In December 2022, the Law Library added the following new titles to the collection to support the research and curricular needs of our faculty and students.
All of these books are available from the Law Library. If you would like to check out any of these titles, please contact the circulation desk at either 806-742-3957 or circulation.law@ttu.edu. Library staff will be able to assist in locating and checking out any of these items.
These are times of tremendous change and stress for Americans. We are experiencing a pandemic that has crippled our economy as well as being in the midst of social unrest.
Diversity is one of ALA’s key commitments and guiding principles. For this reason, the Executive Board calls on library and information services leaders, staff, and advocates of all races and backgrounds to abolish racism against Black people and against all People of Color and to see to it that it has no place in our institutions, our policies, our practices, or our behaviors.
There are many places to contribute, provide help to protesters, and support the Black Lives Matter movement. Here are a few blogs that point to some places where you can help both locally and nationally.
One way to help support is by donating to bail funds. Here are some sites that suggest organizations that accept donations:
•Legal Observer Program on the national NLG’s website (a legal observer is someone who is observing and noting what is happening to document violence they see and if possible prevent violence by their presence)
•Law for Black Lives (provides opportunities for legal professionals to volunteer their services)
Even if you are unable to donate time or money, you can still be an advocate by learning more about the Black Lives Matter movement, racism, and about the African-American experience. These lists provide a variety of ways to explore, learn, and educate yourself.
These sites offer a variety of books and multimedia to help you understand what is happening and why.
Sign-ups are now open for the Law Library’s 3rd Annual National Library Week Trivia Night. Trivia Night will be held on Monday, April 9th in the law school forum. Doors open at 5:00pm; trivia begins at 5:30pm and goes until approximately 7:00pm. Great prizes will be given to the first, second, and third place teams, and there will be door prize drawings throughout the event. First prize is a $25 Alamo Drafthouse gift card for each team member! Please note: this is general trivia, not law-related trivia.
Get five of your closest (or smartest) friends to join your team of six! All registered team members will get free pizza and beer (or bottled water). Students–the past two years, the first, second, and third place teams were comprised of teams with a diversity of ages, so I highly recommend asking your favorite law school faculty and staff members to join you for this night of frivolity.
To sign up, pick up a sign-in sheet at the Circulation Desk, fill out your roster, and then turn it back into the Circ Desk or email it to Prof. Drake at alyson.drake@ttu.edu. If you don’t have a team, but want to play, contact Prof. Drake and we will do our best to get you on a team that’s not completely full. If you can’t find six players, that’s okay; turn in your team sign-up sheet and we will do our best to find you a few extra players from our free agents.
We only have room for 20 teams of 6 in the forum, so get your team together and sign up ASAP! Hope to see many of you there.
The CQ Magazine reports on the world’s most powerful legislative body completely and accurately every week. Readers get an in-depth report on issues looming on the congressional horizon, plus a complete wrap up of the previous week’s news, including the status of bills in play, behind-the-scenes maneuvering, committee and flood activity, debates, and all roll-call votes.
Below is a view of the home page.
Additionally, CQ Magazine is written in plain-English prose that makes it easy for people “outside the beltway” to understand just as well as any Washington insider. CQ Magazine covers the issues, makes them simple to understand, and does so in a manner that is even-handed and accurate.
Below is a view one of the articles that is available online on the CQ Magazine.
On the right side of the navigation screen, you can view several search tools to assist you. Also, you can click on the Advanced Search feature to further search and narrow your results.
Below is a view of the advanced search tool.
Additionally, you can make a profile on the CQ Magazine website. You can view your profile, select favorite documents, saved searches, and document history. Those options are located on the top left side of the home page.
Below is a view of the options you have when you make a profile on the website.
Access to the CQ Magazine database is available through the Texas Tech Law Library website under the Electronic Databases tab.
According to the Wall Street Journal blog, legal employers are looking for expert researchers with people skills.
Focus group results show that law school graduates entering the workforce need to know that “it’s the softer skills, like work ethic, collegiality and a sense of individual responsibility, that really impress legal employers, according to the study.” While the “researchers had thought that the attorneys would focus mostly on the need for basic practical skills, like writing, analysis and research, the comments on soft skills — defined as “personal qualities, habits, attitudes and social graces that make someone a good employee” — tended to dominate the responses.”
Ultimately, “The focus-group participants said ideal job applicants have a strong work ethic, can work independently without excessive ‘hand holding,’ and would bring a positive attitude to the workplace.”
The other important skill was the ability to research. “Employers, particularly those with more years in practice, rely on new attorneys to be research experts. The employers in [the] focus groups have high expectations when it comes to new hires’ research skills, i.e., ‘[t]hey should be able to adequately and effectively find everything that’s up to the minute.'”
And according to these legal employers, “[b]eing a research expert also means knowing how to scour books, not just websites. ‘Statutes, treatises and encyclopedias, and desk books are the sources employers still use in paper form. For this reason, new attorneys may want to be familiar with these paper sources.'”
And last but not certainly not least, legal employers want new hires to know their audience when it comes to memo writing. There are some clients who might prefer the “full-blown research memo” that is learned in law school, but there are other clients who just want the answer in a short and succinct format. It’s important to know which type of client you are dealing with to best suit their needs.
The Reporter 