This Week in the Law Library ... Dec. 2, 2024
This week in the Law Library we're teaching advanced legal research and online searching, preparing for final exams, and previewing US Supreme Court oral arguments.
This Week’s Research Sessions
Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024
Technology Tuesday
Want to get started on your Canvas page but don’t know where to start? Need some new ideas to make your class more engaging? Law faculty can join Legal Technology & Research Instructional Services Librarian Shannon Kemen's Technology Tuesdays from 12:15-1:15pm.
Technology Tuesdays are 1-hour Zoom meetings for law faculty to join as their schedule allows, to get help with Canvas and other classroom technologies. Law faculty don’t need to come prepared with anything and you don’t need to stay for the entire hour. This meeting is designed to help problem solve issues with classroom technologies, learn about new technologies , and exchange ideas with colleagues. Technology Tuesday videos and notes are available on our Canvas page.
This Tuesday's class will review the steps for final grading in Canvas and Catalyst. Additional Canvas grading options like awarding extra credit, dropping the lowest score on an assignment and curving grades will also be discussed.
Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024
Advanced Legal Research Ohio Legal Research
- 2:00pm - 2:55pm
- Room 245
- Ronald Jones, Electronic Resources Instructional Services Librarian & Shannon Kemen, Legal Technology & Research Instructional Services Librarian
Thursday Dec. 5, 2024
Lawyering I, Cohort 1
- 10:40am - 12:05pm
- Room 135
- Shannon Kemen, Legal Technology & Research Instructional Services Librarian
- Online Research
Friday Dec. 6, 2024
Advanced Legal Research Criminal Law Procedure
- 11:10am - 12:05pm
- Room 245
- Associate Dean Michael Whiteman and Instructional & Reference Services Librarian Ashley Russell
Final Exams Are Coming and We Can Help!
Stressed about exams? The Law Library can help! The Law Library has many resources to help you prepare for final exams, including 24/7 access to online study aids. These study aids can be an important tool to help you succeed in law school but the different types of study aids serve different purposes. Check out our Exam Study Guide for a look at the different study aid types to which we subscribe and how they can help you with exams.
Looking for a place to study? Reserve a study room through TWEN or study in the carrels in the basement, the second floor Law Library Reading Room, the fourth floor Quiet Reading Room, or the open seating on the fifth floor.
When you’re ready for a short break or need to decompress, the Law Library offers puzzles and coloring pages and colored pencils in room 110, the Law Library Services Suite. Best of luck to everyone!
Accessing Law Library Study Aids
CALI
If using CALI, you will need to create an account (if you have not already done so) using a Cincinnati Law authorization code. You can obtain this code from a reference librarian.
LexisNexis Digital Library (OverDrive)
If accessing study aids from the LexisNexis Digital Library, you will need to login using your UC credentials.
West Academic
To create an account, click the Create an Account link at the top right corner of the Study Aids Subscription page. Use your UC email as the email address. Once you have filled in the required information to set up an account, you will need to verify your email address (they will send you a confirmation email that you will need answer to verify the email address — be sure and check your junk mail). Once you have created an account and logged in, you can use the links below to access individual study aids or you can access all study aids through https://subscription.westacademic.com.
Aspen Learning Library
If accessing study aids from the Aspen Learning Library subscription, you will need to login using your UC credentials.
Selected Study Aids to Help with Outlining
There are issues with using commercial outlines. Your professor is emphasizing different things. You miss nuances and context. Reading an outline is not an effective learning technique. Studies have shown that if the reader has to decide which material is most important and has to think about the meaning of the text and how the different pieces relate to one another, they perform better on tests later.1 Also, studies have shown that “writing about the important points in one’s own words produced a benefit over and above that of selecting important information….”2 So, if you are using commercial outlines, be sure and use the review questions and practice tests. You may find it helpful to look at other outlines for structure. But be aware that each of your professors may have different ideas of what is important and what is not. Tailor your outline to the class. Also, each class is different from year to year so relying solely on other people’s past outlines may not be a good idea. Don’t just read the outline. Use it as a guide but make your own!
Outlining Basics
Available through CALI, this CALI lesson teaches you why, when and how to create outlines when preparing for your law school exams. On completion of the lesson, the student will be able to: 1. Recognize the importance of outlines as a learning and test preparation tool in law school, thus making the outlining exercise more valuable. 2. Develop outlines during an optimum timeline. 3. Create outlines that offer the student a tool that improves comprehension, synthesis, and exam performance.
Black Letter Outlines
Available through the West Academic study aid subscription, the Black Letter Outline Series is designed to help students recognize, understand and master the primary principles of law by gaining a good understanding of the rule of law first before applying it to complex fact patterns. They contain comprehensive outlines of particular areas of law, a capsule summary of each outline, practice examinations, and examples and review questions.
Emanuel Law Outlines
Available through the Aspen Learning Library subscription, the Emanuel Law Outlines series is a study aid that outlines the law, gives exam tips, and offers chances for you to quiz yourself.
Gilbert Law Summaries
Available through the West Academic study aid subscription, Gilbert Law Summaries give students a detailed, comprehensive outline to prepare for exams. Each title also includes a capsule summary that is perfect for last minute review. Students can also test their knowledge.
Quick Review (Sum and Substance)
Available through the West Academic study aid subscription, this series contains capsule summary outlines each section with a clear and concise explanation of legal concepts and terms, along with exam hints, strategies, mnemonics, charts, tables and study tips.
Be sure and see our Exam Study Guide for more information!
December Arguments at the United States Supreme Court
US Supreme Court by Jarek Tuszyński CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
From SCOTUS Blog:
Monday, December 2, 2024
Food & Drug Admin. v. Wages & White Lion Invs., L.L.C. - whether the court of appeals erred in setting aside the Food and Drug Administration’s orders denying respondents’ applications for authorization to market new e-cigarette products as arbitrary and capricious.
United States v. Miller - whether a bankruptcy trustee may avoid a debtor’s tax payment to the United States under 11 U.S.C. § 544(b) when no actual creditor could have obtained relief under the applicable state fraudulent-transfer law outside of bankruptcy.
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Republic of Hungary v. Simon - (1) whether historical commingling of assets suffices to establish that proceeds of seized property have a commercial nexus with the United States under the expropriation exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act; (2) whether a plaintiff must make out a valid claim that an exception to the FSIA applies at the pleading stage, rather than merely raising a plausible inference; and (3) whether a sovereign defendant bears the burden of producing evidence to affirmatively disprove that the proceeds of property taken in violation of international law have a commercial nexus with the United States under the expropriation exception to the FSIA.
Wednesday, December 3, 2024
United States v. Skrmetti - whether Tennessee Senate Bill 1, which prohibits all medical treatments intended to allow “a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex” or to treat “purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity,” violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
1. John Dunlosky, et al., Improving Students’ Learning with Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions from Cognitive and Educational Psychology, 14 Psychol. Sci. Pub. Int. 4, 19 (2013).↩
2. Id. at 15.↩
Posted Dec. 2, 2024 by Susan Boland