Survey Roundup

This article compiles the results reported from informal surveys circulated via the ALL-SIS listserv from January to mid-May 2010. Questions posed via the forum which received minimal response or which sought qualitative or narrative responses that could not be readily quantified have been omitted.

Legal Research Teaching & Materials

Question:  Examples for teaching use of legislative history in cases
Summary:  9 responses –

• Cutter v. Wilkinson, 544 U.S. 709 (2005);
• Flores Figueroa v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S. Ct. 1886, 173 L. Ed. 2d 853 (2009) (aggravated identity theft case using House report, with concurrence rejecting reliance on legislative history); cf. United States v. Villanueva-Sotelo, 515 F.3d 1234 (2008) (lower court reliance on legislative history of same statute);
• Alaska Sport Fishing Ass’n v. Exxon Corp., 34 F.3d 769 (9th Cir. 1994);
• Stephen Breyer, On the Uses of Legislative History in Interpreting Statutes, 65 S. Cal. L. Rev. 845 (1992) (numerous examples, such as “drafting error,” citing United States v. Falvey, 676 F.2d 871 (1st Cir. 1982));
• United States v. Gonzales, 520 U.S. 1 (1997) (concurrent state and federal sentences);
• Wallace v. Jaffries, 472 U.S. 38 (1985) (Alabama moment of prayer case, relying on newspaper article to determine law had religious purpose);
• Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186, 210 (2003 (relying on House and Senate Reports to conclude Congress did not intend to make copyright unlimited);
• Ninth Ave. Remedial Group v. Chalmers, 946 F. Supp. 651 (N.D. Ind. 1996);
• United States v. Milk, 281 F.3d 762 (8th Cir. 2002) (whether “tribal housing authority” was within statutory meaning of “public housing authority” as used in 21 U.S.C. §§ 860 and 841(a)(1), where P.L. 103-322 specifically included Indian housing authorities within the definition of “public housing agency,” but P.L 104-330 deleted clarifying phrase).

Source:  Shaun Esposito, Head of Public Services and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Legal Research at University of Arizona College of Law Library
Posted April 22, 2010.  Subject:  Seeking Recent Example of Court’s Use of Federal Legislative History--UPDATE

Question:  Law schools with distance education/online courses
Summary:  Large but unspecified number requests for information resulted in posting of Survey of Distance Education Opportunities Available in American Law Schools, conducted by the Reference Department at the Fordham Law School Library, Fall 2009 (subsequently updated based on new information provided about online substantive law courses in response to posting), at http://lawlib1.lawnet.fordham.edu/pdf/distance_ed.pdf.

Source:  Karin Johnsrud, Head of Reference at Fordham Law School Library, in response to question posed by Prano Amjadi, Director of Public Services at Santa Clara University Law Library
Posted February 4, 2010. Subject:  Survey of Online and distance learning programs

Faculty/Student Services & Programs

Question:  Scheduling software for meetings or classrooms
Summary:  9 responses –

• AppointLink (1 response)
• Appointment Plus (2 responses);
• Meeting Room Manager from NetSimplicity (2 responses;)
• Resource Scheduler (1 response);
• MySignUp.com (1 response);
• Open source packages proposed (2 responses):
• MRBS (information and downloads via SourceForge) (2 responses);
• PHPScheduleit! (downloads via SourceForge) (1 response).
• Narrative descriptions of functionality, user response, etc., and links to interface sites included in source posting.

Source:  Pamela Melton, Associate Director for Administration at Coleman Karesh Law Library, University of South Carolina School of Law.
Posted March 18, 2010. Subject:  scheduling software results
(Additional information posted by Yolonda P. Harrison, Assistant Professor & Reference/Electronic Resources Law Librarian at Seton Hall University School of Law Library, on March 18, 2010. Subject:  re:  scheduling software results)

Collection Management & Cataloging

Question:  Managing password (non-IP address based) access to electronic resources
Summary:  16 responses [as tabulated by compiler] –

• Only IP-authenticated resources are offered (no resources requiring additional password):  1;
• Access information available to law school or university affiliates only via centralized, password-protected site:  5;
• Catalog record refers patron to service desk access where information is available:  12:
• Staff performs searches for patron (mediated searching):  2;
• Staff logs in patron without revealing password (mediated login):  3;
• Also mentioned web site listing that refers patron to service desk:  7.
• Also mentioned preference for IP-authenticated and/or off-campus proxy server access for faculty and students:  5.
• Narrative descriptions included in source posting.

Source:  Colleen Ostiguy, Electronic Services Librarian at Albany Law School Library
Posted January 28, 2010. Subject:  Responses:  Patron access to password protected materials

Question:  Cancelling state codes in print
Summary:  17 responses –

• Cancelled at least some state codes:  6;
• Current subscriptions to all state codes:  5;
• Bluebook is driving some decisions not to cancel codes (and wish the Bluebook would address these issues):  7;
• Using ILL to fill the gap:  9;
• Full narrative responses (including one suggestion for how to comply with Bluebook citation rule without referring to print code) in source posting.

Source:  Stephanie Midkiff, Law Reference Librarian at University of Oregon Law Library
Posted February 12, 2010. Subject:  Cancelled State Codes Responses

New Publications, Resources & Technologies

Question:  Law school strategic plans available online
Summary:  (Searched law school websites on January 7, 2010; last viewed May 15, 2010)

• University of Baltimore - http://law.ubalt.edu/template.cfm?page=7
• Capital University - www.law.capital.edu/About/StrategicPlan.asp
• University of Cincinnati - www.law.uc.edu/about/plan/
• University of Colorado - www.colorado.edu/law/about/completeStrategicPlan.pdf
• University of Denver - http://law.du.edu/documents/about/SCOL-Strategic-PlanFinal.pdf
• Drake - www.law.drake.edu/alumni/docs/strategicPlan2004.pdf
• University of Elon - www.elon.edu/e-web/administration/president/new_century/
• University of Georgia - www.uga.edu/strategicplanning/part4/law.html
• University of Houston - www.law.uh.edu/news/additional/StrategicPlan.pdf
• University of Indiana (Bloomington) - www.law.indiana.edu/about/doc/strategic_plan.pdf
• Northwestern University - www.law.northwestern.edu/difference/strategicplan.html
• Process - www.law.northwestern.edu/difference/strategic.html
• University of South Carolina - http://law.sc.edu/administration/strategic_plan/
• Thomas Cooley - www.cooley.edu/overview/strategic_planindex.htm
• University of Wisconsin - www.law.wisc.edu/about/strategic-planning.html
• York University - www.osgoode.yorku.ca/about/documents/plan_for_the_law_school_2006-2010.pdf

Source:  Ellen Platt, Senior Reference Librarian at Santa Clara University Law Library
Posted February 5, 2010. Subject:  Final list of online strategic plans