Beginning this fall, KU Law faculty, staff and students will have access to Westlaw’s newest product: WestlawNext. I am going to try my best to not get into the super-geeky details here. Also, I’m going to avoid quoting West on this product. Instead, I am going to share with you my experience. Many students who are starting to learn the …
Top 8 misconceptions about legal research
I am in charge of the legal research instruction as part of the Lawyering Skills course. Over the past three years, I have heard (and read) several things students have said about legal research. Before we have a new batch of students start up this fall, I would like to go ahead and address these issues. Everything is available online.Surprisingly, …
Bureau of Justice Statistics website makes crime stats freely available
In need of crime statistics and don’t know where to look? Try the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics! The Bureau of Justice Statistics (B.J.S.) was first established on Dec. 27, 1979, under the Justice Systems Improvement Act of 1979. Their goal is to: “collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and …
Law.gov would be bold experiment in one-stop shopping for legal research
Have you heard about Law.gov? No? Well then, let me tell you! Law.gov is a proposed repository for legal materials, open-sourced and open to the public. Included would be all primary materials of the United States and international governmental bodies. Law.gov would be a portal for authoritative local, state, national, foreign and international legal and legislative information. Basically, we are …
Listbean website helps users organize life’s little details
When you prepare to study for class, get ready for vacation or create a budget, what’s the first thing you do? If you answered, “make a list,” then I have a website for you! It’s called Listbean, and it’s awesome! Unlike other list sites, it is completely free and jam-packed with pre-populated lists. Personally, I like the fact that these …
New HeinOnline resource opens door to world’s constitutions and more
HeinOnline now has available World Constitutions Illustrated: Contemporary & Historical Documents & Resources. World Constitutions Illustrated is now available as an a la carte library which introduces a brand new legal research platform that brings together constitutional documents, books, articles, bibliographic referenes and Web sites all in one database. Although it is still in its infancy, it does contain the …