Celebrate Law Day on Thursday, May 1st

Visit your libraries or find us online to celebrate Law Day on May 1st.

The Wisconsin State Law Library is presenting two short Google Hangouts on HeinOnline. At 10 a.m. get an overview of which Federal agency materials are available through this database. At noon learn quick tips to get the most out of the advanced search. Visit our Google+ page for the link to watch each Hangout live and catch up on the archived videos at our YouTube channel.

In Dane County, Law Day at the Courthouse features community mock trials and free pro se legal consultations from attorneys in the Dane County Legal Resource Center.

In Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee Bar Association will host free legal clinics around the city.

WSLL Recommends: Prosecution and Defense of Civil Forfeiture Cases

Prosecution and Defense of Civil Forfeiture Cases provides detailed coverage of the history and use of forfeiture as an economic crime-fighting tool by law enforcement. Author David B. Smith begins by examining the role of forfeiture in the United States, with an emphasis on legislation and case law since the 1970's.

Smith provides a hypothetical walk-through of a typical civil forfeiture case, including commencement of proceedings, pretrial proceedings, trial, and defenses. The nature and scope of criminal forfeiture is addressed in the second volume of this 2 volume looseleaf set. Some chapters include sample forms. While there is an emphasis on federal statutes and case law, state law is also included with special attention to New York, Florida and Texas statutes. A detailed index, table of cases, and table of statutes serve as finding tools.

Research Guides for Legal Problems

Without experience under your belt, it can be hard to know where to start on a new research endeavor. Library research guides can be a great place to start since they often tie together treatises, primary law sources, and internet resources in one place. We have created our own Start Here research guides to help you find books and other library materials on a given topic. Our Legal Topics area hosts guides to primarily free internet resources on around 400 topics. (We also include major books and articles). We link to several other library-created guides on our Legal Research Guides page.

Some popular guides from our Legal Research Guides page include:

• Legislative Source Book (Law Librarians Society of Washington DC)
  Federal administrative and legislative law research guides. Introductions to Federal legislative history research and primary law materials. 
• Researching Legislative History in Wisconsin (WI Legislative Reference Bureau)
• Restatements of the Law (Harvard Law School Library)
• Zimmerman's Research Guide (LexisNexis)
  Legal research encyclopedia.

LibGuides.com can be a great place to search for more library research guides. Over 4,000 libraries post their guides to this website. 

If you are having trouble getting started on your next research project, don't forget to Ask a Librarian for help!

Learn at Your Library

Did you know that we have a YouTube Channel? We post tutorials and tips there. Plus in May we'll be using our YouTube Channel and Google+ page to host two Google Hangouts on HeinOnline. 

On May 1st at 10 a.m. get an overview of which Federal agency materials are available through HeinOnline. At noon learn quick tips to get the most out of the advanced search. Visit our Google+ page for the link to watch each Hangout live and catch up on the archived videos at our YouTube channel.

All of our tutorials are linked off our Tutorials page on our website and include additional links and training materials. Contact the webmaster with suggestions for our next tutorial!

WestlawNext at the WI State Law Library

This morning as part of our National Library Week celebration we are hosting a class on using WestlawNext in the Wisconsin State Law Library (WSLL). We added WestlawNext access to our public computers a year ago. At the same time we set up wireless access to it from your personal mobile computers when you connect to the WSLL wifi.

Read our WestlawNext FAQ to get started. WestlawNext searches can start out resembling a Google search, with one keyword-friendly search box promoted as the primary search portal for all of Westlaw's databases, books, and collections.

Once you've done your search, check our tips for narrowing search results in WestlawNext. Filtering results is an easy way to narrow your search results to only the types of materials you want. For example, you can filter your search results down to just articles and books on Wisconsin law.

While today's class is full, you can always request that we offer the class again. Contact Heidi Yelk, Director of Reference, to request that a class be added to our schedule. 

Happy National Library Week!

This week is National Library Week. To celebrate we're featuring free CLE classes, an open house event, and free flower printable crafts on our website that you can use to brighten up your research space. Go to our National Library Week page to learn more. And follow this blog. We'll be posting all week about ways the library can help you to grow your legal research skills.

WSLL at Your Service: April 2014

Our April newsletter is now online. Learn about upcoming events at your three libraries - including CLE classes, National Library Week events, and Law Day activities. If you are a PACER user be sure to check out our article about keeping tabs on Federal dockets with PACER website tools.

Just announced today, we also have a special update you won't want to miss about a new collection in the library.