Obiter Dicta

Here’s a quick reminder on how to access e-resources off campus:  accessing e-resources

WESTLAW UK SERVICE UPDATE
On Sunday 30th May Westlaw UK will unavailable between the hours of 6am and 8am whilst essential maintainence is carried out.
We would like to apologise in advance if this causes you any inconvenience.

Don’t forget that you can also use LexisLibrary for cases, legislation and journal articles.

I hope all of your exams are going well, the library certainly is a lot calmer now that they have started.
As many of you know I am leaving Kingston at the end of the week (tomorrow is my last day, and it has come long really quickly!), and I want to take this chance to wish you all the very best in your careers, whether you decide to go into Law or think that something else is the right move for you. I did Geology as my undergraduate degree and I certainly did not plan to become a Law Librarian, but I have enjoyed every minute of it and will miss Kingston, the Library, the Law School and all of you law students. Those of you who go on to do an LPC or BPTC I shall be starting my new job as Law Librarian at City Law School (for the LPC and BPTC courses) in a week, and I expect to see at least a couple of familiar faces appear there over the next few years!

The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (ICLR) are holding their Law Reports Annual Lecture (FREE to law students) on Wednesday 7th July at 6pm in the Great Hall at Lincoln’s Inn.  The lecturer this year is Matthew Chapman from One Chancery Lane, who will be giving a lecture The Snail and the Ginger Beer: The Singular Case of Donoghue v Stevenson, the subject of his new book.

Although the lecture is FREE for law students you do have to register for tickets by completing a form and returning it to the address stated.

Tickets are on a first come, first served basis, so act now to ensure you don’t miss out!

Rachel

This is for you stragglers who still need to complete the Lexis and Westlaw online tests for your Legal System and Method coursework…

LexisLibrary

1. login to lexis the usual way and keep this screen open (through StudentSpace –> Library –> eresources –> subject list of eresources –> Law –> LexisLibrary)
2. in a new internet explorer/safari/firefox window go to: http://www.lexisnexis.co.uk
3. click on the link to Academic (on the LHS)
4. click on the link to Students
5. and then the link to Certification
6. and then ‘to take the test click here’
7. and then Register Now
8. make sure that the in Product Options, LexisLibrary Basic is selected, and in Course Options, England & Wales is selected and then fill in the rest of the form (please please please register using the Kingston email address) and click on Start Exam
9. If you are on a uni computer you will need to click on the gold bar to ‘temporarily allow pop-ups’
10. answer the questions
11. Submit!

I strongly suggest that you use the help options in LexisLibrary where available as many of them contain information that will be useful.  Also, never under estimate the usefulness of the (i) icon next to a source or collection of sources.

When you pass you will get an email confirming this and saying that the certificate will be sent out in 4 weeks.  Print and submit this email with their coursework.

Westlaw

This one is a bit easier…

1. login to Westlaw
2. click on the small link to Training Tutorial (across the top of the page)
3. Select Student Training Tutorial
4. I recommend that you take the tutorial and then click on the link to Take the Test
5. When you pass you will get a link to download the certificate.  You MUST print this certificate out there and then (or print it to a PDF and save it to print later) and submit it with the rest of your coursework.

Good luck!

Rachel

Good news! From the 27th April Westlaw will contain full-text of Arbitration the publication of the Chartered Institute of of Arbitrators. Initially access will be from 2000 onwards, but they will be adding full-text of the back copies all the way to the first issue in 1915 throughout the coming year.

Many of you have been asking me what you need to put ion yopur annotations for your Tort assignment. I am afraid that I cannot help with this! I suggest that you look through the details of your assignment and if you want further hekp contact the module leader or your tutor. I am sorry that I can’t offer more advice, but us librarians can’t do everything

Hello all – exams are nearing and you should all be thinking about revising for your exams before. There are several good books about exam and revision skills in the library, many of them in the Study Skills section (just across from the first floor helpdesk). We also have a few books aimed specifically at law students, I particularly recommend the foloowing:
Harry McVea, Exam Skills for Law Students (2nd edn Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006): 340.04 MAC
Nicholas McBride, Letters to a Law Student (Pearson Longman, Harlow 2007): 340.07 MAC (currently on loan) – this is also available as an ebook.
Enjoy, and good luck with the revision and exams.

I am looking at the support guides for law students that we provide and before spending a long time designing and writing something that turns out to be not useful I would LOVE your feedback. What guides would you like available? In whatformat would you like them? eg, would you find a guide on Finding and Using Case Law useful? And would you prefer it in a printed booklet, online, or in some other format?
Let me know your thoughts, either by commenting on this post, by email, twitter, or pop in to the library and tell me!

Today, 2-3pm in Lab 350 is the last LexisLibrary Certification session, so if you want a quick refresher on Lexis and then the chance to take the test come along.