It’s that time of year again! The Law Library is hosting the 2nd Annual Trivia Night to kick-off National Library Week. You can find all of the information below, and if you have any questions, please contact Alyson Drake!
Author: alfergus
Historical Texas Statutes & Where to Find Them
One of the most common questions we get here at the Law Library is, “Where can I find historical statutes in Texas?” Historical statutes are notoriously tricky to find, and that can be frustrating. Here is a list of just some of the resources that are available to you that carry historical Texas statutes.
HeinOnline–The Law Library has a subscription to HeinOnline, so this resource is available to all Texas Tech Law students. There is an entire collection dedicated to historical state statutes. The Texas statutes go all the way back to 1838, but unfortunately the most recent statutes they have on file for Texas are from 1925.
Texas State Law Library–The Texas State Law Library website is a free resource for anyone to use, so this could be a useful resource even after you graduate from law school. The coverage of dates for the historical statutes in this collection range from 1879-1966. Besides historical statutes, this website has plenty of other valuable resources for you to use!
Westlaw–While Westlaw doesn’t have historical statutes dating back to the early 1900’s, they do have more recent statutes. For example, the Texas statutes range from 1987-present. To access the historical statutes on Westlaw, go to the State Materials tab and click on Texas.
Next, click on Texas Statutes & Court Rules.
Once you click this, look on the right hand side of the screen and you will see “Texas Statutes Annotated-Historical”; click there.
You will then be taken to all of the historical statutes that are available on Westlaw.
In the Library-Most law libraries in Texas will have copies of historical statutes in print. The Texas Tech Law Library has laws in our collection dating back to 1836. We have attorneys come in all the time wanting to know what a law said back in 1987. Since they don’t have access to Westlaw, the library is a great place for them to come! So even when you graduate, keep in mind that the library is a great resource.
Searching for historical statutes can be a daunting task. Hopefully these resources help, and if you require further assistance, the library and its wonderful librarians are always here to help!
Research Guide Series
With the Spring 2017 semester starting back up, it’s important to keep in mind all of the resources that the library has to offer! One of these resources are the Research Guide Series, also known as Libguides. The link to the Libguides can be found on the law library website under Research and Reference, titled “Research Guide Series” or by clicking on the link here.
The Libguides offer all sorts of instructional materials as well as helpful links and other resources that may help you throughout law school! There is a Student Services Libguide as well as a Faculty Services Libguide that outline our services to both groups and provides a ton of helpful information!
I would suggest that everyone go and take a look at our Libguides to see if there are any resources listed that can be helpful to you!
If you have any questions, please contact a Law Librarian for more information!
5 Ways to De-Stress After Finals
The semester is coming to a close and as everyone gets finished up with all of their final exams, here are just a few ideas on how you can relax once everything is turned in and finished!
- Celebrate!!!-You can celebrate being done with the semester many different ways. Go out for drinks with friends, do some kind of recreational activity (bowling, golf, hiking, etc.), or just go home and binge watch TV shows/movies while eating some delicious snacks. Anything that makes you happy, do it! Please be smart, and celebrate responsibly!
- Go See Family-Most of you will probably do this around the holidays regardless, but there’s nothing quite like seeing family after a semester of law school. They’ll be there to comfort you, make you nice meals, and just be there to help get your mind off of school work even if it’s just for a few weeks.
- Go On Vacation-What better way to de-stress than to forget all of your troubles and go somewhere different! For most, a grand vacation may not be financially possible, but even going somewhere reasonably close and just getting away from Lubbock for a weekend can be a good way to recharge!
- Read-I know that some of you may be tired of reading after the semester, but reading for pleasure is not only fun, but it can help keep your brain fresh so that you’re not completely out of it once the Spring semester starts back up again.
- Relax-This is probably the most important thing you can do. Some of you may be able to do this by doing any of the four previous options and that’s great! Just make sure to rest your brain and body after a long and arduous semester of law school.
New Collection Available on HeinOnline!
A new collection, Brennan Center for Justice Publications from NYU School of Law, is now available in HeinOnline. This collection includes more than 210 titles and 11,000 pages of material that is available through the Law School Library’s subscription.
The Brennan Center’s law and policy collection is largely written by attorneys and covers a variety of topics. The Center’s publications are nonpartisan; most works are stand-alone journal-length articles. Once a year, the Center publishes a book-length volume, Democracy and Justice: Collected Writings, which compiles excerpts from the year’s shorter scholarship and includes new material for that publication.
The Center’s collection undergoes rigorous review by other scholars and legal practitioners who are experts in the report’s field. In that way, the Brennan Center’s Scholarship is more scholarly than traditionally edited student law reviews.
Check out the collection here!
The Reporter 