Latest from Ross-Blakley Law Library Blog

The Ross-Blakley Law Library is open and here to help you over the summer! However, the Ross-Blakley blog will pause its regular updates during this period in order to focus on long-term projects. To keep you engaged until the start of the next academic year, we’ve compiled a clickable list of newly added books for you to explore and borrow for your summer reading:

Artificial Intelligence 

Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence 

The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence: Global Perspectives on Law and Ethics / DiMatteo, Larry A., editor.; Poncibò, Cristina, editor.; Cannarsa, Michel, editor. 

Comparative Law 

Comparative
Continue Reading Summer Reading from Ross-Blakley

As we get new books throughout the year, we have been displaying them right as you walk into the third floor of the law library. Our, ever diligent, Circulation Team has been setting up this gorgeous collection of new books for your browsing pleasure. All of these books are available to be checked out immediately (first come, first served).

Some highlights from this month’s collection include:

Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey R. Stone (eds), Social Media, Freedom of Speech, and the Future of our Democracy, Columbia Press (2023)

Curated by prominent First Amendment scholars Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey
Continue Reading Rotating New Book Display on the Third Floor, April 2023 Edition

In light of the exciting new advances going on in generative AI, I thought it would be helpful to provide students with some high-quality resources so that you can wield this technology effectively. Obviously, this is still a developing field and you need to exercise caution when you are applying this technology.

Suffolk University Boston’s Law School’s Libguide, “Student Guide to ChatGPT”

This brief guide will give you the broad strokes of how what ChatGPT is and how you could potentially use it in law school (and beyond). It gives a brief technical overview of how the technology works and
Continue Reading ChatGPT, Bing, Generative AI, and Law School

HeinOnline is a deep resource with tons of primary documents, scanned beautifully and OCR’ed for your research needs. If you are interested in a brief introduction to using HeinOnline for law school research, we have created one on our YouTube channel in our Introduction to Topical Research Databases.

Today HeinOnline released an exciting new addition to our law school accounts: Law Library of Congress Reports.

HeinOnline’s Law Library of Congress Reports collection was developed in conjunction with the Law Library of Congress. It contains more than 3,000 reports on foreign, comparative, and international law written by the Law Library of Congress
Continue Reading HeinOnline’s New Law Library of Congress Reports

The Law Library provides you with unlimited access to a number of premium resources while you are in school and even after you graduate. But it’s important for you to know that your access may change during the summer or if you graduate. You may face limitations while using these platforms for non-academic work, such as representing clients in a commercial law firm.

Summary of Legal Research Platform Access

ServiceSummer AccessPost-Graduation AccessImportant NotesBloomberg LawUnrestricted access (academic or commercial use).6 months after graduation.Lexis Unrestricted access (academic or commercial use).6 months after graduation. Can apply for 12 months of access if working
Continue Reading Summer 2023 and Post-Graduation Use of LexisNexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg Law

Are you looking for a reliable and comprehensive research guide to international and foreign law? Look no further than the Ross-Blakely Law Library’s guide. This guide provides researchers with detailed information on all aspects of international and foreign law with individual pages for each of the following sections:

Secondary Sources 

Embark on your legal research journey with the aid of secondary sources, which offer invaluable insights and comprehensive overviews of a wide array of legal topics. Delve into our curated list of essential secondary sources, encompassing legal encyclopedias, scholarly law reviews, and authoritative treatises. For instance, you might consult
Continue Reading International and Foreign Law Research at the Ross-Blakely Law Library

Arizona legal research can be overwhelming for any law student, even if you have lived in Arizona your entire life. With so many resources available, it’s easy to feel uncertain about where to begin. Furthermore, legal research in Arizona presents unique complexities that you may be unaware of, regardless of how familiar you are with the state.  

Fortunately, the Arizona Law Research Guide is here to help. This guide provides a wealth of information on sources of primary law in Arizona, including Arizona Courts, Arizona Legislature, and Arizona Constitutional History.  Since it covers both free and
Continue Reading Our Favorite Guide to Arizona Legal Research

The law library has many resources for sports and entertainment law research, like our detailed research guide, but today we want to introduce you to HeinOnline’s amazing database called “BLASE,” which is short for Business and Legal Aspects of Sports and Entertainment.

BLASE is the ultimate database for anyone interested in the legal implications of sports and entertainment industries. It’s like having your own personal coach to guide you through the legal hurdles of the entertainment industry, minus the sweat and the gym membership. It has books, scholarly articles, congressional documents, important cases, legislative histories, etc.  It is intended
Continue Reading Shooting for Success: Tips and Tricks for Conducting Winning Sports Law Research

One of our great joys as law librarians is seeing the incredible research and writing that is produced by the faculty and students of this wonderful institution. We love it so much that each year we host an Award for Exemplary Student Research.

To win this award, you do not need to produce “new” research – only provide a short write-up of research that you have done in the last year.

First Place: $500

Second Place: $250

Details can be found on the award website, including submission instructions. You still have time to put something together this weekend
Continue Reading Last Call: Law Library Research Contest

Have you seen a picture of this library?  It is one of the most iconic historically preserved libraries in the world.  The Old Library at Trinity College was one of many pictures that I’d downloaded as part of a “Library Wallpapers” image bundle for my computer’s desktop when I started this job years ago.  When I am not working in a library, I dream of visiting famous libraries all around the world (which is how you know I’m made for this job). My wife and I had the opportunity to visit Dublin, Ireland last year, so I’m going to share
Continue Reading The Old Library at Trinity College

Academic libraries play a vital role in supporting faculty and students by providing access to academic resources that can enhance research and instruction. One of the database providers that we subscribe to is Gale, owned by Cengage, which offers a variety of databases to support these efforts.

ASU Law Has Five Law-Specific Databases on Gale

Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises, 1800-1926

Provides legal treatises on US and British law published from 1800 through 1926 with full-text searching.

Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources

Consists of a fully searchable digital archive of early state codes, constitutional conventions, municipal codes, legal
Continue Reading Database Spotlight: Gale

Have you ever noticed small bells, envelopes, or concentric semicircular lines when performing legal research? Those symbols can help you make sure that you’re up to date, and our new library guide, Keeping Current, makes it even easier to navigate the many ways databases and websites help you track developments.

The law is not a static creature, quietly collecting dust like an ancient tome on a shelf. It’s a hyperdynamic beast constantly reinventing itself as judges rule, lawmakers legislate, and scholars publish.

The Keeping Current guide provides instructions, including video tutorials (also at the bottom of this blog post),
Continue Reading Keeping Current: Staying Updated Across Many Platforms and Services

Citation managers are software programs that help scholars, researchers, and students keep track of their sources and organize their citations. They are particularly useful for academics, lawyers and students who need to cite a large number of sources in a consistent and accurate way.

Citation Managers and the Bluebook

One of the main challenges with citation managers is that they do not work well with The Bluebook citation style, which is commonly used in law schools. This style is known for its complex rules and formatting requirements, and many citation managers are not equipped to handle it. This can make
Continue Reading Writing a Large Paper?  Consider a Citation Manager

Lawyers and librarians alike have a way with words, spending much of their time with books and internet databases, reading, researching, and writing. But we also must step up and let our voices be heard. Whether law students are undergoing the first-year rite of passage of delivering oral arguments in their finest legal attire or honing their presentations for a moot court championship, the librarians can help budding public speakers maximize their persuasiveness.

Students preparing for the Legal Advocacy argument should check out the Law Library’s First Year Legal Writing page. This research guide points to useful resources for modeling
Continue Reading Resources Enhance Oral Advocacy

The Ross-Blakley Law Library Award for Exemplary Student Research is not just any writing competition. As research experts, the librarians are looking for the best examples of effective gathering and synthesis of resources, in print or online.

Current Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law 2Ls, 3Ls, MLS students, and LLM students are eligible to submit their entries. The top prize is $500 and second place receives $250.

Students must submit a minimum 3,750-word scholarly paper with citations in Bluebook format, written June 2022-March 2023. Entries must not be prepared for moot court, employment, or an Advanced Legal Research course, but they may
Continue Reading Hit the Books (and Databases) to Win Law Library Award for Exemplary Student Research

The Ross-Blakley Law Library subscribes to two tax law databases that are specifically designed for tax attorneys to do their work.  A full overview of our tax law resources can be found in our Tax Law Libguide.

VitalLaw (Formerly CCH Cheetah) by Wolters Kluwer

History

VitalLaw is a tool used by law firms and in-house counsel focused on tax, accounting, and regulatory compliance.  The service (in recent history) started as Intelliconnect.  After years of providing this singular platform, Wolters Kluwer discovered that accountants (at the Big 3 like PWC and Deloitte) were using the service in a very different
Continue Reading Database Spotlight: Tax Law-Specific Databases