August’s Law Dawg is Phineas. He moved here from Long Island to go to law school with 2L Nasreena Ali. Phineas is a 3 y.o. rescue from Nepal. He is considered a Pye Dog, which is a typical “mutt” from South-Asian countries. His favorite activities include eating, sleeping and barking during cold calls (which Nasreena doesn’t mind that much).
A true law dawg.
Good boy, Phineas!
All members of the Law School Community (students, faculty and staff) are invited to submit a photo for possible selection as the Law Dawg. Please note that honorary #lawdawgs (i.e. those of the feline, equine, porcine, avian, reptilian, etc. persuasion) are eligible as well.
This week is the annual meeting and conference of the American Association of Law Libraries! Our librarians are excited to attend, and several are even presenting various times throughout the conference. It wasn’t that long ago that we were eagerly anticipating the conference to hear if their photo submissions were selected for awards in what used to be the annual “Day in the Life of the Law Library Community” contest for AALL. Until this contest was discontinued, for several years in a row UGA Law Library was recognized in multiple categories for their library/librarian photographs. All of the award-winning photos are stored in the library’s archives and special collections today. The images are important historic landmarks for the library because they serve as snapshots of individuals who worked here including their personalities at a specific moment in time. They also illustrate the technologies, services, and types of events our librarians used to connect with law students and the law school community. Below you will find a selection of a few of our favorites ranging in date from 2008 to 2011.
2008 Winners
It’s all about the students, 2008
On the outside looking in, 2009
“It’s all about the students” taken by Bob Brussack this view of the Carl Sanders reading room was awarded second place in the category “The artistry of librarianship” and second place “Best overall”.
2009 Winners
“On the outside looking in” taken by Leslie Grove this photograph shows the window view of law librarian Sharon Bradley delivering a lunch-n-learn in one of the law school’s classrooms and was awarded third place in the category “Librarians as teachers and trainers”.
Cask of Amontillado, 2009
“Cask of Amontillado with apologies to Edgar Allen Poe” taken by Sharon Bradley was awarded first place in the category “Most humorous” depicting an unidentified but no doubt undeserving librarian begs for mercy as LLM candidate Jerzy Bohdanowicz walls him behind 300 boxes that will someday be shipped to another library.
2011 Winners
“RSS Man” taken by Anne Burnett features Information Technology Librarian Jason Tubinis expounding upon the finer points of RSS at a Law Library lunch-n-learn for law students. It was awarded second place in the category “Librarians as teachers and trainers”.
QR 4 U, 2011
“QR 4 U” taken by Carol Watson featuring Information Technology Librarian Jason Tubinis using a QR scanner to listen to a description of Corpus Juris Secundum. This photo was awarded second place in the category “Librarians as trailblazers in new technology”.
“Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as ‘Juneteenth,’ by the newly freed people in Texas.” – from the Smithsonian
You already may have seen the news that S.475, the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, unanimously passed in the Senate earlier this week and passed in the House 415-14. The legislation designates June 19th as an annual federal holiday. At 3:30pm today, President Biden is scheduled to sign the bill. You can watch the signing ceremony live here.
“Juneteenth” by TJ Gehling is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Below are links to local in-person and virtual opportunities to celebrate Juneteenth this weekend:
It’s summer, and many of us are finding more time to read for pleasure now that the school year is over. Here are some titles we’ve picked up recently:
Crash / The Shadow Over Innsmouth / Welcome to Night Vale I often have a few books going at once. I started reading J.G. Ballard’s “Crash” a few months ago and I’m loving it, but the themes and imagery are so intense that I often must take a break. That’s where the collection of short fiction by H.P. Lovecraft comes in, and I find these stories to be mind-bendy and horrific in a completely unrealistic way that makes them easier to consume than a novel about people with a very, er, particular interest in car crashes. “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” is my favorite so far. I recently acquired the “Welcome to Night Vale” novel through the main library’s GIL Express service since UGA’s copy wasn’t available. I’ve always been curious about the podcast but there 150 episodes and I just don’t have the time for that. It’s about a spooky town with much more of a “Northern Exposure” vibe than a Twin Peaks one by far, and I like that. -Rashaun Ellis
Spontaneous Particulars: The Telepathy of Archives In this short collection of essay, poetry and archival photocopies Howe revels on the physicality of research. From various collections she has purged examples of great authors to gather and weave a tapestry of all sorts of interesting oddments. Scribbles on envelopes and prescription cards, pictorial embroidered textiles, and even Howe’s own graphically abstract layout of word and sentence fragments. She works in definitions like the origins of “text”, charming stories about Emily Dickinson and her dictionary, and as Howe so eloquently phrased it, “the experience between… what was and what is.” If you too are fond of libraries, archives and the magical secret connections one can unravel when rummaging through a box of renowned writer fragments, you will fall in love with this book too. -Rachel Evans
The Jasmine Throne It just came out on June 8. It’s book 1 of The Burning Kingdoms series. When I read for pleasure I want to get as far away from the law as possible. A South Asian-inspired fantasy/romance is just what I was looking for. And I just found out the author’s day job is librarian, so it’s perfect. From the publisher’s website: Exiled by her despotic brother, princess Malini spends her days dreaming of vengeance while imprisoned in the Hirana: an ancient cliffside temple that was once the revered source of the magical deathless waters but is now little more than a decaying ruin. The secrets of the Hirana call to Priya. But in order to keep the truth of her past safely hidden, she works as a servant in the loathed regent’s household, biting her tongue and cleaning Malini’s chambers. But when Malini witnesses Priya’s true nature, their destines become irrevocably tangled. -Heather Simmons
Unequal Profession / Anthropocene Reviewed / An Unexpected Peril I always have several books on the go, so the first picture is the three books I’m reading right now. Unequal Profession by Meera Deo is a groundbreaking empirical study in how women, people of color, and particularly women of color experience work as a law professor. The Anthropocene Reviewed is a New York Times bestselling new release by young adult author and vlogger John Green. Unlike his previous works, this book is autobiographical, and Green discusses his life, mental illness, and living through the pandemic via short, lyrical reviews of mundane objects like velociraptors, the internet, and Diet Dr. Pepper. Finally, An Unexpected Peril by Deanna Rayborn is the most recent book in the Veronica Speedwell mystery series, where a pair of Victorian natural historians solve murders. In this entry to the series, our pair investigates the murder of a female mountaineer and the possibly related disappearance of the princess of a small (fictional) European mountain country. -Savanna Nolan
The Maidens I’m looking forward to reading The Maidens by Alex Michaelides. It’s a perfect combo of my lifetime love of British murder mysteries and my recent obsession with Greece. The NYT describes it as a “bookish thriller with stunning backdrops,” set in Cambridge University and the Aegean, and with clues in ancient Greek. It’s not out for a few more days (that’s a facsimile in the photo) and I cannot wait! -Anne Burnett
Do Not Sell at Any Price. Not being a very avid fan of the blues (heresy I know) I was not optimistic about liking it, but it drew me in from the first with its piercing cultural observations about collecting and the psychology of collecting, and exposition of the service that collectors of old records perform for all of us. It’s actually helped me to better understand some of the music I do like and why I like it. In the penultimate chapter she talks to a few developmental experts, and reaches some profound conclusions about what shapes us as individuals. -Dan Riggs
It’s June and that means it’s Gay Pride Month! Stop by the Library Foyer to check out our Pride Month book & DVD display! Through UGA Libraries, we all have access to Kanopy streaming, including a fantastic selection of documentaries and their 20 films to celebrate Pride Month, like Stonewall Uprising. Specific titles we also recommend from UGA’s media desk, including many feature films from the Criterion Collection, are available for checkout by all faculty, staff and students:
Many cities are having live Pride Events again in 2021! Some are in June, the traditional month for Pride. June is the month because it commemorates the night that the gay, lesbian, and drag patrons of the Stonewall Inn bar in Greenwich Village in New York City fought back against the police when they tried to raid the bar on the night of June 28th, 1969. The first Pride March was held the following year on the same date and went from Greenwich Village to Central Park. If you would like to learn more about Pride Month and LGBTQ+ history, visit our visual timeline for important milestones ranging from 1867 to 2015.
Some cities have chosen other dates for their Pride Celebrations due to changing weather conditions since the 1970s and in order not to conflict with the many other Pride Celebrations around the country. Here are the ones in Georgia for 2021!
June’s Law Dawg is Mozzie, a 3-1/2 y.o. goldendoodle whose person is just-graduated Melina Gunby. Mozzie’s best friend is Melina’s cat Ophi, who is a little camera shy. In the evenings you can catch Mozzie either running at a full sprint after a tennis ball or snuggling with Melina or her dad. She’s always loved swimming in the rivers and lakes of North Georgia and is looking forward to becoming a beach bum in Jacksonville!
All members of the Law School Community (students, faculty and staff) are invited to submit a photo for possible selection as the Law Dawg. Please note that honorary Law Dawgs (i.e. those of the feline, equine, porcine, avian, reptilian, etc. persuasion) are eligible as well.
May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month! This celebration is also called Asian American and Pacific Islander Month. In the law library and around the law school we are honored to highlight our own earliest graduates who share this heritage. In 1972 the first Chinese-American and the first Native Hawaiian / Japanese-American law students graduated in the same class of UGA School of Law.
Ted Chao, 3L in 1972
Theodore C.H. Chao was the law school’s first Chinese-American graduate. According to the Museum of Chinese in America, his mother Mae Chun Eng was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1918. She spent her adolescence in the United States, but moved to China at age 12. She later returned to the U.S. to finish high school where she went to university, receiving her master’s degree in 1946 from Columbia University. While at Columbia, she was an active member in the Chinese Students Association and met Hsio Ho Chao (b. 1913, Zhejiang, China).
A rare photo of Mae, Ted, and Ho all together in Hong Kong, 1949, shortly before their separation; Courtesy of MOCA.
The two were married in Shanghai and had a son, Theodore “Ted” Chao, the next year. In 1949, Mae and their son moved back to Virginia. Although the couple hoped they would reunite soon, Ho and Mae were separated for many years. As a female U.S. citizen, Mae was unable to sponsor her husband in the States, and the rapid and uncertain change in China and Ho’s shipping career following the Communist takeover made it difficult for her to return to China. Throughout their separation, Ho and Mae sent letters and photographs back and forth as often as every few days, a selection of which Ted donated. Watch a 15 minute oral history of Chao via the Museum of Chinese in America Oral History Archive “Journey Wall”. And read the story of Mae Eng Chao and Hsio Ho Chao among their online collections.
Although Chao and Goto are among our school’s firsts, they are by no means alone in breaking barriers for Asian/Pacific Islander’s in our nation’s history. According to Census.gov’s Facts and Features site, Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week was established in 1978 by a joint congressional resolution. Originally, it was the first 10 days of May that were chosen to coincide with two very important milestones in Asian/Pacific American history:
the arrival in the United States of the first Japanese immigrants (May 7, 1843), and
contributions of Chinese workers to the building of the transcontinental railroad, completed May 10, 1869.
Then in 1992, this observance was expanded to a month-long celebration by Congress that is now known as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Later on, in 1997 a U.S. Office of Management and Budget directive separated the Asian or Pacific Islander racial categories into two: the first being Asian and the second including Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander. Using these distinctions, the Census Facts for Features page estimates that were are 22.9 million Asian alone-or-in-combination residents and 1.6 million Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone-or-in-combination residents of the United States (data as of 2019). Of that number, the Library of Congress APA Heritage Site shares that there are more than 300,000 living Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander American veterans!
Today we have a very active Asian Law Students Association at the law school. We invite you to learn more about American Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage this month, and to visit the law school’s exhibit if you are on campus, or virtually if you are unable to stop by in person.
Wherever this summer takes you, we hope you will continue to rely on the Law Library for your legal research needs! You can see our summer hours here. Our Reference Desk continues to be available to you virtually Monday through Friday, 9am until 5pm, via email, phone, and chat:
All three major legal research services are providing some form of summer access for rising 2Ls and 3LS, along with continuing access for graduating law students. Representatives from Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg each provide the details here:
Westlaw
You can use Thomson Reuters products, including Westlaw and Practical Law, over the summer for non-commercial research. You can turn to these resources to gain understanding and build confidence in your research skills, but you cannot use them in situations where you are directly billing a client. Examples of permissible uses for your academic password include the following but not limited to:
Summer coursework
Research assistant assignments
Law Review or Journal research
Moot Court research or any academic competition
Non-Profit work
Clinical work
Externship/Internship sponsored by the school
Practicing your research skills
You do not have to do anything to gain access to these tools over the summer. If you have any questions, please contact Sue Moore, your Thomson Reuters Academic Account Manager, at sue.moore@tr.com.
May 2021 Graduates will see grad access info when they sign on to lawschool.tr.com-their access is “normal” until May 31. Starting June 1-Nov 30 they will have 60 hours of usage per month for 6 months. Direct link to extend for grad access is https://lawschool.westlaw.com/authentication/gradelite.
Lexis
Current Students
Students automatically receive access to Lexis+ with their law school IDs during the summer – May, June, and July. Students do not have to take any action to gain access. Their law school IDs can be used for any purpose over the summer, but students should check with their employers first. Some employers would rather students use their firm IDs rather than their law school IDs for billing purposes.
Graduating Students
May 2021 graduates will continue to have access to Lexis+ (except for Public Records) through the end of the calendar year. They need to redeem their LexisNexis Rewards Points by June 30.
If you have any questions, you may contact Adam Masarek, our Lexis Account Manager, at adam.masarek@lexisnexis.com.
Bloomberg Law
Students are able to use BLAW in any capacity during the summer (work, academic, personal). For work, students should check with their firms to ensure that they don’t mind using a student account. Some firms prefer that they set up firm accounts. Graduates will have access for 6 months after graduation.
If you have any questions, you may contact Vrenda Cain, our Bloomberg Law Account Manager, at vcain@bloombergindustry.com.
All of us at the Law Library hope you have a wonderful summer! To our graduating 3Ls, you will be missed! We are wishing you the best for your bar exam preparation. To our rising 2Ls and 3Ls, we very much look forward to welcoming you back in the fall!
The European Union typically celebrates Europe Day on May 9 with concerts and speeches and other physical gatherings commemorating the 1950 Schuman Declaration proposing consolidated European coal and steel industries, binding the member nations so closely together that renewed war would be unthinkable. The Schuman Declaration is considered to be the genesis of what is now the European Union of 27 Member States with a combined population of around a half billion people.
As in 2020, the EU’s Europe Day 2021 commemoration activities are all virtual. They span the week leading up to May 9.
The European Council and the Council of EU are both providing virtual tours of their facilities, Spotify playlists, interactive games and more on their joint Europe Day 2021 page.
The School of Law has a long history of programs abroad and courses focusing on the European Union, and the Law Library supports these programs with access to a rich collection of online and print resources. The library has served as a depository for official EU documents since the 1980s, with a special focus on EU legal documentation.
The Law Library was thoroughly represented at this year’s Southeastern American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting, which took place virtually March 17th through 19th.
The first UGA Law appearance was quite a surprise! For the last session on Day 1 of the conference, “Making Meetings Matter,” Joyce Manna Janto of University of Richmond and Carol Bredemeyer of Northern Kentucky University very patiently walked viewers through proper Zoom meeting etiquette and efficient group management . . . while our Wendy Moore and the Law Library of Louisiana’s Francis Norton proceeded to break all the rules!
After some mild chaos (including a call to Wendy from the SEAALL president) Joyce and Carol revealed that Wendy and Fran were plants highlighting what NOT to do—including side talking in the chat, not reading the agenda, and not being on time.
Day 2 of the conference went much more smoothly, with our Director TJ Striepe co-presenting “Navigating Covid-19 as a New Director” with Sara Gras of the University of the District of Columbia, Jennifer L. Wondracek of Capital University, and Austin Martin Williams of Georgetown University—all of whom have been named as law library directors or interim directors since March 2020. Day 3 was a big day for our librarians, beginning with Wendy and Director of the Law Library Emerita, Carol Watson, participating in an unofficial “SEAALL Leadership Edition” of The Moth, a storytelling podcast you may have heard on NPR. Carol has long connected leadership with the ability to inspire via storytelling, and she had been wanting to execute this panel for years.
Wendy told a lovely story about trying to lead a group of colleagues to go get tacos while attending a conference in Texas . . . only to have it turn into a multi-mile trek. Though Wendy was sure the restaurant would be on the next block, after getting into a cab the group realized it was actually still several miles away. Wendy related this to leadership and the ability to admit when you have made a miscalculation and need to ditch your original plan and regroup.
Geraldine Kalim and Rachel Evans then presented “Dapper Design: Using Infographics for Library Marketing and Institutional Data.” In this panel, they used absolutely incredible slide design and discussed how they use tools like Canva and Piktochart to create posters, social media posts, and other graphics to market the library. While creating a sign sounds easy, in order to communicate effectively you need to balance elements like typography, hierarchy, and color, and Geraldine and Rachel gave participants a great overview and plenty of resources to help them get started. Rachel also launched a poll about most hated fonts during the discussion, and SEAALL’s most hated fonts are as follows: (1) Comic Sans (2) Papyrus (3) Times New Roman (4) Courier New (5) Curlz.
At noon, Wendy and I presented with my former Georgetown colleague, Andrea Muto (now at the Department of Justice) about how we had gotten comfortable speaking up in public thanks to our past lives in performance. I spoke about my time at a boarding school where we learned circus arts and my clowning class in college, Wendy spoke about her time in theater and voice groups, and Andrea talked about her experiences with Toastmasters. While there isn’t a recording of this panel due to technical issues, you’re in luck! AALL has asked us for a repeat performance on June 16th at noon, and you can register now!
Last but not least, Amy Taylor and Jason Tubinis closed out the conference with a TED Talk titled “Our View from the Cupholder: the ‘Frenemy’ Approach to Collaborative Instruction.” In the summer of 2019, Amy and Jason began designing an all-online legal research course for the summer of 2020. This had been a goal for a while, since many of our students leave Athens for the summer, particularly to work in Atlanta. Then, of course, the pandemic hit and suddenly almost all classes became online classes. They discussed their planning process, class execution, and how their competitive working dynamic allowed them to have two equal professors, rather than a “lead” professor and “TA” professor, like many co-teaching arrangements become.
SEAALL is known for its dynamic and engaging programming, and I heartily encourage you to visit the University of Tennessee’s site to view the recordings available. While I’ve focused on the sessions involving UGA librarians, there are so many others, including excellent discussions about diversity initiatives in law libraries, Access to Justice, student stress, COVID, and pacing your instruction.
