Bluebook Citation Mini-Class this Saturday, 4/25 at 2pm

Working on the final drafts of your term papers?  Struggling with the proper format for your footnote citations?  The Library will be presenting a Bluebook citation mini-class this Saturday, April 25^th, at 2:00 pm.  The class will last approximately 20-30 minutes with a question and answer time to follow.  If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to Reference Librarian June Mac Leod at jmacleod@tjsl.edu. Location to be determined, based on the number of expected attendees.

Multimedia Spotlight

Check out the library’s legal-themed DVD collection.  DVDs can be checked out from the Reserve collection for 24 hours.  Just ask at the Circulation desk.  Here are a couple of the 50+ movies we have available:

Intolerable Cruelty
PN1995.9 .C55 I57 2004

When the beautiful Marylin Rexroth (Catherine Zeta-Jones) obtains recorded evidence that her wealthy husband Rex is cheating on her, she files for divorce. But Rex hires top divorce lawyer Miles Massey (George Clooney), requesting him that Marylin gets nothing in the divorce. Massey manages to achieve this request by proving that Marilyn schemed to marry for money rather than for love from the very start, and she is left penniless. Surprisingly, Marylin returns some months later with a request of her own: she is engaged to marry a dimwitted Texan millionaire, and to prove that she is marrying for love rather than money this time she will sign the “Massey contract”, an ironclad pre-nuptial agreement that will once again leave her penniless if she divorces. Massey wonders whether the scheming Marylin changed her skin- or her plans.

The Firm
PN1997 .F476 2000

Fresh out of law school, top Harvard graduate Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) receives an extraordinarily attractive offer from a small, prestigious firm in Memphis, and accepts it over offers from more well-known firms in New York. He and his wife Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn) are overwhelmed at first by the money and gifts showered upon them, and Mitch befriends a flamboyant partner (Avery Tolar.) But he starts to suspect that something is wrong when two associates die in an accident. And then, a government agent approaches him with a request for information, and Mitch understands that his life will never be the same. Based on the John Grisham novel.

New Acquisitions

So Damn Much Money
JK 1118 .K35 2009

The life story of Washington lobbyist Gerald Cassidy is used to “illuminate how Washington has changed over the past three decades” in this bleak but informative book. Kaiser, an associate editor at the Washington Post, traces the ascendance of Cassidy, from his rough childhood in the 1950s to the incorporation of his lobbying firm, a pioneer in winning congressional earmarks for its clients, which Cassidy cofounded with Kenneth Schlossberg in 1975. The relationship between the two partners was dissolved in 1984, but Cassidy continued to build what became one of the most powerful and wealthy firms in the industry before it slipped from its vanguard status in the last few years. The author also lays out a larger history of influence peddling in federal politics, stretching back to the Civil War era, and examines the evolution of today’s “permanent campaigns.” The author’s gestures to a broader historical narrative-often in alternating chapters-sometimes distract from his nuanced examination of the rise and decline of Cassidy and Associates, but Kaiser manages to vividly elaborate the firm’s history while placing it in the context of a degenerating political culture.

©2009 Publishers Weekly.

The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences
HB 3722 .F66 2009

In this timely and thorough analysis of the current financial crisis, Foster and Magdoff explore its roots and the radical changes that might be undertaken in response. With a foray into the Great Depression of the 1930s, they move to the present situation, born out of the housing bubble, the wider explosion of debt and the problem of financialization of capital. They survey the long-term implications and the larger political-economic aspects of the crisis to propose that the crisis raises questions that are primarily political rather than economic. They suggest that society will eventually conclude that our fatally unstable political-economic structure should be replaced with one of social use rather than private gain-a more humane order geared to collective needs. This book makes a valuable contribution to the ongoing examination of our current debt crisis, one that deserves our full attention.

©2009 Publishers Weekly.

Popular Reading Spotlight

When you need a study break, check out the popular reading section in the northwest corner of the first floor of the library.  We have a variety of interesting titles in this collection.  Here are just a couple:

Dare to Die
Popular Reading PS 3558 .A676 D37

She came in the rain. Alone. On a bicycle.

Annie and Max Darling are completely unprepared when the arrival of a mysterious young woman shocks their sea island and stirs up more than just gossip. It turns out that Iris, the beautiful stranger, is a former resident of Broward’s Rock. Her arrival throws the normally happy town into a downward spiral that pits neighbor against neighbor. Things take a turn for the worse when Annie befriends Iris and invites her to attend the Darlings’ party at the pavilion where Death is the uninvited guest. Suddenly, Max and Annie find themselves in the middle of a fight they don’t understand and at the mercy of an unknown assailant who’s trying to kill them-and all they know is that it is one of their friends.

©2009 HarperCollins Books.

Just Take My Heart
Popular Reading PS 3553 .L287 J87

In this intense novel of suspense from bestseller Clark (Where Are You Now?), the obvious suspect in the shooting murder of famous actress Natalie Raines at her Closter, N.J., home is her husband and theatrical agent, Gregg Aldrich, whom she was divorcing. Gregg never wavers from his innocent plea, but Bergen County assistant prosecutor Emily Wallace nails his conviction thanks to the evidence of an ex-con, who testifies Gregg tried to hire him to kill Natalie. Clark neatly details the courtroom proceedings, though of more dramatic interest is a subplot involving oddball serial killer Zach Lanning, who’s been stalking Emily while pretending to be a good neighbor. Clark slowly reveals that Emily’s recent heart transplant has given the attorney extra sensitivity to Natalie’s past. As Emily’s doubts about Gregg’s guilt grow, the action hurtles to a surprising if abrupt resolution.

©2009 Publishers Weekly.

Monday, April 13th is Thomas Jefferson’s 266th birthday!

Get to know our school’s namesake better and come by the Library and look over the books in the Thomas Jefferson Collection shelved just behind the Library Circulation Desk!  Included in the display are new books highlighting Jefferson’s interest in fossils, paleontology and natural science . . . just the thing to help you to appreciate the fascinating artifacts unearthed during the foundation excavation for our new building in downtown San Diego.  Also ask at the Circulation Desk  to see our collection of DVD’s on Thomas Jefferson.

Global Wealth Management Industry Database

The Global Wealth Management Industry Database offers key data on 2,500 private banks and family offices in all regions of the world.  This resource is made available through the Library and the L.L.M. International Tax Program.  Access this database through the TJSL proxy server at: http://ezproxy.tjsl.edu:2048 and follow the login instructions included there in the Tax/International Tax section.

ERPN – Entrepreneurship Research & Policy Network

The Entrepreneurship Research & Policy Network (ERPN) is one of the specialized research networks comprising the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), a collaborative of scholars devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research.  The ERPN includes research from the Harvard Business School and peer-reviewed articles from Foundation and Trends – Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technological Change.

The Library has purchased three logins which are available for individual assignment upon request.  If you wish to have access to the ERPN please contact Charles Dean, Electronic Resources Reference Librarian at x1128 or cdean@tjsl.edu.

Legal Research Boot Camp

Get prepared for the research assignments that you’ll be given in your upcoming clerkship/associate position by attending one of the Library’s Law Firm Legal Research Boot Camp training sessions!  Sign up at the circulation desk.  The schedule follows:

Mon. April 13   6:00-8:30   Print/Free Web Resources (meet at circ. desk)

Tue. April 14    6:00-7:50   Westlaw/LexisNexis (meet in Computer Classroom)

Wed. April 15  6:00-7:50    Westlaw/LexisNexis (repeat; meet in Computer Classroom)

Thu. April 16   6:00-8:30    Print/Free Web Resources (repeat) (meet at circ. desk)

Library Highlights: The Birth of American Paleontology

“Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight.”  –Thomas Jefferson, Letter To Monsieur DuPont de Nemours, Washington, March 2, 1809, in The Life and Selected Writings of Jefferson, at 595 (Adrienne Koch & William Peden, eds., 1944).

Jefferson and Science
Silvio A. Bedini
E332.2 .B365 2002

From the Publisher: Though we most often think of Jefferson as president and statesman, he is also recognized, in the words of the late Dumas Malone, “as an American pioneer in numerous branches of science, notably paleontology, ethnology, geography, and botany.” In this fascinating book, Silvio Bedini, the acknowledged authority on Jefferson’s “supreme delight” in the sciences, explores his wideranging mathematical and scientific pursuits.  Read more

Big Bone Lick: The Cradle of American Paleontology
Stanley Hedeen
QE705.U6 H43 2008

From the Publisher: On March 7, 1808, President Thomas Jefferson received a long-awaited shipment of approximately 300 fossils from William Clark, who had just completed his westward expedition with Meriwether Lewis. The fossils were unearthed at Big Bone Lick in northern Kentucky, and over the years they had gained the interest of such prominent figures as Daniel Boone, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin. Jefferson’s receipt of the fossils was the realization of more than twenty years of the philosopherstatesman’s interest in the site and its natural treasures.  Read more

The Legacy of the Mastodon: The Golden Age of Fossils in America
Keith Thomson
QE882.P8 T46 2008

From the Publisher: The uncovering in the mid-1700s of fossilized mastodon bones and teeth at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, signaled the beginning of a great American adventure. The West was opening up and unexplored lands beckoned. Unimagined paleontological treasures awaited discovery: strange horned mammals, birds with teeth, flying reptiles, gigantic fish, diminutive ancestors of horses and camels, and more than a hundred different kinds of dinosaurs.  Read more

Thomas Jefferson and American Vertebrate Paleontology
Silvio A. Bedini
QE841 .B385 1985

From the Publisher: Thomas Jefferson first became interested in fossil vertebrate remains in about 1780 while governor of Virginia. He was largely responsible for popularizing the subject and for preserving many specimens that would have otherwise been lost. Jefferson’s contributions to vertebrate paleontology in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are discussed.

American Monster: How the Nation’s First Prehistoric Creature Became a Symbol of National Identity
Paul Semonin
QE882.P8 S46 2000

From the Publisher: In 1801, the first complete mastodon skeleton was excavated in the Hudson River Valley, marking the climax of a century-long debate in America and Europe over the identity of a mysterious creature known as the American Incognitum. Long before the dinosaurs were discovered and the notion of geological time acquired currency, many citizens of the new republic believed this mythical beast to be a ferocious carnivore, capable of crushing deer and elk in its “monstrous grinders.” During the American Revolution, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson avidly collected its bones; for the founding fathers, its massive jaws symbolized the violence of the natural world and the emerging nation’s own dreams of conquest.  Read more