Email Updates From Hearsay

Subscribe to e-mail updates from Hearsay! Stay current on the latest announcements, new databases and research tips from the Westminster Law Library. There is now a registration form on the right side, near the bottom of the blog that will allow you to subscribe to updates. After you subscribe, you will receive a confirmation e-mail. You need to click on the link in the message to confirm your subscription and then you are all set.

Summer Westlaw & Lexis Access

Want to maintain access to Westlaw & Lexis over the summer? Because the SCOL has an academic contract with these vendors, you need to be aware that there are specific policies & procedures regarding summer access to Westlaw & Lexis.

Westlaw
Law student access in June and July goes down to two hours per month unless you apply for an extension. Extensions are permitted if you are taking summer law classes, doing law review and journal work, working on a project for a professor, participating in moot court or doing an unpaid non-profit public interest internship/externship or pro bono work required for graduation.

Graduating students are also given the option to extend their password. Extension allows graduating students 10 hours of additional access on their current password in June and July for bar exam preparation.

Use this link to the sign-on home page of lawschool.westlaw.com--Once you enter your password, you will be directed to the extension page.

Lexis
Students and faculty may use their LexisNexis Law School Educational ID only for academic purposes. Academic purposes" include, but are not limited to:

• class preparation and assignments
• research associated with moot court or law review/law journal
• research associated with pursuing a grant or scholarship
• service as a research assistant to a professor (either paid or unpaid)
• an unpaid internship, externship or clinic position for school credit
• clerkship for credit
• bar review

"Academic purposes" do not include research conducted for a law firm, corporation or other entity (other than a professor or law school) that is paying the student to conduct said research, or that is passing along the costs of said research to a third party. These are deemed "commercial purposes". As such, students’ access will be restricted to a limited menu of employment research related materials beginning June 1. These menu limitations will be lifted on August 1.

To sign up for summer access, go to the lexis law school home page and click on the rotating banner that advertises summer access. Fill out the form and you are all set.

Copyright & Education

Copyright laws are complex. University students and professors tend to assume that everything done in school is protected by the “fair use” doctrine. This may not be true, and the particular use of each work must be considered separately. There are a number of considerations applicable to copyright infringement. The following websites discuss the definition of “fair use”, among others, and should be reviewed in order to avoid copyright infringement in the university setting and elsewhere.

• United States Copyright Office Circular 1


• Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science Author - Joan M. Reitz


• University of Texas


• Ball State University


• Copyright Clearance Center

Open Access E-Books

Library users in Colorado now have access to tens of thousands of additional open-access digitized books and serials through the Prospector Library Catalog. The digitized items originate from the University of Michigan, a partner in the Google Books digitization project. Last year the University of Michigan made available bibliographic records for many of the out-of-copyright titles that Google digitized from its collections. The University then made available online files for each of the digitized works.

The bibliographic records were acquired and enhanced by librarians at the Auraria Library in Denver. After the records were loaded into Skyline, the Auraria Library online catalog, they were uploaded to Prospector, the union catalog of the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries. Now library patrons from across Colorado have access to the online books via the Prospector catalog. Except for the University of Michigan where the books originated, the Auraria Library was the first library in the nation to make these books available to its users.

There are over 105,000 digitized books and serials freely available in this initial phase of the project. They cover a broad range of topics in the humanities and sciences and are in many different languages. They represent the rich collections found at the University of Michigan and complement local collections held in Colorado libraries. Moreover, the books are "open-access," which means they are in the public domain either because they were published before 1923 or because they are a government publication and therefore not copyrighted.

Adapted From Prospector Press Release, April 10, 2009

Exalead Search Engine

Tired of using the standard search engines such as Google or Yahoo? Try Exalead instead!

Exalead, a newer search engine from France, was released on the Web in 2004. It currently offers the following types of searching: web searches from over eight billion pages for Web sites, Word documents, .pdf
files, etc. and image searches over two billion pages for photographs, illustrations, and icons.

Warning: multiple search terms are processed as an AND operation by default. (Adding more terms will more likely retrieve fewer results.) Prepare to launch a search by reviewing precise truncation and proximity search strategies in Web Search Features. Find images quickly by following search hints in Exalead Images Search Features Search Exalead exact phrases for more accuracy:

EXAMPLE: Type "Ruth Bader Ginsburg" in search box and click Web Search button.
Your Exalead result will include:
- Page title
- Keyword in context extract (or sometimes just a summary)
- Domain name
- File size
- Add to shortcuts link
- Thumbnail screenshot on the left
Click "Only recent results" link for current information. See "Narrow your search" options on the right for links to related materials. Change results display by clicking View icon for "show text only" or "show images and text view."

Personalize Exalead http://www.exalead.com/search search engine by creating shortcuts to your favorite Web sites now! Just click an "Add a shortcut" link and type a URL and/or title in the template. Your shortcuts will be saved and accessible anytime you log onto the same computer you use to create the shortcuts. Access your shortcuts from any Internet-connected computer in the world. Just click "create my account" and your shortcuts will be saved in account preferences.

Find Exalead in the Law Library's Web Research Links under Non-Legal > Search Engines > Exalead.

Oral Arguments

The Lawyering Process program is hosting live oral arguments for the Colorado Court of Appeals here at the Sturm College of Law on Thursday, April 9th from 4-5pm. Oral arguments in two cases will be heard before Judge Russell Carparelli, Judge Robert Hawthorne and Judge Diana Terry.

Student or staff id's are required to access the courtroom in Room 165. Space is limited so there will also be overflow rooms set up with a live feed of the proceedings. A reception follows in the Forum from 5-6:30pm. RSVP's are required for the reception.

This year's cases are DeHerrera v. EquityLink LLC and People v. Villaneuva. Briefs are posted on the LP website. The Reese Persuasive Writing Awards and Hartje Objective Writing Awards nominees are announced during the reception. Past award winners and photos of previous Judge's Day events provide some context for the event.

For a list of books and videos relating to oral arguments, see our earlier post.

Google Maps

Explore Web mapping applications and technologies with the Google Maps feature. Researchers with an Internet connection and supported Web Browser can use personal computers or mobile devices to find places, businesses, and get detailed directions on Google Maps at http://maps.google.com .

Before practicing the following searches, review the following links on Maps Help:
- Basics - Google Maps User Guide
- Learn the Basics
- Fix a Problem
- Learn More

1. Locate Colorado Court of Appeals in Denver with Google Maps
http://maps.google.com:
- Click "Learn more" link under search box and review search examples.
- Click inside search box, type Colorado Court of Appeals in Denver, and click Search Maps button.
- See left frame for results and right frame for an area map of Denver with red alpha icons showing locations.
- Double-click (A) Colorado Court of Appeals on left frame. See right frame for a dialog box over an area map with street address, zip code, Web address, a small photograph of location, and the following live links:
- Write a review
- More info
- Street view
- Get directions
- Search nearby
- Save to My Maps
- Send
- Edit
Click "Street view" link for a close-up of the Colorado Court of Appeals building and neighborhood. Practice map navigation techniques by:
- Clicking + or - links for zooming in or out.
- Moving cursor over a location and using mouse scroll button for zooming in or out.
- Double-clicking on a location to zoom in.
- Clicking the appropriate arrows to move the view north, south, east or west.
- Dragging the zoom slider up or down for zooming in or out.
Click "Print" button on top right of map or share this information by clicking "Send" or "Link" buttons.

2. Get detailed driving directions to Colorado Court of Appeals from Sturm College of Law (2255 E Evans Ave)
- From the Colorado Court of Appeals dialog box, click "Get directions" and select "To here" option near search box.
- Click in search box, type 2255 E Evans Ave, and click GO button.
- Check left frame for starting and ending addresses. Click "Add destination" link if you plan another stop along the way. And click "Show options" to include route restrictions.
- Set "by car" option and click "Get Directions" button.
- See left frame for detailed route entries. Click camera icon for each entry and follow pictures of the route on right frame by clicking white arrows.
- Click "Print" button on top right of area map or share by clicking "Send" or "Link" buttons.

3. Find a French restaurant on 8th in Denver and get walking directions from Colorado Court of Appeals.
- Return to Colorado Court of Appeals screen and click "Search nearby" in right frame dialog box.
- Click in search box, type French restaurant on 8th in Denver, and click GO button.
- On right frame dialog box, double-click (A) Le Central Affordable French Restaurant and click "Get directions" button.
- Note Colorado Court of Appeals information will default in search box as start address. Select "To here" option and click GO button.
- Check left frame for starting and ending addresses. And click "Add destination" if you plan another stop along the way. And click "Show options" to include route restrictions.
- Set "walking" option and click "Get Directions" button.
- On left frame, click camera icon for each entry and follow pictures of the route on right frame by clicking white arrows.
- Click "Print" button on top right of map or share by clicking "Send" or "Link" buttons.

Find Google Maps in the Web Research Links section of the Law Library's website under Non-Legal > Daily Life > Google Maps.