Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read runs September 26, 2009 - October 3, 2009. An annual event sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) since 1982. the event celebrates intellectual freedom, reading and the First Amendment. According to ALA figures, there were 581 challenges to books in US schools and libraries in 2008. The ALA website also provides charts detailing the number and types of challenges since 1990 ans a list of classics that have been challenged along with the reasons why.

Amnesty International USA participates in Banned Books Week by highlighting individuals world-wide who have been persecuted because of what they write, read, or publish. Information about these authors and their cases is available.

Additional First Amendment websites and books may be found via the Library's website.

New Titles

The Westminster Law Library added some new titles to our collection over the summer. You can see a list of all items or search by subject. Fill out our online form to be emailed a list of new titles on a regular basis. If you are interested in suggesting an item for purchase, let us know!

Law in Spanish

Argentina, Chile, Colombia Civil Codes in English … Mexico

Are you planning to research civil codes for Argentina, Chile, or Colombia, but you don’t speak Spanish? The library has English translations of these codes available on the shelf and dated 2008. Also available in translation from Mexico are the Federal Civil Code of Mexico (2005) and the Mexican commercial code annotated (2005).

If you are just learning Spanish or need to know legal terms in Spanish, a simple keyword search (Spanish Dictionary) in the library catalog will get you 38 results, including the Essential English/Spanish – Spanish/English Legal Dictionary, K52.S6 K37 2008 .

And don’t forget to check the Inter-Am Database from the National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade, available through the Databases/Indexes list from the library’s homepage. Focusing on Latin American countries, the database provides access to quite current laws in a number of specific areas of law. Under “User’s Tools” you can find “ENGLISH-SPANISH KEYWORD LISTS OF LEGAL TERMS & PHRASES” arranged by topic. This site also provides access to European materials and has a “Treaties” database. Check it out!

Stay tuned for more on our legal resources in Spanish.

Study Room Reservations

Need to reserve a study room? SCOL study rooms may be reserved by law school students, faculty & staff. See the complete guidelines and procedures on the Current Students webpage.

Congressional Directories

Interested in knowing "who's who" in the current Congress? Want to do some research before applying for a legislative staff job? Check out the photos in the Congressional Pictorial Directory for the 11th Congress.

For biographical data, see the official directory of Congress, Congressional Directory, which has been published since 1888 by the Joint Committee on Printing. Or use the Congressional Biographical Directory which has a simple search template which contains information on legislators back to 1774.

For more details about current legislative activities Congress.org website to track the committee assignments, bill sponsorships and other details of each Senator or Representative.

Westlaw includes a database for The Congressional Staff Directory (congstaff-dir). It has detailed profiles for U.S. Congressional committees, subcommittees, task forces, caucuses, etc. as compiled by the CQ Press staff.

New Environmental Blog

Check out the new blog Environment21 from Prof. Don Smith, Director of the Environmental, Natural Resources Law & Policy Graduate Program (ENRLP). Focusing on current issues concerning the environment, this is a great site to keep up what is happening locally, domestically, and internationally. Prof. Smith provides links to new research being published in many areas of environmental law as well as newspapers, journal articles and relevant legislation. Look for stories about your classmates and their accomplishments, too. You will also get the benefit of Prof. Smith’s views on some of the topics on which he posts. Research-oriented readers will also appreciate the “labels” links at the end of the posts which allow you to easily find other articles posted on that topic.

If you are taking classes in any area concerning the environment: energy, water, air, sustainability, climate change, mining, you will be glad you took the time to check out this great new resource!

Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in (see video) on August 8th, 2009, as the first Hispanic and third woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court. The New York Post has created an interactive timeline with more information about her life and career to date. For more information about the other Justices on the Roberts Court, see the Oyez website which also features case information, oral arguments and videos about the inner workings of the Court. The Court's term officially begins with oral arguments the first Monday in October.