Research Tip: Use an Index

Westlaw and LexisNexis are great resources for doing legal research. They have thousands of databases of full-text documents, including statutes, regulations, cases, and articles from law reviews and other legal periodicals.

But searching a full-text database can be time-consuming and frustrating. How many times have you run what seems like a very precise search in a full-text database of journals and law reviews, and ended up having to sort through hundreds of articles in which your search terms appear only in the footnotes.

One way to improve the relevance of your search results is to use a legal periodical index such as LegalTrac or WilsonWeb. Because these indexes typically search just the most important parts of articles, like the title and abstract, they are much more likely to retrieve articles you can use. You can use LegalTrac from any computer on the SIUC campus network, but you must be connected to the law-school network to use WilsonWeb.

Westlaw and LexisNexis also have legal-periodical indexes: both systems have Legal Resource Index, the database that LegalTrac searches, and Westlaw has Index to Legal Periodicals, the WilsonWeb database. The indexes link you to full-text articles available on the system you are using.

Indexes can save you time and improve the relevance of your search results. For more information see:

• Using WilsonWeb to Find Legal Articles;
• Using LegalTrac to Find Legal Articles.

Patrick Is Law Dog of the Week

This week's SIU Law Dog is Patrick, shown here when he was between 3 and 4 months old. Heidi Ramos, who works as a staff attorney with the Elderly Clinic and as project coordinator of the Self Help Clinic, adopted him in January '07, from PAWS in Anna. His full name is Prof. Patrick O'Grady, Esq. Patrick is proud of his diverse (breed) heritage. He likes going for long hikes in the Shawnee Forest but gets impatient when his human friends lose their way.

To see photos of all previous Law Dogs and Cats of the Week, visit our Gallery of SIU Law Dogs and Cats, which you can find under Related Links in the sidebar. See our Call for Photos for instructions on submitting your SIU Law Dog or Cat photo.

This Week's Featured Book

The Featured Book of the Week is Bioethical and Evolutionary Approaches to Medicine and the Law by W. Noel Keyes and published by the American Bar Association.

“Bioethical and Evolutionary Approaches to Medicine and the Law is a comprehensive, scholarly analysis of bioethics and the development of its standards. This book provides an explanatory forum of ideas and innovative solutions covering the major medical, legal, and ethical issues that we face in the 21st Century. Beginning with a history of how these ethical dilemmas originated and progressed, the author provides you with facts, analysis and case law that will help you understand these issues and further identify how we can face them…Bioethics is a multidisciplinary field of law and one that can not be ignored. Bioethical and Evolutionary Approaches to Medicine and the Law provides you with timely analysis to help you understand current ethical issues in legal medicine, health law and policy, professional liability, hospital law, food and drug law, medical legal research and more.” - Book Description

Bioethical and Evolutionary Approaches to Medicine and the Law will be available to borrow after Friday, May 25, 2007

Gracie Is Law Dog of the Week

This week's SIU Law Dog is Gracie, a 1-1/2-year-old cocker spaniel who belongs to Akami Marik. Akami works in the Admissions Office. Gracie is full of energy, and she loves her toys, "Dingo" bones, and her chair. Click on the picture here to see more of Gracie.

To see photos of all previous Law Dogs and Cats of the Week, visit our Gallery of SIU Law Dogs and Cats, which you can find under Related Links in the sidebar. See our Call for Photos for instructions on submitting your SIU Law Dog or Cat photo.

Toby Is Law Dog of the Week

This week's SIU Law Dog is Toby, an American Cocker Spaniel who belongs to Rusty Allen. Susan Williams sent us this picture. She thinks that the sweet look on Toby's face is there to disguise any devious plans he is turning over in his mind. Click on the picture here to see a bigger picture.

To see photos of all previous Law Dogs and Cats of the Week, visit our Gallery of SIU Law Dogs and Cats, which you can find under Related Links in the sidebar. See our Call for Photos for instructions on submitting your SIU Law Dog or Cat photo.

Featured Book of the Week

The Featured Book of the Week is The Relationship Rights of Children by James G. Dwyer and published by Cambridge University Press.

“The book presents the first sustained theoretical analysis of what rights children should possess in connection with state decision making about their personal relationships which the state does in numerous aspects of family law, including paternity, adoption, custody and visitation, termination of parental rights, and grandparent visitation. It examines the nature and normative foundation of adults’ rights in connection with relationships among themselves and then assesses the extent to which the moral principles underlying adults’ rights apply also to children. It concludes that the law should ascribe to children rights equivalent (though not identical) to those which adults enjoy, and this would require substantial changes in the way the legal system treats children, including a reformation of the rules for establishing legal parent-child relationships at birth and of the rules for deciding whether to end a parent-child relationship.” - Book Description

The Relationship Rights of Children will be available to borrow after Friday, May 18, 2007.

Congratulations, Student Authors

The following SIU Law students had their articles published the winter 2007 issue of the Southern Illinois University Law Journal:

Justin Chasco, Comment, Judge Alberto Gonzales? The Attorney General's Power to Overturn Board of Immigration Appeals' Decisions

Natalie J. Kussart, Comment, Reporting Medical Errors: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Stephanie Lindsay, Note, Dirty Water on a Daily Basis: Friends of the Earth v. Environmental Protection Agency

Michelle Sanders, Note, To Serve and Protect? Supporting Police Inaction over Domestic Violence Victim Protection in Castle Rock v. Gonzales

Shelby Is Law Dog of the Week

This week's SIU Law Dog is Shelby, a Shetland Sheepdog who belongs to Caitlin King. Caitlin is a first-year SIU law student. Click on the photo here to see more of Shelby.

To see photos of all previous Law Dogs and Cats of the Week, visit our Gallery of SIU Law Dogs and Cats, which you can find under Related Links in the sidebar. See our Call for Photos for instructions on submitting your SIU Law Dog or Cat photo.

This Week's Featured Book

The Featured Book of the Week is Gypsy Law: Romani Legal Traditions and Culture edited by Walter O. Weyrauch and published by the University of California Press.

“Approximately one thousand years ago Gypsies, or Roma, left their native India. Today Gypsies can be found in countries throughout the world, their distinct culture still intact in spite of the intense persecution they have endured. This authoritative collection brings together leading Gypsy and non-Gypsy scholars to examine the Romani legal system, an autonomous body of law based on an oral tradition and existing alongside dominant national legal networks. For centuries the Roma have survived by using defensive strategies, especially the absolute exclusion of gadje (non-Gypsies) from their private lives, their values, and information about Romani language and social institutions. Sexuality, gender, and the body are fundamental to Gypsy law, with rules that govern being pure (vujo) or impure (marime). Women play an important role in maintaining legal customs, having the power to sanction and to contaminate, but they are not directly involved in legal proceedings. These essays offer a comparative perspective on Romani legal procedures and identity, including topics such as the United States' criminalization of many aspects of Gypsy law, parallels between Jewish and Gypsy law, and legal distinctions between Romani communities. The contributors raise broad theoretical questions that transcend the specific Gypsy context and offer important insights into understanding oral legal traditions. Together they suggest a theoretical framework for explaining the coexistence of formal and informal law within a single legal system…” - Book Description

Gypsy Law will be available to borrow after Friday, May 11, 2007

The ABA now has iPod-compatible CLE programs

This is great! About a month ago, I finished writing an article on Podcasts and Podcasting for Law Librarians, which will appear in the August issue of Law Library Journal. I mentioned that not many CLE providers were making their programs available in MP3 formats, which can be played on portable audio devices. Today I discovered that the ABA offers several portable CLE options.

ABA-CLE programs are available:

• on an iPod nano or video iPod preloaded with programming in selected practice areas;
• as audio or video downloads in MP3 and MP4 format;
• and as part of the monthly ABA-CLE Podcast series.

The ABA-CLE Podcasts series programs are complimentary. Program materials can also be downloaded for all types of programs.