Law Librarians Head to Phoenix for CALIcon 2017!

Each year law librarians head to the Annual CALI Conference for law school computing to be involved in a national exchange of ideas, to network with leading academics, educators, institutional leaders, and technology professionals and to participate in discussions about the transformation of legal education through technology and innovation. In it’s 27th year, the conference takes place next week in Phoenix, Arizona with “The Changing Rhythm of Legal Education” as the theme. In just a few days our library will excitedly send off several members of our team to join in the conversations at CALI.

Law Librarians Jason Tubinis and Zanada Joyner will team up with I.T. Services Director Jim Henneberger to co-present “ Lawyer ≠ Luddite” along with Shannon Roddy and Khelani Clay of American University Washington College of Law for a weighty session on technological competency in the legal field with special focus on ABA model rule 1.1.

Outreach Services Librarian Endia Sowers Paige will be presenting “Social Media Jeopardy: Ethics Edition” discussing the advantages and pitfalls of social media for emerging and practicing attorney’s, and include audience participation on their own mobile devices.

Law Library Director Carol Watson will be co-presenting “Is it time to welcome our robot overlords?” with Georgia State University’s Kris Niedringhaus about artificial intelligence and it’s current and future roles in the legal industry including professional practice, IT management, research and instruction.

Visit the CALI conference website for a full list of this year’s speakers, and to get a taste of the types of presentations our librarians will be giving, watch the following playlist which includes some of their presentations from last year’s conference:

 

Lights, Camera, Café?

The law library will see two major projects this summer. The first is a lighting replacement project in the reading room. Over the years the reading room has become dimmer and dimmer. And although our lovely floor to ceiling windows shed tons of natural light, it can be much darker on cloudy and rainy days. A large scale lighting replacement project will solve this problem.

In the early 90’s, 40 of the existing 160 incandescent fixture/lamps were swapped out with 400 watt metal halide fixtures/lamps and the remaining were abandoned in place. This was done as an upgrade to the lighting in the space. However, the characteristics of metal halide lamps are such that once they reach 70-80 % of their estimated life, the lighting quality deteriorates significantly in terms of both luminosity and uniformity of color and distribution. Currently only those 40 of our 160 canisters are functional.

The second project you may have already noticed as library staff and student workers removed and shifted large amounts of books to completely clear a selection of shelving on the main floor. If you visited the main floor between April and May you couldn’t help but wonder what all those book trucks and boxes were for, and where all those volumes were going. Some of the bound periodicals were placed in boxes and “weeded” out since they are available in full image via Hein Online. Those volumes were then taken to the Athens-Clarke County Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM). The remaining volumes were then shifted to the shelves closer to the reading room tables to free up all shelving between the current water fountain and restrooms.

drawing of café-style seating

This summer the empty shelving will be removed completely and replaced by new ADA accessible restrooms, and ADA accessible water fountain, and café-style seating. The changes have a dual-purpose for both safety and improvement. The safety concerns arose from outdated switchgear equipment that was not up to code. The improved space will hopefully serve as a hub of group study for law students. The tables will be outfitted with power outlets as well as some large monitors.

During this construction the reading room will be noisier than usual, but it will remain accessible at all times. If construction becomes disruptive, the library staff encourage students and other visitors to take advantage of the law library annex which will remain noise-free throughout these two projects.

Animal Law Resources with Wendy Moore

Earlier this month the law library launched the pilot episode of a new podcast series, which will serve as an extension of the longstanding newsletter Amicus Briefs. In this pilot episode, the theme of which centered around animals and the rights and laws related to them, law librarian Wendy Moore shared excellent recommendations of library and other resources on the subject. In addition to being head of acquisitions here at the library she is also faculty advisor for UGA’s Speak Out for Species student organization.

As a follow up to the animals episode, we wanted to further share Wendy’s comprehensive list of resources in full so you can easily click through to the various organizations, websites, books and documentaries mentioned in the podcast. Her comments about the documentaries The Paw Project and A Dog Named Gucci were especially moving, so as an added bonus we have embedded these two movie trailers below. You can be certain that future episodes of the podcast will bring Wendy back to share more of her expertise in recommending library resources, so stay tuned!

Organizations focused on Animal Law:

• State Bar of Georgia, Animal Law Section
• Animal Law Source
• Ahimsa House
• Animal Legal Defense Fund
• Animal Law Resource Center
• Nonhuman Rights Project

Resources about Animal Law:

• Animal Law Seminar Research Guide (UGA Law Library)
• HeinOnline Animal Studies: Law, Welfare, and Rights: Includes titles from the Animal Legal Defense Fund and Animal Welfare Institute, focusing on the foundational laws pertaining to animals and follow the evolution of these rights to the present day. It includes philosophical books dating back to the 1800s, videos, periodicals, brochures, and more.
• Pet-Abuse.com: Searchable database of animal abuse cases from across the U.S.
• Animals & Politics Blog: Blog written by Mark Markarian, President of the Humane Society Legislative Fund
• ALDF’s Blog Focus on cases and statutes in the news pertaining to Animal Law
• USDA Animal Welfare: Division of the USDA responsible for monitoring and enforcing the Animal Welfare Act.  Earlier in 2017 the important USDA Animal Care Search Tool was deactivated on their website
• Illegal Wildlife Trade: International Affairs Division of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provides information and resources related to the illegal wildlife trade
• CITES – Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora: Information and resources related to CITES an international agreement between governments to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival

Books to learn more about Animal Law:

• Rattling the Cage: Toward Legal Rights for Animals by Steven Wise (2000)
• Animal Law: Welfare, Interests, and Rights by David S. Favre (2008)
• Animal Law in a Nutshell by Pamela D. Frasch, Katherine M. Hessler, Sonia S. Waisman (2016)
• Animal Law: Cases and Materials by Sonia S. Waisman, Pamela D. Frasch, Bruce A. Wagman (2014)
• Understanding Animal Law by Adam Karp (2016)
• International Illegal Trade in Wildlife: Threats and U.S. Policy (CRS Report) by Liana Sun Wyler & Pervaze A. Sheikh (2008)

Recent Documentary Films with an Animal Law focus

Companion animals: Dealing Dogs A Dog Named Gucci Madonna of the Mills Parrot Confidential The Paw Project Animals used as food: Cowspiracy End of the Line

Animals used as entertainment: Blackfish Lion Ark Wildlife/Conservation issues: Battle for the Elephants The Cove Racing Extinction Sharkwater

Featured Acquisition: The Unbanking of America

The Unbanking of America: How the New Middle Class Survives by Lisa Servon
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017
Basement HG2491 .S47 2017

An urgent, absorbing exposé–why Americans are fleeing our broken banking system in growing numbers, and how alternatives are rushing in to do what banks once did. What do an undocumented immigrant in the South Bronx, a high-net-worth entrepreneur, and a twenty-something graduate student have in common? All three are victims of our dysfunctional mainstream banking and credit system. Today nearly half of all Americans live from paycheck to paycheck, and income volatility has doubled over the past thirty years. Banks, with their high monthly fees and overdraft charges, are gouging their low- and middle-income customers while serving only the wealthiest Americans. Lisa Servon delivers a stunning indictment of America’s banks, together with eye-opening dispatches from inside a range of banking alternatives that have sprung up to fill the void. She works as a teller at RiteCheck, a check-cashing business in the South Bronx, and as a payday lender in Oakland. She looks closely at the workings of a tanda, an informal lending club. And she delivers engaging, hopeful portraits of the entrepreneurs reacting to the unbanking of America by designing systems to creatively serve.

For more highlights of the law library’s most recent purchases, visit: http://www.law.uga.edu/featured-acquisitions

Featured Acquisition: Free Speech Beyond Words

Free Speech Beyond Words: The Surprising Reach of the First Amendment by Mark V. Tushnet, Alan K. Chen, and Joseph Blocher
New York: New York University Press 2017
Balcony K3254 .T87 2017

The Supreme Court has unanimously held that Jackson Pollock’s paintings, Arnold Schöenberg’s music, and Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky” are “unquestionably shielded” by the First Amendment. Nonrepresentational art, instrumental music, and nonsense: all receive constitutional coverage under an amendment protecting “the freedom of speech,” even though none involves what we typically think of as speech-the use of words to convey meaning. As a legal matter, the Court’s conclusion is clearly correct, but its premises are murky, and they raise difficult questions about the possibilities and limitations of law and expression. Nonrepresentational art, instrumental music, and nonsense do not employ language in any traditional sense, and sometimes do not even involve the transmission of articulable ideas. How, then, can they be treated as “speech” for constitutional purposes? What does the difficulty of that question suggest for First Amendment law and theory? And can law resolve such inquiries without relying on aesthetics, ethics, and philosophy?

Comprehensive and compelling, this book represents a sustained effort to account, constitutionally, for these modes of “speech.” While it is firmly centered in debates about First Amendment issues, it addresses them in a novel way, using subject matter that is uniquely well suited to the task, and whose constitutional salience has been under-explored. Drawing on existing legal doctrine, aesthetics, and analytical philosophy, three celebrated law scholars show us how and why speech beyond words should be fundamental to our understanding of the First Amendment.

For more of the law library’s recent purchases, visit: http://www.law.uga.edu/featured-acquisitions

Amicus Briefs Podcast: Episode 0

The Alexander Campbell King Law Library has recorded its inaugural podcast in the law school’s new podcasting studio space! This podcast will serve as an extension of the library’s longstanding newsletter, Amicus Briefs. Law faculty member Christian Turner helped make the studio’s existence possible with a recent grant to renovate space in the library annex and fit it with audio and video recording equipment. Turner’s podcast with fellow faculty member Joseph Miller titled Oral Argument is also being recorded in the space.

Each episode will tackle a different topic and will serve as a platform for the University of Georgia School of Law’s students, faculty, and staff to discuss the issues they are passionate about and the events happening in our community.  Co-hosts Leslie Grove, our law school Web Developer, and Rachel Evans, Web Coordinator & Digital Media Specialist, will interview guests from all walks of life, urging them to share their personal interests and professional expertise. Each episode will also contain recommendations for library resources related to the theme.

 

Our test pilot episode focuses on animals and includes interviews with:

• International Law Librarian Anne Burnett who manages our newsletter’s Law Dawgs feature
• Law Faculty Lisa Milot who oversees AthensPets.net
• Acquisitions Law Librarian Wendy Moore who is faculty advisor to UGA’s Speak Out for Species
• 2L Deborah Yates of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund
• Alumni Alex Sklut whose staff position supervises our 30 plus student organizations
• Law Library Circulation Manager Marie Mize who helps prepare and promote stress busters during exams

Stay tuned for information about future episodes. If you would like to propose an episode topic, please send your suggestions to epaige@uga.edu.

Try these Stress Busters!

You are almost there! You can practically taste summer but before you can put your feet up and start working on your tan all you have to do is take your finals. No biggie. Whether you’ve been studying steadily all semester or you’re a chronic procrastinator, finals are a stressful time for everyone.

Lucky for you along with all of the wonderful Stress Busters at your disposal at the Georgia Law Library, I’ve decided to round up some of my favorite GIFs and videos for a relaxing break between study sessions.

Here is a satisfying video of chocolate masterpieces being made

Here’s another video of cake frosting, because you can never watch too many

For those who need motivation to write papers, check out  Written Kitten. It’s a website that rewards you with a new photo of a cute kitten for each 100 words you write.

There’s the classic Virtual Bubble Wrap

And if all else fails there’s this video of a corgi belly flop