DULL News

February 15, 2007 - No. 129

Headline

Living History

February is Black History Month, and the legal community proudly participates in the annual celebration of the contributions made by African-Americans in our society. In 2001, the American Bar Association’s Division for Public Education created the Web site Raising the Bar: Pioneers in the Legal Profession (http://www.abanet.org/publiced/raisingthebar.html), which profiled the historical contributions of a different lawyer each week during Black History Month. Although the project is no longer updated, past profiles are still available as a reminder of the impact that African-American lawyers have had upon the profession.

The Law Library also has a collection of books which chronicle the historical contributions of African-American members of the legal profession. In the Duke University Libraries’ catalog (http://catalog.library.duke.edu), try a subject keyword search for African American Judges or African American Lawyers. You’ll find titles like Judge Constance Baker Motley’s Equal Justice Under Law: An Autobiography (KF373.M64 A34 1998) and the recent biography Earl B. Dickerson: A Voice for Freedom and Equality (KF373.D53 B55 2006).

The remainder of this issue of D.U.L.L. News will point to law-related resources, both in print and online, which deal with law and history in a variety of ways.

Get to Know

Historic vs. Superseded State Codes

If you ever need to look up the historical version of a state code section, you might wonder which floor of the Library to check first. Your confusion would be understandable—state code materials can be found on three of the Library’s four floors! Of course, the current version of an annotated code for each state can be found on Level 3, near the back of the Reading Room. But there are old codes shelved with the state case reporters on Level 2, and still more old codes in the Superseded Collection on Level 1. So what’s the difference between the two sections?

As it turns out, the difference is mostly semantics, but it’s important to understand the distinction between “historic” codes (Level 2) and “superseded” codes (Level 1). “Historic” state codes were those generally published before 1950, with the entire sets revised every few years (similar to the official version of the U.S. Code, which is issued in a completely new set of bound volumes every six years). “Superseded” generally refers to outdated volumes of the current annotated code series (similar to the unofficial United States Code Annotated or United States Code Service, whose volumes are updated individually as needed).

Most titles of historic state codes are listed at the Georgetown Law Library’s Historic State Codes Preservation Project page (http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/states/historic_codes/index.cfm). Titles available at Duke can be found in the Libraries’ catalog (http://catalog.library.duke.edu).

Web Sites and Blogs

Civil Rights Archives

In honor of Black History Month, visit these online archives featuring documents from the fight for racial equality in the 1960s.

The Historical Documents of the United States Commission on Civil Rights (http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/index.asp) was announced last month by the Government Printing Office. The collection, maintained by the Thurgood Marshall Law Library at the University of Maryland, contains digitized versions of reports prepared by the Commission since 1957. Publications range from statistical reports on hate crimes, to evaluations of affirmative action programs, to examinations of minority representation in the media.
The Civil Rights In Mississippi Digital Archive (http://www.lib.usm.edu/~spcol/crda/index.html) provides a collection of oral histories from various members on both sides of the civil rights movement. Although the collection consists of mostly transcripts, audio files are linked where available. The archive also includes manuscripts and assorted papers, with more to be digitized in the future.
Finally, the Greensboro News-Record has created the Greensboro Sit-Ins: Launch of a Civil Rights Movement (http://www.sitins.com/), a multimedia archive related to the demand for equality in North Carolina. Materials include scanned newspaper articles, audio and video interviews, and a timeline of the civil rights movement.

The Figures

Legal Firsts

1790: First Supreme Court convened in New York City
1916: First woman elected to the United States Congress
2006: First Muslim elected to the United States Congress
1858: First presidential debates (Lincoln v. Douglas), although debates did not become a regular part of the presidential election until 1960
1919: First African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review appointed

[Sources: Supreme Court Historical Society, Information Please Almanac]

Research Tip

Relive History with Saved Searches

Have you ever found the perfect document or book title while researching, only to misplace it later? It can be difficult to retrace your steps from memory in order to locate the item again. Fortunately, several online resources now give you the ability to save your searches.

In Lexis, the “History” feature (linked from the upper right-hand corner of every screen) automatically archives your search activity for 30 days. You can re-run the search to extend the expiration time another 30 days.

Westlaw has a similar feature called “Research Trail”. Although searches are automatically archived for only 14 days, the expiration date may be reset at any time. You can also rename each search trail in order to keep your notes better organized.

The Duke University Libraries catalog (http://catalog.library.duke.edu) also offers a Search History feature; however, you will need to sign in with your NetID and password in order to take advantage of it. (Note that logging out of the catalog will erase your search history; it is best to log in to the catalog and e-mail your results to yourself before logging out.)

Other databases, such as Index to Legal Periodicals and LegalTrac, also offer the option to e-mail your search results to yourself. Take advantage of these features, and you will never scramble to find a missing document again!

Library News

Introducing Lauren Collins

Please help the Law Library welcome our newest librarian, Lauren Collins, who joins the Duke Law reference team effective March 1. Lauren most recently worked at Wayne State University’s Arthur Neef Law Library, where she served as the Instructional Services Coordinator for the last two years. Although Lauren has moved all the way from Detroit, she is no stranger to the Triangle area—she received her J.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1994. Following law school, Lauren has also practiced in two litigation firms, worked as an anti-harassment trainer, and in 2003 completed a Master of Science in Information degree from the University of Michigan. She is active in professional law library organizations and has already authored several CALI tutorials. Here at Duke, Lauren will provide reference services, co-teach a section of LARW, and coordinate the Library’s faculty research assistant program. Welcome, Lauren!

Research Stumper

Question: Belva Lockwood made legal history as the first woman to graduate from a national law school (and later as the first woman to run for President). Where can you find the full text of her advice to future law students, which contained the memorable quote “you will learn daily that you need to know more”?

Answer will appear in the March 15 issue.

Answer to last issue’s stumper: In the January 15 issue of D.U.L.L. News, we asked, Where in the Library could you look up the spelling of the phrase facie lateralis digiti manus before submitting your brief to the court?

Black’s Law Dictionary is a familiar source for the Latin phrases which are often encountered in legal documents. But you would come up empty-handed with the above phrase in Black’s (Ref KF156 .B53 2004; also available full-text on Westlaw).

So it’s worth noting that the Law Library has several other dictionaries in its reference collection. To locate a foreign-language dictionary, you can search the Duke University Libraries Catalog (http://catalog.library.duke.edu) for the title keywords [language] and English and dictionary. In the “Advanced” search, you can also limit the location to Law. Dictionaries are available in the Law Library for Latin, Chinese, German, Hebrew, Arabic, and many more.

But the answer to this stumper lies in another kind of dictionary—a medical dictionary. Lawyers who deal with personal injury cases often need to consult medical texts, and must be conversant in the terminology. The Law Library collects a few dictionaries to help you on this quest, including Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, and Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, all of which are available in the Library’s Reference Collection around the call number R121. (Taber’s is also available full-text on Lexis; Stedman’s is available on Westlaw.)

In this case, your client has an injury to the lateral surface of his finger. (Of course, a prudent lawyer would take care not to use a complicated medical term where simple, plain English would suffice!)

D.U.L.L. Question of the Month

Question: Where in the Duke University Libraries could you go in order to retrieve the full text of historical congressional committee reports which were published before 1990?

The Microforms Room (Level 1)
The Federal Alcove (Level 3)
Public Documents & Maps (Perkins)
All of the above

Answer: D. All of the above places contain the full text of congressional committee reports, and pre-date what is available for free via GPO Access (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/index.html). The Library has received committee reports on microfiche from the Government Printing Office since 1980; reports are also available from 1970-present as part of the CIS microform collection.

Committee reports are also available in the Federal Alcove as part of the United States Code, Congressional and Administrative News (U.S.C.C.A.N.), which includes the full text of public laws, as well as selected corresponding legislative history materials. Although U.S.C.C.A.N. has been published since 1941, legislative history materials were generally not included until 1947. (FYI: U.S.C.C.A.N. is also available full-text via Westlaw.)

The Law Library isn’t the only place on campus where you can locate federal legislative history materials. The Perkins/Bostock Library’s Public Documents and Maps department (http://docs.lib.duke.edu/) contains a print collection of the United States Congressional Serial Set, which has reprinted House and Senate reports since 1817. Members of the Duke community also have access to an electronic version of the set (visit http://www.law.duke.edu/lib/lresources.html and select “U.S. Congressional Serial Set Digital Collection”); however, not all volumes are yet available online.

Comments to Jennifer L. Behrens.