Thanksgiving Hours

Open 7:30 - 5:00 - Friday, Nov. 20
Closed - Saturday & Sunday Nov. 21-22
Open - 7:30 - 5:00 - Monday & Tuesday, Nov. 23 - 24
Closed - Wednesday - Saturday, Nov. 25-28

Google News Timeline

Google News Timeline - http://newstimeline.google.com/ - is a new Google lab service that you might want to check out, it provides a synopsis of news in a unique way for searching. The first thing that comes to mind for usefulness is knowing something happened, say the first week in October but you cannot remember the day. Pull up the timeline and you can scroll from day to dat while having some search features also available.

Hmmm, maybe scratch Colorado off the list

For those of you about to graduate (or those looking to the future) the employment stats in Colorado look especially bleak. Above the Law is talking about a 35% unemployment at graduation rate for U of Colorado Law grads. And remember these are people who have been in state and hopefully have developed some network in their time in law school.

Not to say things are a whole lot better here in Mississippi but the 35% number jumped out when reading it.

Another Consideration

The Clarion Ledger, today, discusses how budgetary restraints are now influencing the type of cases they will be trying in the D.A.'s office. Specifically referenced is how fewer capital cases will be tried due to their expense with regards to both jurors and experts that are required.

Now on the New Book Shelf

We have just gotten in some new books and these are a sampling of what has been added to the New Book Shelf (located on the first floor by the stairs)

- Green Building and Sustainable Development
- Tribal Contracting: Understanding and Drafting Business Contracts with American Indian Tribes
- In the Court of Public Opinion: Winning Strategies for Litigation Communications
- How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times
- Selling in Your Comfort Zone: Safe and Effective Strategies for Developing New Business
- Virtual Incorporation: A Lawyer's Guide to the Formation of Virtual Corporations

Very Cool SCOTUS resource

It seems like there are new resources popping up all over the place and we will try and bring some here to you. Today I want to mention C-Span's new site that has an excellent series of videos on the U.S. Supreme Court. Some pretty cool stuff is there so check it out.

Quick Mention

Many of our current students might appreciate knowing that Prof. Chris Lund who left us this past summer to go to Wayne State Law had a blog post of his mentioned on the nationally known SCOTUSblog. Click here to see the SCOTUS posts that links to Chris' entire post.

It makes me think of one of Dr. Royce's normal lines during graduation (in what I am sure is a poor paraphrase) "as your reputation is enhanced, so is that of Mississippi College" and so is the value of your degree.

the e-book alternatives

This isn't something the MCSOL Library necessarily has content for but we realize that many of our patrons like to read and are technologically savy. That being said e-book readers such as the Kindle from Amazon are a giant step in the right direction for those that want to take their library with them. Recently, the LibraryBytes blog had this blog post which I want to pass along that discusses the current state of e-book readers and the coming competitor to the Kindle by Microsoft called "The Courier".

Oh, and if you are wanting an update to the Kindle removing some books without asking story, Kindle has returned your purchases free of cost after rethinking their previous strategy.

Dress for Success

As a note to the students we pass along this story about how a judge disallowed a complaint by a lawyer to be allowed to wear jeans and a ballcap in the courtroom. The "suit" continues. This case is based not on the content of the attire but purely the ability to wear such attire in a courtroom. For more on this story see here.

Fun reminder of library etiquette

The West Case Processing System

If you are interested in how the West process works for receiving, annotating, and publishing (online and in print) cases please watch this YouTube from West:

Law School Musical

Many of you will find humor in this:

Notice

The library computer lab will be closed most of tomorrow due to a CLE. It will reopen around 4:00 p.m. Other library services should not be affected.

Economic Outlook for Grads

I wanted to highlight this New York Times article that may be of interest to some of you readers. The article discusses the legal job market in regards to the economic downturn.

Government Websites

Here is a link to what GCN considers the Top Government Websites for 2009. Really a pretty good list IMO. It includes:

USASpending.gov
Transit.511.org - a San Fran example of public transportation usefulness
FD Sys - a GPO website for digital submissions

(and more)

H1N1 News

MC law now has announcement about the H1N1 flu that I want to link to: http://www.law.mc.edu/news/h1n1.html

H1N1 News

I know some people think the H1N1 is overblown and others think it something to rightly be afraid of but this post is to try and just let you know what is out there for MC folks.

Recently launched is this website: MC Alert that will notify of information is something is to spread at MC (both main and law campuses) like has been reported at some other places.

Also please try and stay aware of your surroundings and take normal care or slightly more so to watch out for sneezing and other cold symptoms and wash those hands thoroughly. I ask because while I don't think it will kill you (hopefully) no one wants to feel poorly during law school.

iPhone Black's Law Dictionary

iPhoneJD has a review of the Black's Law Dictionary app that I thought some of you might be interested in as I see more iPhones floating around the school every day. This could be a handy alternative to the large version purchased in the bookstore or even (heaven forbid) you using the copies in the library.

Welcome

The library welcomes the class of 2012 and all of our returning students back to school today. As a reminder the reference desk should have a librarian on duty from 8 am - 9 pm Monday - Thursday and 8 am - 5 pm on Fridays.

Library Construction !!!

Just wanted to alert readers that the computer lab will be closed until Tuesday morning due to some construction in the lab. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Debt keeps man out of the bar

The Law Librarian Blog brings this tale of how a law grad seeking admissions to the New York State Bar has been declined because of his outstanding amount of debt.

WHAT?, you say

I know many of you probably have lots of debt but this guy had over $400,000 in debt and the Court felt he didn't have the general character and fitness for an attorney. I know, knowing how some attorneys can be one has to wonder how low that bar really is but nonetheless Mr. Bowman appears to be sitting this one out for now.

Just say no (unless you are too far gone)

What's that, you want to be a lawyer?

This page gives a humorous (but all too truthful IMO) rendition of 8 reasons not to go to lawschool.

Noise

For those of you who have been chased out of the library due to noise over the past few weeks I offer the good news that the constuction and installation of the new windows is done and we should be back to our quiet ways to facilitate your studying for the bar.

SCOTUS stats

This is a really good link from SCOTUS Blog concerning the just ended term of the Court with stats and graphs based on voting patterns.

Interested in the Special Session?

Here is the MPB link to the camera on the floor of the MS House of Representatives.

Become a G-Mail Ninja

This page has some pretty good tips for really controlling g-mail which is the host of our new email service

The easiest way to use this is to click on "printable version" in the middle of the page

Jackson Muni Court amnesty

Wanted to point out to the students who may be working in firms this summer that the Jackson Municipal Court amnesty period begins Thursday, tomorrow, morning. So if you have a client who could be helped by this let them and/or your boss know. Hopefully, none of you yourselves have outstanding violation. - See this CL article for more

A Little Friday Fun

New Student Email

While the new email program is not tied in with the library I feel the need to try and pass along the word from computer services. Below is an email I received from them today:

Coming June 1, 2009

powered by Google

~~~~WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT~~~~

• You will no longer have a Novell and a GroupWise password. As it is, if you changed your GroupWise password, your Novell password did not change since it is a separate password. When we move to MCmail, you will only have one password for everything. This will make changing passwords and remembering them a bit easier.
• On June 1, everyone's password will be reset to the original four-word password that weinitially issued to you. If you do not remember the original password, you can visit https://www.mc.edu/computerservices/mcnet/account_lookup.php to look up the information again.
• On June 1, your current MC email account will be deleted. If you want to keep your current emails, it is recommended that you visit https://www.mc.edu/computerservices/kb/articles/article.php?id=40 to find out how to back up your current emails to upload into your new MCmail account. Once the accounts are deleted on June 1, emails on the old system will NOT be retrievable, since the old system will be shut down.
• Gmail does not have a feature that will allow us to upload our MC address book for all students to access. You will need to use the online address book at http://www.mc.edu/about/phonebook.php to look up email addresses, etc.

For more information, visit

http://www.mc.edu/computerservices/kb/articles/article.php?id=36

********************************************

MCnet Support support@mc.edu 601.925.3939

Library Summer Hours

With the beginning of the summer semester the library also begins its summer hours. These hours are:

Monday - Thursday: 7:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Friday: 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday: 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

The only interruption for this schedule this summer should be the Fourth of July weekend when the library is closed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Quiet Hours

Quiet Hours are now in effect for all 3 floors of the Law Library.

Additionally our finals hours have started which means we stay open until midnight every night (including Friday and Saturday) until May 14th (when we will close at 4:30) after the last exam is ended.

GPO - YouTube Style

As part of 1L Legal Research you might have heard a librarian mention GPO more than once or twice. GPO is the Government Printing Office and the point of this post is to share with you this link, http://www.youtube.com/user/gpoprinter, to their YouTube site. Almost everyone prefers videos to reading so spend a little time watching and gain a better perspective on the GPO.

Special Easter Hours

The MCSOL Library has special hours this Easter Holiday
Passover Friday, April 10th - 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Saturday, April 11th - 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Easter Sunday, April 12th - CLOSED
Monday, April 13th - 7:30 a.m. - midnight (return to regular hours)

Young Lawyers Blog

I was recently introduced the Young Lawyers Blog and wanted to pass along the link. I think so of you students might be interested in it.

Courtroom Attack

Here at the MC Law Library Blog we aren't above videos, below is Florida courtroom footage of a criminal "acting out" by going after a witness who testified against him.

Peep Time

As many of you have realized it is almost Easter time. As part of this I thought you might enjoy this photo gallery that shows the making of peeps.

A fun video to share

A many of you will remember this song from your youth and so understand the premise of this video

Spring Break Hours

The MCSOL Law Library will be open at the following times as influenced by Spring Break:

Friday, March 13 - 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 14 - 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 15 - CLOSED
Monday - Thursday, March 16-19 - 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Friday & Saturday, March 20 - 21 - 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 22 - 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Monday, March 23 - Back to regular hours

Humor Titles

As I continue to hear grumbling among the student body of being burned out and generally tired of law school I thought it might be appropriate to point out that Amazon has come out with a list of Hot New Releases for Humor Books. Included in the list are: I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell , The Complete Peanuts 1971-1972 , and Freedom's Just Another Word for People Finding Out You're Useless from Scott Adams (the creator of Dilbert).

Stress

Just the other day I listened to a student complain about the amount of unneeded stress that law school was causing him. His complaint was that it could be so much easier and not effect the actual learning process.

This is probably true on some level, BUT, I think that part of what law school is trying to teach you is not simply the books or enough to pass the bar exam but the more valuable tools of how to think critically, how to find things you don't know, and perhaps most importantly how to grind it out (which is what much of the practice of law is). Unfortunately, the practice of law is not often the sexy side you see on television. All this lead up to recommending this article intro (and article is linked) by the ABA Journal

Judicial Elections Gone Bad?

USAToday has an article out today that discusses how a corporate CEO heavily backed (through a intermediary) a candidate for the West Virginia Supreme Court only to have that same judge be the deciding vote on a multi-million dollar case three years later. The story is quite interesting and the decision regarding the propriety of this action has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court and if found improper could very well impact beyond this single case and influence judicial election law and selection across the country (including Mississippi).

Email Text Messages to Phone

Most of you MCSOL students have texting but some have limits and almost everyone has a computer by now so when you get up against that limit use the web for free text. See this article from TechnoBlog that provides the following post:

Each major cell phone carrier has a domain name for just this purpose. And each cell phone’s number–with the area code but without parenthesis or dashes–is the first part of an email address.

For instance, Verizon’s texting domain isvtext.com. If my phone number was 415-555-1234 (which it isn’t), you could text me by emailing to 4155551234@vtext.com .

Here are some other domains:
AT&T: @txt.att.net
Alltel: @message.alltel.com
CellularOne: @mobile.celloneusa.com
Cingular: @cingularme.com
Nextel: @messaging.nextel.com
Omnipoint: @omnipointpcs.com
Qwest: @qwestmp.com
Sprint: @messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile: @tmomail.net
Virgin Mobile: @vmobl.com

Legal Research Fellows Schedule

For all that help with your legal research class the Fellows are back and at your assitance

Monday - 12:30 to 5:00

Tuesday - 8:30 to 1:00; 2:00 to 5:30

Wednesday - 2:30 to 5:00

Thursday - 2:00 to 5:30

Exploited Students?

I wanted to pass along this ABA Journal article that centers around the Dean of the New York Law School saying that law schools are exploiting students for monetary gain.

Thoughts? Agreement? Disagreement

Interesting Title

On occasion I highlight a new title I think you students might like, we are putting on the shelf today a book entitled: "Maximize Your Lawyer Potential: Professionalism and Business Etiquette". This book is kept in the Law Career Collection, Call # KF 277. M46 2009.

It speaks to many different things including networking, interviews, debt, and correspondence in a pretty easy to read manner.

Suggestion for the new President

Slate has a good recap I thought you might be interested in of Ten To Toss: The top Bush executive orders that Obama should scrap immediately.

Regardless of which side of the aisle you support these are 10 things you should know about as an informed citizen and attorney. The one that sticks out to me personally is the one regarding stem cell research but this blog isn't about me, it is about you, but feel free to come talk to me about that or any of the other topics as I'm always up for discussion.

A picture says a thousand words

Wanted to let y'all know that we now have some pictures of the MCSOL Library on Inauguration day up on our Flickr page.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28357626@N05/sets/72157611117209885/

Announcement

Tuesday, Janurary 20th at 10:30 the MCSOL Library will be showing the Inauguration on the second floor of the library for those that are interested.

Copyright Infringement

I wanted to pass along an article from the WSJ I found that discusses copyright infringement and piracy/use primarily by students. I know personally of several of you who post YouTube videos and this article can speak directly to what some others have run into in this area of law.

Spring Hours

Regular Spring Hours begin January 14th.

Mondays - Thursdays: 7:30 a.m. - midnight
Fridays: 7:30 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Saturdays: 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Sundays: noon - midnight

Exceptions to this occur for Martin Luther King Holiday, Spring Break, Easter, and the Exam Schedule. Those exceptions will be posted later.

Interim Hours

Sorry about the previous posts that had the formatting all messed up, I should have checked behind to see what blogger did to it. Here are the Interim Hours

Weekdays: 7:30 - 5:00
Weekends: Closed
January 2nd - January 13th.

We will reopen January 14th, the first day of class, using the Spring Schedule