Welcome 1Ls!

Welcome, Class of 2012 and Class of 2013! In the coming days, the reference librarians will host a series of library orientation sessions to help you navigate through your first year of law school. The reference librarians, the technical services librarians, the members of the acquisitions department along with the public service staff are all here to support you and answer any questions that you may have.

Much useful material is available online but also in print at the reference desk and at the circulation desk. One newly published journal that may be helpful is the latest edition of the Legal Reference Services Quarterly. Volume 28 Issues 1 & 2 (2009) is devoted to Teaching Legal Research Part I of II. The print version of Issue I is available at the circulation desk and has a very useful article for 1Ls: Best Practices: What First-Year Law Students Should Learn in a Legal Research Class by Nancy P. Johnson. The article has useful information about developing best practices in the legal research process, including a discussion of case law research and how to find cases online. It also discusses using citators not only as an updating tool but as a useful way to find relevant case law. Finally, it addresses the importance of using statutory research and administrative publications as well as secondary sources, such as law reviews, American Law Report annotations and the Restatements as part of an effective plan.

For online access, see the library database page at http://www.brooklaw.edu/librarylinks/dbjournals.php. The journal is listed alphabetically by title under Online Journals.

The reference librarians have developed several research guides using software created by LibGuides in order to help 1Ls and other law students in their law school careers. Of special interest to incoming students is 1L Resources, Tips and Tools which the reference librarians will feature during the 1L Library Orientation sessions during the next few weeks.