Thursday, June 30, 2005

Changes to LexisNexis Passwords

LexisNexis has made some important changes in their passwords (mainly because of the recent id thefts that have caused problems for LexisNexis and their associated companies). (For more information see the posting from Lexis below). Beginning June 29, 2005, if you have not already created a custom LexisNexis id and password, you will need to do so in order to access LexisNexis. To do this:

1) Go to the LexisNexis ID activation page
2) Choose the option beginning with “Returning law school students/faculty members:”
3) Indicate that you are faculty or a student
4) Type your LexisNexis 7-Character ID
5) Click on next.
6) You will be asked to create a custom Lexis id and password.

Note these restrictions on the custom id’s and passwords:

When creating your custom ID, remember the following:

1. The ID must consist of 6 to 25 characters, with at least one letter (a, b, c, etc.,) in it.
2. Only these four special characters: @ (at sign), _ (underscore), . (period) or - (hyphen) are permitted; do not use spaces.
3. The ID must be unique from other LexisNexis services' custom IDs or LexisNexis-assigned IDs.
4. Do not use LexisNexis product names (Lexis, Nexis, etc.,) or offensive language as a custom ID.
5. Your name (first, last, or first-and-last) cannot be used alone as a custom ID.

When creating a password for your custom ID, remember the following:

1. The password must consist of 6 to 50 characters.
2. Only these four special characters: @ (at sign), _ (underscore), . (period) or - (hyphen) are permitted; do not use spaces.
3. The password must be unique from your custom ID and all other LexisNexis IDs. 4. Do not use any LexisNexis ID in reverse order as a password.
5. Do not use LexisNexis product names (Lexis, Nexis, etc.,) or offensive language as a password.
6. Your name (first, last, or first-and-last) cannot be used alone as a password.


7) You will also need to update your registration including name and e-mail address.
8) Once you’ve submitted your updated registration (with custom id and password), you should be able to access Lexis.

Please see a librarian if you have any questions. Unfortunately, LexisNexis sprang these new procedures on Law Schools without advance notice.

(LexisNexis Posting-June 29, 2005)
“LexisNexis understands the responsibilities associated with safeguarding personal information about consumers and is implementing a customer security program for all customers. As part of these efforts, LexisNexis is implementing several ID policy changes specifically for law school customers that will go into effect today, June 29th.

First, to reduce opportunities for access to the LexisNexis services by other than authorized users, all law school IDs (student, librarian, faculty, and staff IDs) that have not been used during the 12 months will be deactivated today.

Also effective today, each current law school customer (students, librarians, faculty, and staff) will be required to register his/her 7-digit lexis.com ID and create a custom ID and password that will be used to access the LexisNexis services:

* Second and third year students and faculty members who have not already created a custom ID and password will stepped through the process of doing so when they first access the LexisNexis services on or after today (June 29th).

Those students, librarians, faculty and staff members who have already created a custom ID and password will not be affected by the above changes. However, they must use their custom IDs and passwords to access the LexisNexis services.

Please also be aware that for security reasons, LexisNexis sales representatives, Customer Support, and the main contacts at your schools will not have the ability to obtain or view any customer passwords. Law School customers that need password assistance can use the "Forgot Password" link on the Law School Home Page, or call customer Support. If you have any questions regarding our new law school ID policy, please contact your LexisNexis Account Representative or call Customer Support at 1-800-45-LEXIS."

Friday, June 24, 2005

Research Tip: HeinOnline, Secret Resource in the Law Library

Did you know that HeinOnline has law journals, the Federal Register, U.S. Attorney General Opinions, Treaties and Agreements, and U.S. Supreme Court cases online?


Not impressed yet? Here's what's special about HeinOnline.


All of the documents provide exact page images — which means you can view and print exact copies of how the documents looked in print. So you get all the charts, graphs, photos, and other images that online systems frequently leave out. And if you need to see the original document, for a law journal cite check, e.g., a printout from HeinOnline looks like a photocopy from a book or microfiche.


Also, for most publications, HeinOnline provides coverage from the first volume. So if you are looking for a law journal article or a Federal Register issue that pre-dates the coverage on your favorite online system, you can probably find it.


How can you connect to HeinOnline? If you search the library catalog for a title and see


Click on the following to: Connect to Hein-On-Line electronic text

you can click on that link to go directly to the HeinOnline version of the title.


Research Starting Points drop-down menu


From the SIU Law Library home page, use the Research Starting Points drop-down menu to choose HeinOnline. You can find a complete list of electronic resources to which the library subscribes by clicking on Subscription Electronic Resources on the home page. HeinOnline is available to anyone on SIU's Carbondale campus, including SIUC dial-up and VPN.


 


Okay, it wasn't really a secret. But a lot of people don't know about HeinOnline. Now you do.


Archive of Research Tips

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Blogging for Lawyers

Whenever we talk about blogs in Advanced Electronic Legal Research class, some bright student asks about the legal issues of lawyers blogging. Because blogs are a relatively new medium, the law is still developing, and it seems that the legal issues of lawyer blogging change every semester.


Blogs as lawyer advertising, subject to regulation by a state bar association, is the current hot legal topic for lawyer bloggers. The Kentucky Attorneys' Advertising Commission is considering whether lawyer blogs are advertising. Like many questions about law, it appears that the answer will be "It depends." See "Is a Lawyer's Blog an Ad?" from the ABA Journal's eReport of June 17, 2005. Thanks to the professor who forwarded this article to me.


Of course there are many other legal issues that apply to bloggers in general. Copyright, defamation, and First Amendment issues are just some of the issues that bloggers should keep in mind. But how can you possibly stay on top of all these issues if the law is always changing? One place to start is the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Legal Guide for Bloggers. It may not answer all your questions, but it will at least help you figure out what your questions should be.

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Reminder: Summer Access to CALR

Rising 2L & 3L Law Student CALR 2005 summer access:

SIU Law Students have the option of extending full access to LexisNexis and/or Westlaw over the summer if they meet one or more of the following criteria (see web sites for specific restrictions):
  • enrolled in summer law school
  • on law journal or moot court
  • working as a research assistant for a law faculty member
  • working at an unpaid internship or externship or Non-Profit externship (LexisNexis only)
  • performing Unpaid non-profit public interest internship/externship or pro bono work required for graduation (Westlaw only)
To Register:

Westlaw:
http://lawschool.westlaw.com/registration/summerextension.asp

LexisNexis:
http://web.lexis.com/lawschoolreg/default.asp

For those continuing students not enrolled in summer law school (or qualifying under the categories above for full LexisNexis or Westlaw access) full access passwords expire May 31, 2005, and will resume August 15, 2005.

Remember that rising 2Ls and 3Ls can use Loislaw this summer without the usual educational restrictions. See a reference librarian for the registration code if you need to register.

See http://www.law.siu.edu/lawlib/news/summercalr.htm for access possibilities for Graduating 3L's.