Winter holiday open house
You are cordially invited to stop in for a holiday treat during our annual open house on Tuesday, December 5 from 3 to 5 p.m. We thank all State Law Library users for giving us the opportunity to serve your legal research needs throughout the year. Happy Holidays!

Knutson and Tessmer are among 2006 “Unsung Heroes”
The Wisconsin Law Journal recently recognized 41 “unsung heroes” in Wisconsin’s legal community. All of them – paralegals, firm administrators, law librarians, court staff, and other behind-the-scenes people – were nominated by their colleagues for awards in 8 different categories. A panel of representatives of the Wisconsin Law Journal and the various professional organizations to which the nominees belong reviewed the nominations and selected an award winner in each category. Among the seven people nominated in the law librarian category were Rebecca Knutson, MLRC librarian, and Julie Tessmer, WSLL deputy law librarian. We’re very pleased to report that Julie was selected as the award winner! Congratulations to both Julie and Rebecca, and to all the 2006 Unsung Heroes nominees—you’re all winners. To see the complete list and read excerpts from their nominations, please visit the Wisconsin Law Journal “2006 Unsung Heroes” webpage.

WSLL staffers speak at WLA Conference
Amy Crowder, web resources librarian/cataloger, and Connie Von Der Heide, director of reference & outreach services, were among the speakers at the 2006 Wisconsin Library Association annual conference in Wisconsin Dells November 1-3. Amy spoke on Interlibrary Loan trends in specialized libraries, and Connie led virtual tours of the Wisconsin State Law Library, Wisconsin Legislature, and Wisconsin Court System websites.

It’s After Hours Service renewal/application time
2007 is just around the corner, so it’s the right time to renew or apply for a calendar-year subscription to the WSLL After Hours Service. Any Wisconsin-licensed attorney may subscribe to this service, which allows use of the library from 5 to 10 p.m. Monday – Friday and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday - Sunday. For details and renewal/application forms please visit our After Hours Service webpage or contact Tammy Keller, program assistant, at 608-261-7553 or tammy.keller@wicourts.gov.

This month’s featured titles include:

NEW EDITION! Wisconsin Collection Law, 2nd edition / Robert A. Pasch (Wisconsin Practice Series, volumes 12 & 13) Thomson / West Publishing, 2006
Call Number: KFW 2930 .W682

This new edition is worth highlighting for two reasons: 1) it’s been completely revised for the first time since the first edition was published in 1993; and 2) it has transitioned from a standalone volume in the old Lawyer’s Cooperative Publishing Wisconsin Practice Library (brown hardcover volume) to volumes 12 and 13 in the West multi-volume Wisconsin Practice series (green hardcover volumes).

Like its predecessor, the second edition serves as a comprehensive resource guide devoted exclusively to collection law in Wisconsin. Useful for attorneys, paralegals and others involved in debt collection, it incorporates relevant developments and changes to the law of debt collection and enforcement of judgments. Chapters of particular interest include:

• Collection Regulation
• Marital Property Concerns
• Obtaining a Money Judgment - Small Claims Procedures
• Foreign Judgments
• Garnishments

Forms and appendices have been added and updated as well.

NEW TITLE! Collections and Bankruptcy / Charles G. Center…et al. (Wisconsin Business Advisor Series, volume 4) State Bar of Wisconsin, 2006
Call Number: KFW 2621 .C6 2006  

In keeping with the theme of collection law in Wisconsin, this fourth and latest volume in the popular Wisconsin Business Advisor Series provides valuable information for the practitioner in the areas of collection remedies, negotiating agreements with creditors, and resolving bankruptcy proceedings. It includes useful practice tips, cautionary notes, checklists, and comprehensive tables of cases, statutes, regulations, and rules. When complete, the Wisconsin Business Advisor Series will include nine volumes providing quick legal references targeting the business law world, all produced with the assistance of the State Bar’s Business Law Section.

Check our library catalog for availability of these or other materials you may need. For additional assistance, please contact our Reference Desk.

Keep Track of Competitors and Clients
Looking for a free and easy competitive intelligence tool? Trackengine.com is a free service that can be used to track changes made to websites. After signing up for a free account, users can add a “Track Me” button to their web browser. While viewing a page you wish to monitor, click the “Track Me” button to invoke your Trackengine.com account. If you have a pop-up blocker installed on your PC, you may need to temporarily disable it. You then have the opportunity to customize your tracking, using either “simple” or “expert” tracking parameters. When changes are made to the webpage, Trackengine.com will send you an email alert containing your choice of a summary of the change, or a reproduction of the webpage with the new content highlighted. This is an easy way to monitor competitors or keep up to date on clients.

Trackengine.com also provides tutorials on competitive intelligence research and tips and tricks for using the service. For more robust tracking, Trackengine.com offers a fee-based subscription service.

Please send suggestions for future Tech Tips to the editor.

Upcoming WSLL Classes
Register today to reserve your seat in any of these upcoming classes. For registration forms and details, visit our Classes & Tours webpage.

The Wisconsin Legislature Website
Wednesday, January 17, 2007 10:30-11:30 a.m.
In this hands-on overview, you’ll learn how to track legislative activity, locate bills and acts, and search the online Wisconsin Statutes using the Legislature’s new NXT search software. You'll also learn about the Legislative Notification Service, and where to find publications of the various Legislative Service Agencies.
FREE Class. 1 CLE credit applied for. Registration is limited to 8.

Using the “new” LegalTrac and HeinOnline
Wednesday, February 7, 2007 9:00-10:00 a.m.
LegalTrac and HeinOnline, two proprietary databases at the Wisconsin State Law Library, have recently changed their looks with updated interfaces and content. Learn how to use the new LegalTrac to find law reviews and legal news. Delve into the revamped HeinOnline for full text law review articles, treatises and primary law, with content dating back to the 1800's.
FREE Class. 1 CLE credit applied for. Registration is limited to 8.

NEW CLASS! Ethics Research: Can You Do That?
Wednesday, March 7, 2007 9:00-11:00 a.m.
Learn where to find the answers to all those ethical dilemmas, or at least where to start looking. Leslie Behroozi, J.D. and Reference Librarian at the Dane County Legal Resource Center, will lead this hands-on class in which you'll learn how to conduct ethics research both online and in print using the resources available at the Wisconsin State Law Library.
Fee: $65.00. 2.0 CLE/2.0 EPR credits to be applied for. Registration is limited to 8.

Q: I’m looking for biographical information on a Wisconsin judge; can you help?

A: While some Wisconsin judges’ biographies are available online, many are not. The Library has a number of print resources that can help you with your research. You may wish to begin with some of these:

Wisconsin Judicial Profiles. Published by Wisconsin Jury Verdict.
Call Number: REF KFW2908.A19 W4
Library Owns: 1999 to 2004-2005 (We've just learned that the publisher has discontinued this title.)

Provides biographical data on federal, state, and tribal court judges serving in Wisconsin. Includes information on the judge’s professional and legal experience, judicial assignment history, prior law firm affiliations, publications and seminars, awards, education, organizations he/she has been a member of, hobbies or interests, and family information. The 2004-2005 edition references civil cases in which the judge presided. Summaries of these cases have been published in Wisconsin Verdicts & Settlements which is also available in the Library, KFW2942.4.A53 V47

Wisconsin Judges Directory, published by the Wisconsin Court System.
Call Number: REF KFW2908.A19 W5
Library Owns: 2001 to date

Provides information on Wisconsin Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, circuit court and reserve judges. Data includes judicial activities, when the judge’s term expires, career history, education, family information, and interests.

Judges Directory. Published by the Wisconsin Law Journal.
Call Number: REF KFW2908.A19 M5
Library Owns: 1999/2000 to date
Available on the internet

Recent editions have featured Dane County and Milwaukee County judges, Milwaukee and Madison municipal judges, and judges for the U.S. district courts and bankruptcy courts. Previous editions have featured judges from Brown, Calumet, Fond du Lac, Kenosha, Outagamie, Ozaukee, Racine, Washington, Waukesha and Winnebago counties. Data includes a summary of the judge’s career prior to judgeship, education, and other pertinent biographical data.

ProQuest Wisconsin Newsstand
Available through BadgerLink

The ProQuest database provides abstracts and full-text articles from over 800 newspapers, magazines, journals and trade publication titles, including 12 Wisconsin newspapers. BadgerLink users can search these 12 papers in a separate database called the Wisconsin Newsstand. It’s an excellent source of news related to judges and the cases over which they preside. Freely available to most Wisconsin residents.

Additional library resources that may be of help includes biographical directories of judges in federal and other states’ courts. To identify those, search our library catalog or contact our Reference Desk for assistance.

Top 10 Things to do @ WSLL on your Lunch Hour

1. Browse the New Book Shelf located in the Reading Room.

2. Check your email on any of our seven Patron Access Stations.

3. Read a newspaper or news magazine.

4. Take a self-guided tour of the library’s portrait collection.

5. Page through a coffee table book located in one of the library’s soft seating areas.

6. Stare out the window at Lake Monona.

7. Find your alma mater’s law review in the Periodicals section on 3rd Floor.

8. Check out the CD set 171 Ways to Improve Your Discovery Techniques to listen to during your commute.

9. Watch the movie Legally Blonde in User Work Room #1 which is equipped with a TV/VCR/DVD.

10. Pick up a list of current WSLL legal research training classes at the circulation desk.

December Notables

5 – WSLL Holiday Open House 3:00-5:00pm in the Library Reading Room. Please join us!

10 – Melvil Dewey, the “Father of Modern Librarianship” was born 1851. At age 21, Dewey invented the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system. A few years later he helped to establish the American Library Association (ALA) and co-founded Library Journal. For a complete biography see this OCLC webpage.

25 – Christmas Day. WSLL, MLRC & DCLRC closed

January 1 – New Year’s Day. WSLL, MLRC & DCLRC closed