library of Congress subject headings, and is also searchable by keywords in the title, author, publisher, and date fields. There are links to the full record with each citation.

See also the list highlighting new titles in the Popular Reading collection.

Supreme Court Justices on Legal Writing

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

Bryan Garner of LegalProse.Org has posted the videos of extensive and revealing interviews he conducted with 8 of the 9 U.S. Supreme Court Justices in 2006-2007. The interviews focus on what the Justices consider to be good and bad legal writing. The Justices also discuss the literary influences on their own legal prose. Read the NPR story here. The interviews have been published in the Scribes Journal of Legal Writing.

How do I access the New York Times?

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

The New York Times now limits free access to information on their website. If you cannot get what you need on the website and you don't have a subscription, try the following sources:

Westlaw (enter "NYT" in the "Search for a database" field on the left side of the screen; then select "retrieve most recent").
Westlaw Next (enter "NYT" in the search box and click on "New York Times" in the drop down menu).
Lexis (click on the "News & Business" tab and go to "Individual Publications" and select "New York Times").
Factiva (select UC Berkeley and then search for "New York Times" in the "Source" field).
Bloomberg (click on the "News" tab, then click on the "Search" tab. Enter "New York Times" in the "Sources" box.)

We understand that the New York Times is working on providing access to colleges and universities -- we will keep you posted. If you have questions, ask one of the reference librarians for assistance.

Chat Reference: A New Service for Boalt Students

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

Have a quick question but no time to stop by the Reference Desk? You can now use chat reference, a new service exclusively for Boalt students.

Look for the Ask Us symbol on the law library website to see all the ways you can connect with a Boalt Reference Librarian. Or bookmark the chat widget, which also has information on adding us to your IM list:
http://tinyurl.com/berkeleylawref

Chat reference is available from 9am to 6pm, Monday - Friday.