D'Angelo Law Library Blog

The Haymarket Affair on Library of Congress' American Memory website

 

Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair, 1886-1887 http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ichihtml/hayhome.html

 

 From the website:

 

This collection showcases more than 3,800 images of original manuscripts, broadsides, photographs, prints and artifacts relating to the Haymarket Affair. The violent confrontation between Chicago police and labor protesters in 1886 proved to be a pivotal setback in the struggle for American workers' rights. These materials pertain to: the May 4, 1886 meeting and bombing; to the trial, conviction and subsequent appeals of those accused of inciting the bombing; and to the execution of four of the convicted and the later pardon of the remaining defendants. Of special interest and significance are the two dozen images of three-dimensional artifacts, including contemporary Chicago Police Department paraphernalia, labor banners, and an unexploded bomb casing given to juror J. H. Brayton by Chicago Police Captain Michael Schaack. The cornerstone is the presentation, as images and searchable text, of the transcript of the 3,200 pages of proceedings from the murder trial of State of Illinois v. August Spies, et al.

A Westlaw search tip from Eugene Volokh

From the eponymous Volokh Conspiracy:

If you're looking for cases or statutes that define a term, rather than all cases that mention the term in any context, search for WP(term), e.g.,

WP("DANGEROUS WEAPON")

This only works for those terms that West includes in its "Words and Phrases" books; but that's a pretty large set of terms.

Naturally, searching for all references to the term, rather than just for the WP() references, will give you a more complete list. But it may be far too complete, giving you thousands of cases. WP() searching will knock out many of the false positives, though at the risk of omitting some of the true positives.

Maybe most of you know about this feature or already, but some experienced lawyer and law professor friends I asked hadn't, so I thought I'd pass it along in case many people are unfamiliar with it. For similar tips about ATLEAST, NOT W/, and SY,DI(), see here.

Printers Row Lit Fest this weekend in Chicago

The Printers Row Lit Fest is being held this Saturday and Sunday, from 10 am to 6 pm, along Dearborn between Congress and Polk. Formerly known as the Printers Row Book Fair, it is the largest literary event in the Midwest. The free festival features hundreds of exhibitors (publishers, literary organizations, used & rare book dealers), as well as a full schedule of events including author readings, book signings, panel discussions, cooking demos, and activities for kids.

On Sunday at 1 pm, U of C's own Geoff Stone will participate in a conversation with Paul Butler, author of “Let’s Get Free: A Hip Hop Theory of Justice.”

See printersrowlitfest.org for a complete schedule.

New bill-tracking resource for state law

The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Government Relations Committee has launched a new page with resources to help you track state legislation. The chart includes the dates when the state legislatures are in session and links to free resources to help you track legislation.

For information about tracking federal legislation, see the Library's research guide.

Where do bills go when they die?

The Sunlight Foundation recently released a new study, "The Life and Death of Congressional Bills in the 110th Congress," which analyzes all bills that were introduced during the 110th Congress. They found that over the two years that Congress was in session, 11,059 bills were introduced, and only 4% of those became law. Most bills died in the committee of the chamber where it was introduced. 3724 were introduced in the Senate, and 7335 were introduced in the House.

The data is presented in several interesting charts, and this thing, which I admit I don't really understand. Maybe you are made of better stuff.

[Seen @ Legal Research Plus]

Sonia Sotomayor Resource Page at the Law Library of Congress

The Law Library of Congress has launched a new page of resources related to Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor:

http://www.loc.gov/law/find/sotomayor.php

The site has a list of articles and books written by Sonia Sotomayor.  It also includes links to her confirmation hearings, her Second Circuit opinions, and related web resources such as the White House Sotomayor page.

Audio files of Summer Success now available!

Thanks to the Law School's Communications Department, we now have audio files of the Law Library's Summer Success program, held on April 24, 2009.

Part 1 starts with an introduction and short role-playing exercise and is followed by a panel discussion featuring four recent Law School alumni--Daniel Ingber, Jeremy Mallory, Heidi Mueller, and Michael Walsh--talking about their summer associate experiences and taking questions from students.

Part 2 features a discussion with two law firm librarians--Ruth Bridges, Firmwide Manager of Library & Research Services at Schiff Hardin LLP, and Mitchell Klaich, Director of Library and Information Resources at Jenner & Block LLP--talking about resources and assistance available at their firms and successful approaches to research assignments in a firm environment. The final segment is reference librarian Todd Ito giving a review of key resources and approaches, focusing on efficient and cost-effective legal research techniques.

For the truly dedicated tracker of legislation....

THOMAS has launched its first RSS feed. The feed consists of the Daily Digest of the Congressional Record.  It’s being added to the family of other RSS feeds from the Law Library of Congress:

• THOMAS: Daily Digest: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/rss/dd.xml
• Current Legal Topics: http://www.loc.gov/rss/law/reports.xml
• Global Legal Monitor: http://www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/glmFeeds?feed
• News & Events: http://www.loc.gov/rss/law/news.xml
• Webcasts: http://www.loc.gov/rss/law/webcasts.xml

Enjoy...

Substantial Paper Success: Friday, May 1, in Room C

Are you writing a substantial paper this quarter?  If so, you might want to attend tomorrow's Library Workshop, "Substantial Paper Success," at 12:15 pm in Room C.  Come learn how to select a topic and do research for your substantial paper! Feel free to bring your lunch. If you cannot attend, you can still check out the Library's Researching and Writing Substantial Papers guide online, or make an appointment to meet with a reference librarian.

First 100 Days: Agency Reports

As Obama's selection of Cass Sunstein as "regulation czar" indicates, this administration understands the importance of administrative law. Accordingly, the White House blog has a nice round up of Federal agency reports on each of their first 100 days.