This Week in the Law Library ... Sept. 23, 2004
This week in the Law Library it’s Banned Books Week! We’re also teaching secondary sources and Advanced Legal Research as well as celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month.
This Week’s Research Sessions
Wednesday, September 25, 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, September 26, 2024
Lawyering I, Cohort 1
- 10:40am - 12:05pm
- Room 135
- Shannon Kemen, Legal Technology & Research Instructional Services Librarian
- Researching in Secondary Sources
Friday, September 27, 2024
Advanced Legal Research Criminal Law Procedure
- 11:10am - 12:05pm
- Room 245
- Associate Dean Michael Whiteman and Instructional & Reference Services Librarian Ashley Russell
Banned Books Week: Freed Between the Lines
The theme for Banned Books Week 2024 is “Freed Between the Lines,” an observance of the freedom we find in the pages of books and the need to defend that freedom from censorship. Banned Books Week 2024 follows multiple record-breaking years of censorship in libraries and schools. Attempts to censor books surged 65% in 2023 compared to 2022, reaching the highest level ever tracked by the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. OIF documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship in 2023, largely due to organized campaigns that targeted multiple titles at a time. Titles representing the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals made up 47% of those targeted in censorship attempts.
Read the September 5, 2024 Banned Books Week Post "Filmmaker Ava DuVernay to Lead Banned Books Week as Honorary Chair"
In honor of Banned Books Week, our featured resources are focusing on the First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, and banned books.
Featured Study Aids
In honor of Banned Books Week, we’re featuring study aids dealing with the First Amendment and Freedom of Speech.
The First Amendment (Concepts & Insights)
Available online via the West Academic Study Aid subscription, Farber’s First Amendment covers all of the major areas of this complex doctrine, including the religion clauses. The text also probes theories of free speech and debates over controversial issues such as campaign finance, hate speech, and religious exemptions. The new edition covers recent Supreme Court decisions dealing with the use of free exercise claims as a defense in discrimination cases, the elimination of mandatory fees to support public employee unions as a violation of free speech, and the right of convicted sex offenders to access online social media.
First Amendment: Examples and Explanations
Available through the Aspen Learning Library study aid subscription, this book covers all of the First Amendment’s major topics – with emphasis on speech and religion. The topics covered include a comprehensive review of the most recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on speech, association, and religion as well as cutting edge issues raised by current events, including the COVID-19 pandemic. While providing deep coverage of abstract concepts, the book includes many practical introductions to law practice reality. Figures, examples, explanations, and varying difficulty in the presented material ensure that the book will serve the needs of a variety of users and will appeal to different learning styles.
Understanding the First Amendment
Available via the LexisNexis Digital Library, this study aid covers the origins and nature of the First Amendment, speech advocating violent or illegal action, content regulation of speech, limited protection of speech, content neutrality of speech, freedom of association and compelled expression, media and the first amendment, the Establishment Clause, and the Free Exercise Clause. The beginning of each chapter highlights key points of coverage. The end of each chapter indicates essential points to remember. The seventh edition covers all of the recent relevant decisions, including Iancu v. Brunetti; Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck; Matal v. Tam; The American Legion v. American Humanist Assocation; National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra; Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky; Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. V. Colorado Civil Rights Commission; Expressions Hair Design v. Schneiderman; Packingham v. North Carolina; and Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer.
Featured Database
Book Censorship Database
The EveryLibrary Institute and EveryLibrary are partnering with Dr. Tasslyn Magnusson, an independent researcher focused on the networks, organizations, and individual actors who are leading book banning and book challenge efforts in our nation's school libraries and public libraries.
Featured Guide
Banned Books Week Guide
Celebrate your right to read! This guide covers information on Banned Books Week as well as court cases involving challenged books, and prisoner rights to read.
Featured Treatise
Smolla & Nimmer on Freedom of Speech
Smolla & Nimmer on Freedom of Speech, available on Westlaw, provides in-depth coverage and expert analysis of free speech and free press First Amendment issues, including history, theory, doctrine, and insights into cases and decisions. Includes cross-references within the text and in footnotes, which contain full citations and parallel citations to other materials.
Featured Videos
Banned Books Week YouTube Channel
View Banned Books Virtual Read-Outs and more! The Banned Books Virtual Read-Out features videos of readers exercising their First Amendment right to read a banned book.
Featured Website
Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week is an annual event that highlights the value of free and open access to information. The event is supported by a coalition of organizations dedicated to free expression, including American Booksellers for Free Expression, American Library Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Amnesty International USA, Association of University Presses, Authors Guild, Banned Books Week Sweden, Children’s Book Council, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Freedom to Read Foundation, GLAAD, Index on Censorship, Little Free Library, National Book Foundation, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Council of Teachers of English, PEN America, People For the American Way Foundation, PFLAG, and Project Censored. It is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship.
Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month
Photo by Texas Military Department, CC BY-ND 2.0
Hispanic Heritage Month is September 15 to October 15 and celebrates the contributions and importance of Hispanics and Latinos to the United States and those American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. This year’s theme is "Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future Together."
UC Celebrations & Events
UC Alumni Association Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month
The UC Alumni Association proudly joins with our Hispanic and Latino Bearcats to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15. The full UC success story cannot be told, and would not be so inspiring, without the great contributions of our Hispanic and Latino alumni and students.
UCBA Hispanic Heritage Month Display
Browse the online guide of suggested reads!
UC Latino Alumni & Student Networking Reception
Thursday, Sept. 26
5:30-7 p.m.
Join the UC Latino Alumni Network (UCLAN) and the UC Office of Ethnic Programs & Services for an evening on campus with students from Latinx en Acción (LEA) to connect and share career advice. This includes campus updates from LEA leaders and networking roundtables with LEA students where you’ll learn about their campus experience and career aspirations. You’ll also be able to network with fellow UC Latino alumni.
5 Resources to Learn More about Hispanic Heritage
ABA, Honoring Activists and Legal Trailblazers (PDF)
The ABA Diversity and Inclusion Center Invites You to Celebrate Activists and Legal Trailblazers of Hispanic/Latino heritage.
ABA, 21-Day Hispanic Heritage Equity Habit Building Challenge
The ABA Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council invites ABA members and non-members to participate in this Equity Habit-Building Challenge. The goal of the Challenge is to assist each of us to become more aware, compassionate, constructive, engaged people in the quest for equity, and specifically to learn more about the Hispanic Heritage, and many communities included under the “Hispanic umbrella.” It transcends our roles as lawyers. Non-lawyers are also welcome to participate.
ABA Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities, Latinos in the United States: Overcoming Legal Obstacles, Engaging in Civic Life
The new 2024 report by the ABA Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities, has key findings on pressing concerns facing Latinos in education, employment, healthcare, housing, voting, and criminal justice. This report was presented at the 2024 ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago.
United States Courts, Hispanic Heritage Month
Among the Hispanic and Latino Americans who serve at every level of the federal court system are judges. Learn about three judges’ stories during their first-person narratives.
US Census Bureau, Hispanic Heritage Month: 2024
Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the contributions of Americans tracing their roots to Spain, Mexico, Central America, South America and the Spanish-speaking nations of the Caribbean. The following facts are possible thanks to the invaluable responses to U.S. Census Bureau surveys.
Posted Sept. 23, 2024 by Susan Boland