News from KU’s Wheat Law Library | Fall 2017
THIS ISSUE 1L year: then and now
‘New’ new resources list
Judge Logan archive
Green Hall | 1535 W. 15th St. Lawrence, KS 66045-7608 law.ku.edu/library lawref@ku.edu
DIRECTOR’S CORNER “I read the whole thing without any help!” my first-grader recently exclaimed with great joy upon the completion of a Dr. Seuss volume. It was true, he had rhymed his way through that book like a pro, and we were both beaming with pride at the accomplishment. That initial step on a lifelong journey of learning was fresh in my mind when students returned to Green Hall a couple of weeks later. Law students learning to parse the language of Palsgraf have a fair amount in common with elementary students deconstructing the nuances of “Horton Hatches the Egg,” and I mean that as a compliment. With concerted effort, and no small amount of help from dedicated teachers and mentors, both 1Ls and first-graders quickly achieve remarkable fluency, and it is my great privilege to witness these parallels firsthand. Here in the Wheat Law Library, we help our law students apply those newly developed analytical skills to the art of conducting legal research. There is a considerable learning curve. At the risk of straining the analogy, imagine asking 6- and 7-year-olds to sift through the many works of Theodor Geisel, identify “The Cat in the Hat” as applicable to a certain fact pattern, distinguish away other potentially applicable stories, and verify that no subsequent works have modified or overruled it. Even the best and brightest students need multiple opportunities to refine their skills and develop expertise. From kindergartners to 3Ls (19th-graders?), all students benefit from consistent support and sustained engagement. This is the fundamental idea behind an upcoming presentation at the Mid-America Association of Law Libraries annual meeting. In this program, along with colleagues from firm and court law libraries, I will explore how law libraries can serve our patrons in ways that go beyond initial orientation sessions and periodic point-ofneed interactions. Although law libraries serve different constituencies, our goal is largely the same: connecting people with authoritative legal resources and efficient research methodologies. This program seeks to illuminate long-term strategies designed to strengthen the role of law libraries as indispensable partners in legal education and the legal profession. Just as parents hope children will develop a lifelong love of reading, we hope that students will develop an appreciation for the value that libraries can deliver over the course of their career.
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I have taken stock of the many initiatives designed to keep us connected with our students. First-year legal research modules and the Bluebook Relays help us get acquainted, while upper-level research courses provide opportunities to continue the conversation. Guest legal research lectures provide an important connection to the law school curriculum, one that we hope to expand moving forward. Our electronic study aids package can be remotely accessed while students study at home. Other strategies include the creation From of LibGuides that jumpkindergartners start the research process, individual research to 3Ls, all consultations with law students benefit librarians, specialized from consistent research instruction for the SJD program, and support and collaboration with the sustained Law Review and Law engagement. Journal staffs. Reviewing our efforts has illustrated how remarkably dedicated and skilled our library faculty and staff members are. It has also stimulated creative thinking as we ponder new approaches to student engagement that take into account technological developments and the evolution of the legal profession. In particular, this project has demonstrated the potential for increased collaboration among academic, firm, and court law librarians as we seek to identify the commonalities and distinctions that animate our educational efforts. I look forward to exploring this potential moving forward, almost as much as I look forward to the next book I read with my kids. Until next time, whatever you may be reading or researching, I hope that we will see you in the law library.
Christopher L. Steadham, JD, MLIM Wheat Law Library Director
The ‘new’ new resources list By Melissa Doebele Library Assistant If you’ve ever been to the public library in Lawrence or visited Anschutz Library on campus, you may have noticed some shelves not far from the entrance where these libraries display the new materials they’ve recently added to their collections. Wheat Law Library has something like that, except ours isn’t on a physical shelf. If you want to see the library’s recent acquisitions, you can go to the Wheat Law Library website and click “New resources.” There were some changes made to the new resources list when Wheat Law Library migrated to LibGuides version 2 from Springshare this summer. The new resources list is one of several LibGuides put together and updated by library staff to provide information to our patrons. Our LibGuides are hosted on servers belonging to Springshare. Springshare is a library technology vendor that provides templates for our LibGuides, maintains a link checker that gives us reports on broken links, and enables staff to access statistics on our LibGuides to let us know how much they’re being used. With the change to LibGuides version 2, the new resources list hasn’t changed in any major ways — at least on the public side. Patrons may notice differences in fonts and the
way that each of the boxes is displayed on the page. However, all of the information is still there. LibGuides version 2 provides more flexibility for staff in how the pages are organized, the ability to share information between guides, and what type of information can go into the boxes on the page. For example, with the former version of the new resources list, the subject guide could only choose one type of material to go into the box on that page, and that was “books from the catalog.” Now, there are several choices, including adding a database, a link, or a document, along with books from the catalog. The new resources list has two tabs near the top of the page. The “current” tab shows the most recent list, and the “archives” tab includes previous lists dating back to April 2013. Usually during the first week of the month, the new resources list is updated so that the list under the current tab goes to the archives and newest list goes into the current tab. For example, during the first week of October, the September list will go into the current tab while the list for August will go under the archives tab. Once the lists are updated, an email is sent letting people know that the newest list is available. That email also contains a resource highlight written by a member of the library staff that spotlights something of interest in the library’s collection. Please check out the new resources list along with the many other LibGuides Wheat Law Library has to offer.
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Practical Law Connect: a primer By Blake Wilson, Assistant Director for Instructional & Faculty Services An attorney’s job is to connect dots quickly and accurately. It is our job here in Green Hall to help our students learn how to connect those dots. To help, we have added Thompson Reuters’ Practical Law Connect (PLC) to our Westlaw subscription. Developed specifically for transactional attorneys and in-house counsel, PLC gathers all the necessary practice tools in one place. AVAILABLE CONTENT • Practical Law: Resources include practice notes, standard documents and clauses, checklists, toolkits, legal updates, state-specific guidance, and more. • Westlaw Forms: Choose from more than 600,000 forms — including state and national text forms, fillable PDF forms, checklists, and clauses. • Secondary sources: Authored by leading practitioners, professors, judges, and in-house editorial experts. • Primary sources: Easily click into Westlaw content for full coverage. • Current awareness: Stay on top of the latest news and trends in your practice area with Practical Law Legal Updates, Practitioner Insights, and Reuters News. FEATURED TOOLS On the right side of every PLC page, you will have direct access to time-saving workflow tools. You will even notice the tools change by practice area and task. • Rulebooks: Key federal laws, rules, and regulations are at your fingertips with PLC’s exclusive Rulebooks. • What’s Market: What’s Market lets you search, compare, and analyze a range of public and private deals and filings. • Business Law Center: The Business Law Center is a comprehensive collection of U.S. SEC and global filings, regulatory disclosures and transaction summaries, and much more.
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• Company search: Access valuable private and public company information from your Company Investigator subscription. Review financial, structural, and personnel information. • State and Country Q&A: Get up to speed on doing deals and conducting business around the world and from state to state. • Thomson Reuters Legal Ed Center and Continuing Legal Education Materials: Find online continuing education courses in your practice area and state, and register for a course with Legal Ed Center. Or, review continuing education course materials in your topical practice area via American Law Institute. ACCESS To access PLC, login using your OnePass credentials (the ones you use to get into Westlaw). From the homepage, choose your practice area. Once you have chosen a practice area, you are ready to browse by task or content to start your work. • Browse by task: PLC menus are organized by legal tasks and issues, making it easier to identify the resources you need. • Browse by content: You can also narrow your search results by content type. • Search: Smart Search lets you see suggested task pages based on the first few letters you type into the search bar. Easily drill down or broaden the scope of your search by entering a keyword or term into the search bar. PLC only returns results related to your browse path. • Breadcrumb: Trace your steps with the interactive breadcrumb. It shows you where you are and your browse path, allowing you to keep track of your activity, and quickly jump back to a previous topic page. TRAINING AND SUPPORT We here at the Wheat Law Library are always available to help with training and support. You may also contact the Thomson Reuters Reference Attorneys should you run into problems while searching or browsing late at night: 1-888-728-7681. Happy researching!
Preserving a distinguished legacy in the law By Christopher Steadham, Wheat Law Library Director A few months ago, I found a note on my desk that immediately piqued my interest. “Chris – James Logan called and would like to speak with you,” read the message. I took a moment to ponder why a distinguished former KU Law dean and retired federal appellate judge might want to chat. This is a great example of one reason why I love my work at the Wheat Law Library: Each day brings the possibility of new discoveries and connections. I soon spoke with Judge Logan and learned that he would like to donate some items to the law library. Accumulated over the course of a remarkable career in the law, these materials included books, photographs, artwork, scholarly publications, and even some judicial records related to his tenure on the 10th Circuit. Immediately recognizing the historical significance of these items, I indicated our eagerness to preserve them in our collection. Thanks to Judge Logan’s generosity, the Wheat Law Library is currently preparing a number of fascinating items for addition to our collection. The judicial records and archival materials will be housed in our small but growing Legal History Collection. As might be expected, these materials include a number of opinions and dissents authored by Judge Logan. However, this collection is especially noteworthy because it includes several files containing various prepublication drafts and correspondence with other judges. This unique archive offers a rare glimpse into judicial decision-making and the nuances of
expertly crafted legal writing. Judge Logan reports that he sat on about 9,000 appeals during his time on the bench but selected a handful of casefiles for this collection “to make analytical research manageable.” Researchers will now have a treasure trove of primary source material to scour for insight into the opinion drafting process. As I reviewed the numerous gifts we received from Judge Logan this summer, I enjoyed the opportunity to review several books that were included in the donation. These volumes run the gamut from serious meditations on legal doctrine to whimsical reflections on the human element of law practice. There is little doubt that this eclectic collection of biographical, historical, philosophical, doctrinal, and fictional works will benefit KU Law students and faculty for years to come. There are also items that you will soon find gracing the walls of our library, including wonderful artwork depicting “Old” Green Hall, the famous Jimmy Green statute, and the historical Chase County Courthouse. The works are remarkable and reflect a proud legacy. After all, it has been written, “Jimmy Green was the founding dean of the KU Law School, but Jim Logan … was the founding dean of the modern KU Law School.” We hope that our patrons will enjoy the opportunity to peruse this special collection that we have the honor of preserving for future generations.
UPCOMING EVENTS Kansas Law Review Symposium October 20, 2017 Barber Emerson Bluebook Relays October 27, 2017 KU vs. K-State Tailgate Party October 28, 2017
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1L life: then and now By Pam Crawford Assistant Director, Public & Technical Services Watching the new 1Ls during the first couple weeks of the fall semester always brings back memories of the way things were when I began my position in the law library in 1995. The new students, filled with excitement and anticipation of law school, are pretty much the same as before, but many things about the law library and our services have changed over the past 20-plus years. I’ve listed some of these below. THEN: Students used the early homegrown online catalog to locate materials and went to the right floor to retrieve them, checked out books and had them desensitized so they wouldn’t set off the alarm when carried out the door, then lugged around all those heavy books. NOW: The online catalog is now faster and more comprehensive, providing easy searching and access to physical books and journals, e-books and e-journals, and an extensive collection of subscription databases and online resources. Students still carry books, but much of the time the resources they use are online. THEN: When teaching a 1L research class, I wheeled a cart of volumes to the courtroom where the TA and I held class, passed around each resource, explained how to use them (indexes, pocket parts, supplements). Resources covered included CFR, Federal Register, U.S. Code, Shepard’s, state and federal reporters and digests, and secondary sources like Index to Legal Periodicals & the Current Law Index, Government Manual, ALRs, and Restatements. NOW: The library research part of Lawyering now includes podcasts (and some in-class explanations) about these four areas of resources: secondary sources, citators, reporters and digests, statutes and codes. The “tour” each week requires research in one of the four resource types. The students work on the exercises in pairs, handing in the answers at the next class. THEN: The use of citators was taught using hardcopy Shepard’s volumes and all the supplements!
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NOW: Books are used for three of the tours, but the citator tour is done completely online now using Lexis Advance, WestlawNext, or Bloomberg Law. THEN: We explained CJS and Am Jur as being formatted “just like any other encyclopedia you’ve used” with headings at the top of the pages and information “xxx to xxx” on the spine. The students felt comfortable using them. NOW: Most of our students in the last several years have never used a paper encyclopedia, so this one is hard for them at first. THEN: Students wondered why part of the third floor was outside the library on the other side of a glass wall and only accessible via the stairway near the student mailboxes. NOW: This summer the glass wall was removed and the former Mills Conference Room was remodeled with moveable furniture and modern technology. Now the newly dubbed Foulston Siefkin Legal Writing Room is being used for Lawyering instruction and other classes. THEN: Study carrel signup involved filling out a form with your first, second, and third choice of carrel mates and location. 1Ls were required to use study carrels on the first floor of the library. Some grumbling was common. NOW: Students now go to floors one, three and four to sign up on their own. The sign-up sheet has spaces for three or four names for each carrel. Since they’re choosing it themselves, most end up happy in their new “home.” THEN: First floor was full of shelves of state materials from every state, regional reporters, legal encyclopedias, and ALRs. Those 1L carrels lined the perimeter.
NOW: First floor is now divided in half: three small study rooms, a classroom with technology and seating, and a small conference room are in one half, with a large quiet room filled with carrels, a couch and a couple of comfy chairs in the other half. There are no books here now, but the stigma of being a 1L space is gone (it took a few years), and the large “study hall” is a popular location with those who value a super quiet study space. THEN: The “left side” of fourth floor was full of government documents and more than 20 microform cabinets, plus a large cumbersome microform reader/printer. The reader/printer was free in order to entice people to use the microforms. NOW: That side of fourth floor now has additional faculty and visiting scholar offices; the International and Comparative Law area with displays of relevant faculty publications, photographs and artifacts from around the world; a few study carrels and other furniture. The microforms collection is in six file cabinets, strictly archival, and has moved to the Reserve area. A digitizing microform scanner is available. THEN: I had the newest computer in the library in 1995, a Pentium. The browser of choice was Netscape. Desktop
computers in the labs on third floor were cabled for Ethernet service. NOW: There are still some desktop computers in the Reference Area and on third floor, but many students bring their own laptops or tablets. Laptop and tablet users can login to the Wi-Fi network. THEN: The circulation desk always had a jigsaw puzzle in progress where students could stop for a few minutes (or more) and take a break from studying. NOW: No puzzles for several years now, but students still like to congregate at the front desk and in the Reference Area to chat and keep an eye on who is coming and going. Did any of these bring back memories of your law school days? The resources and staff may have changed over the years, but rest assured Wheat Law Library continues to be an integral part of the University of Kansas School of Law, serving the law school and university community in legal and interdisciplinary scholarly pursuits and providing access to legal information for legal professionals and the general public. Please stop by the next time you’re in the neighborhood!
THE BLUEBOOK RELAYS ARE COMING | October 27, 2017
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Library welcomes new student employees
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Jackson Beal is a 2L from Kansas City, Missouri. Jackson has a border collie named Pete, who he hopes will one day be the first honorary dog professor at the University of Kansas School of Law. Michael Decheck’s interests include helping people, research, and traveling. Logan Fancher is a 2L from Fort Scott, Kansas. Logan received an undergraduate degree in human biology from KU and is pursuing an MBA via a joint degree program.
Amanda Feriante is a 3L from Fremont, California. She received her undergraduate degree in business administration from San Jose State University. She enjoys traveling and gardening. Aaron Holmes is a 2L from Hutchinson, Kansas. He received a degree in psychology from KU. Aaron is an avid sports fan and after law school seeks a career in athletics administration. Shauna Leslie is a 2L from Wichita, Kansas. She earned a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies with a minor in business from the University of Kansas. Before beginning law school, Shauna worked in consumer banking. Nancy Musick is a 2L from Topeka, Kansas. She completed her undergraduate degree in political science at Washburn University. Nancy enjoys spending time with her husband and her two dogs, Bandit and Kira. Erika Owunta is a 2L from New Orleans by way of Atlanta. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in political science and minor in sociology and enjoys food, friends, and working out. Bryan Sediqzad is a 3L from Overland Park, Kansas. He received his undergraduate degree in accounting from KU, and is currently working towards a JD/MBA. He is a proud KC Chiefs and KU basketball fan. Wesley Williams is a 2L from Tonganoxie, Kansas. He graduated with a B.A. in theater from Newman University. When he’s not at Green Hall, he can be found at any of the local sports venues.
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Library staff directory OUR MISSION
Christopher L. Steadham, Director csteadham@ku.edu | 785-864-9242
Pam Crawford Assistant Director, Public & Technical Services pcraw4d@ku.edu 785-864-9264
Melissa Doebele Library Assistant mdoebele@ku.edu 785-864-3360
As the largest and oldest law library in Kansas, the Wheat Law Library is an integral part of the School of Law. It serves the law school and university community in legal and interdisciplinary scholarly pursuits and provides attorneys, judges, and the general public with access to legal information. Key components of this mission include collecting and preserving Kansas, national, and international legal documents, teaching legal information literacy, and serving as a legal information gateway by providing access to sources beyond the scope of the physical collection.
LIBRARY HOURS September 5 - October 13, 2017 Mon - Thur Friday Saturday Sunday
7:30 am - 11 pm 7:30 am - 5 pm 9 am - 5 pm 10 am - 11 pm
Fall Break: October 14-16, 2017
Jeff Montgomery Circulation & Serials Department Manager jmontgom@ku.edu 785-864-9252
W. Blake Wilson Assistant Director Instructional & Research Services wilsonwb@ku.edu 785-864-9253
Saturday Sunday Monday
9 am - 5 pm 10 am - 5 pm 8 am - 5 pm
On the cover: View from newly renovated 310 Green Hall, now designated as the Foulston Siefkin Legal Writing Room. Wheat Law Library | Hearsay
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