Amicus Briefs: November 2020

Director of the Law Library Retiring :: Library Hours :: Law Dawg of the Month Stress Busters :: Highlights From Our Resource Guides :: Online Study Aids

AMICUS BRIEFS

November 11, 2020

Alexander Campbell King Law Library

Celebrating Carol Watson: A Distinguished Career

By Anne Burnett The Law Library congratulates Carol Watson, Director of the Law Library, on her upcoming retirement. She will retire at the end of December after a distinguished career at the Law School beginning in 1987.

I first met Professor Watson when she was a new law librarian and I was a law student wandering around the stacks looking for European Union documents (it was still the EEC back then).

Neither of us realized it at the time, but her mentorship of me as a law librarian began at that very moment. In the decades since, she has formally and informally mentored many of us, both here in the Law Library and in law libraries across the United States.

Her mentorship and her leadership will impact the Law Library and law librarianship long after she retires.

Professor Watson’s service to the School of Law is beyond measure. Her entire career is filled with examples of her taking on tasks and responsibilities well outside of her job description.

As a reference librarian, she set up the very first web server for the School of Law in the mid1990s after reading a how-to manual. When the School of Law decided several years later to place supervision of the IT Department within the Law Library, she once again stepped up and took responsibility for managing the department. She has never shied away from difficult, and what others might consider monumental, undertakings.

When the School of Law asked the law librarians to design and teach a new stand-alone 1L Legal Research curriculum, Professor Watson dove right in, spending countless weekends and holidays helping to prepare and launch the course. Her students and colleagues know her as a deeply caring and hardworking teacher who constantly seeks the latest and best pedagogical practices. She brought the same care to the Advanced Legal Research course. The School of Law recently recognized her commitment to teaching legal research by renaming the Carol A. Watson Outstanding Legal Research or Writing Professor Award in her honor.

Professor Watson brings innovative and calm leadership to every organization with which she is associated. Her accomplishments have been recognized with multiple awards including the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Volunteer Service Award and the Service to SEAALL Award from the Southeastern Chapter of AALL. In 2020, Professor Watson’s peers honored her by inducting her into the AALL Hall of Fame. The nominating letter stated that “Carol embodies what every law librarian should aim to be. She has been a leader to our profession, extensively served on our national and regional associations, contributed to increasing our knowledge base, and aided new law librarians in becoming successful in their careers.”

Thanksgiving

HOURS

By Marie Mize & Heather Simmons

Wednesday NOV. 25

8 AM - 5 PM

Thursday

NOV. 26

CLOSED

Friday

NOV. 27

CLOSED

Saturday

NOV. 28

9 AM - 5 PM

Sunday

NOV. 29

1 PM - 9 PM

VIRTUAL

Stress Busters

By Rachel Evans & Geraldine Kalim

Meditation Videos

In addition, Professor Watson has written extensively and presented frequently. She received the 2015 AALL Academic Libraries SIS Outstanding Article Award, along with James M. Donovan & Caroline Osborne, for the article “The Open Access Advantage for American Law Reviews.”

Those of us in the Law Library and throughout the School of Law know her as our friend, Carol, who is always ready with sage advice, a sympathetic ear, and that fabulous sense of humor. Although her beloved downtown Taco Stand has closed, rumor has it that you might find her at the Milledge Street T-Stand on occasion. We will miss her mightily, but we are so happy for her and look forward to hearing about her world travels and other endeavors.

ONLINE STUDY AIDS The Law Library has a variety of resources to assist you in your exam preparation:

CALI (Computer Assisted Legal Instruction) is a service available to all law students that includes a ton of great resources as you start studying. There are individual lessons for common topics like constitutional law, civil procedure, administrative law, etc., subject specific outlines, and even lessons that complement select casebooks. Create an account at www.cali.org but you’ll also need the UGA Law authorization code. You can find the code at the library’s reference desk, or you can email Jason Tubinis (jtubinis@uga.edu) to have it sent to you.

The Law Library also provides online access to nutshells, hornbooks and other study guides through the West Academic Study Aids Subscription. . This database has resources for 1L and upper level courses. The subscription also includes sample multiple choice and exam questions. Lastly, don’t forget about the study guides available at circulation. Search for the term “study guides” in GAVEL under the Course Reserve Course Name to see the full selection of subjects available.

As we gear up for reading days and final exams, the library will continue to offer virtual stress busters and mindfulness. In our LibGuides you will find: MINDFULNESS: https://libguides.law.uga.edu/Mindfulness This guide includes three and five minute meditation videos created by librarians, and lists of books and apps for managing stress and staying focused and present.

STRESS BUSTERS: https://libguides.law.uga.edu/stress-busters This guide includes virtual versions of many of the library's classic stress busters, like puzzles you can complete online, links to yoga videos, and even virtual pet therapy (think kittens in aquariums and panda cams).

November 11, 2020

Alexander Campbell King Law Library

Highlights From Our Resource Guides

By Rachel Evans, Geraldine Kalim & Savanna Nolan

Over the course of 2020 librarians have created and updated several resource guides to better serve faculty, staff and students.

These guides can be of particular use as we approach the end of the semester and almost everyone returns to remote learning with exams being fully online this fall as they were in the spring. With this in mind we want to highlight the following collections of resources on a variety of topics: For Faculty: Resources Guide & Online Instruction Guide The recently improved Faculty Resources Guide and companion Online Instruction Guide were developed by our law librarians including our new Faculty Services Librarian Savanna Nolan, our Information Technology Librarian Jason Tubinis, and our Clinical and Research Services Librarian Amy Taylor in collaboration with the I.T. Department at UGA School of Law to curate two one-stop locations for faculty. The Faculty Resources Guide gathers information about both services and resources, while the Online Instruction Guide contains a wealth of videos tutorials, books and more on a variety of teaching strategies including synchronous, asynchronous and hy-flex.

For Students: Take Home Exams & Stress Management In collaboration with Dean Randy Beck and other law school faculty members, librarians have crafted a guide of resources for students spefically aimed at Take Home Exams. Here you will find tips for before, during, and after exams as well as links to study aids and information on virtual study groups.There is also a separate tab for stress management during exams in addition to the library's MIndfulness and Stress Buster guides.

For Everyone: Video Tutorials, Finding Ebooks & A to Z Databases The Instruction Team of Librarians have curated several guides for students, faculty, and staff to use in navigating the library resources. In the Video Tutorials Guide you will find a selection of our most recent videos including librarian presentations on managing email professionally and short tutorials on how to search the library online catalog. In the Ebooks tab you can find links to help discover ebooks as well as a new instructional PDF with steps and screen caps showing you how to find and access ebooks. Lastly, don't forget about our A to Z List of databases. In this list you can find nearly every online resource you can think of, from password protected West and Lexis to freely available government websites and everything in between.

As always, if you have any questions please contact circulation at lawcirc-l@listserv.uga.edu or reference at lawref@uga.edu.

Law Dawgs: Recent Acquisitions

By Anne Burnett

For November’s Law Dawgs, the Law Library revives an old newsletter feature: the Recent Acquisitions List. However, instead of featuring newly purchased titles, we’re sharing with you several new additions to our Law Library community.

Marsh

Marie Mize, Access Services Manager, is thrilled to present Marsh, the newest addition to the Mize family. He is a 12 year old white and orange sweetheart. Marsh loves to cuddle and sleep.

Harry joined the family of Student Services Librarian Geraldine Kalim when they adopted him from ACC Animal Services over the summer. He loves playing with hair ties and eating the dog’s food.

Gus

Gus belongs to Clinical Services and Research Librarian Amy Taylor. He was found under a car and has quickly taken over the household. He plays with anything that moves and eats more than she thought possible for such a little guy!

Duchess is an 11-year-old tabby cat, and her human is Instruction and Faculty Services Librarian Savanna Nolan. Duchess has had a whirlwind year. She decamped from Washington, DC in March and summered with her grand-humans in Greenville, SC before moving to Athens in mid-July. She loves cuddles, her electric heated bed, and watching the world from a screened in porch.

Etheline

Meet Etheline! The nice people at ACC Animal Services gave her that name, and it seemed to fit her just right, so Collection Services Manager David Rutland kept it. Etheline is a total sweetheart, a two year-old Redbone Coonhound who is super chill. He reports that “all she did when the power transformer blew up in the storm last week was crouch down, walk a few steps away from the window, look at me and wag her tail. Etheline likes to sleep late, loves long walks and car rides and is looking forward to all three when we go to the mountains this weekend to go hiking.”

Harry

Duchess

Wendy’s New Dog

And, in breaking news, this most recent addition is so recent that he is yet to be named! As this issue of Amicus Briefs goes to press, Wendy’s New Dog is joining the household of Associate Director for Collection Services Wendy Moore. This gorgeous blue-eyed fellow is also an alum of ACC Animal Services.

All members of the Law School Community (current students, faculty and staff) are invited to submit a photo for random selection as the Law Dawg. Please note that honorary Law Dawgs (i.e. those of the feline, equine, porcine, avian, reptilian, etc. persuasion) are eligible as well. Please send your Law Dawg photo(s) to aburnett@uga.edu