Join us for National Library Week and Legal Research Teach-In!

April 10-16 is both National Library Week and National Legal Research Teach-In, annual events sponsored by the American Library Association and American Association of Law Libraries, respectively. The State Law Library has planned several fun and educational activities, and we hope everyone who would like to know more about the resources and services available at WSLL will come and take part.

Tuesday, April 12 – State Law Library Guided Tours, 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Sign up for a free, guided tour of the print and electronic resources available in the library and (some) through our website. Come and learn about the State Law Library, meet our staff, and find out how we can help you with your legal reference and research needs. Each tour lasts approximately one hour and is limited to 12 people. Print registration form.

Wednesday, April 13 – Using Shepards Public Access @ the State Law Library
9:00-10:00 a.m. and 10:30-11:30 a.m. (same class offered twice)
Shepard's Public Access allows fast, easy Shepardizing and retrieval of cases, statutes and more. This online service is available for free use at the Wisconsin State Law Library, Dane County Legal Resource Center and Milwaukee Legal Resource Center. LexisNexis representative Lisa Rosenfeld will show you how to maximize your use of this timesaving tool during either of these one-hour sessions.
FREE class. 1 CLE credit applied for. Registration limited to 8 per class. Print registration form.

Thursday, April 14 – Using Westlaw @ WSLL
Drop-in, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Computer Training Room
The Wisconsin State Law Library now offers FREE in-library access to selected Westlaw databases! You can now search AllFeds, AllStates, Wisconsin caselaw, statutes and more, all for free on our public access stations. Here is your chance to receive one-on-one or small group instruction from our trained staff on how to use this service efficiently and effectively in your research process. No registration is required – drop in anytime between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. for free instruction and goodies!

The Milwaukee Legal Resource Center (MLRC) is also providing several opportunities to help you "Grow Your Legal Research Skills."  Classes include Winning With Westlaw on April 14 and Legal Links to Bookmark: Starting Legal Research the Quick and Inexpensive Way Online on April 21. Further details and registration information are available. Be sure to stop in at MLRC the week of April 11 for some yummy treats, to enter their daily door prize drawings, and to take their ever popular National Library Week Quiz!

WSLL suffers minor flood; no permanent damage

Shortly after 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning February 22nd during repairs to a steam heat radiator in the 3rd floor bound periodicals area, 160-degree pressurized water suddenly began spewing out of the radiator and onto the floor in the adjacent study area and under nearby book stacks. Building maintenance staff responded immediately to clean up the mess. There were no injuries, and just a very few bound volumes got slightly wet. But in order for maintenance staff to get to the water underneath the stacks, we had to remove about 150 linear feet of books from bottom shelves and temporarily store them in the compact shelving unit several yards away. Carpet shampooing removed all water stains; none of the beautiful maple and cherry stack end panels sustained any water damage; and library staff were able to reshelve the displaced books on March 4. WSLL thanks the Risser Justice Center maintenance staff for their assistance.

View flood pictures.

This month’s featured titles include:

NEW! Great Opinions By Great Judges / edited by William L. Snyder. Originally published: New York; Baker, Voorhis, 1883. Reprinted: Littleton; Fred B. Rothman & Co. (A division of William S. Hein & Co., Inc.), 1982
Call Number KF 210 .S68 1982

Legal historians and judicial scholars will find this reprint edition a most interesting and valuable collection of important judicial opinions by eminent judges. It provides not only the text of the opinion, but also an analysis explaining key details of the case and its importance within the context of legal history. Examples:

• Lord Mansfield in Somerset v. Stewart, Trinity Term, June 22nd, 1772
  [Lofft’s R., St. Tr., Vol. I, 201]
  In freeing James Somerset, Lord Mansfield declares, “The air of England is too pure for a slave to breathe.”

• Hugh H. Brackenridge On The Law Of Secret Trusts As Between Debtor And Creditor in McAllister v. Marshall, July Term, 1814 [6 Binn., 338]

• John Marshall On The Powers Of The States And The Federal Government in McCulloch v. Maryland in the U.S. Supreme Court, February Term, 1819 [4 Wheat., 400]

• Lord Stowell On The Law Of Burial And The Use of Metallic Coffins in Gilbert v. Buzzard, Consistory Court of London, July, 1821 [2 Hagg. Con., 333]

NEW EDITION! Stand Up To The IRS, 8th edition / Frederick W. Daily. Berkeley, CA; Nolo, 2005
Call Number KF 6324 .Z9 D345 2005

Just in time for tax season, Nolo, a leading publisher of “plain English” self-help legal information resources, has just released this latest edition of its self-proclaimed “book the IRS doesn’t want you to read.” It provides information on:

• Defending deductions
• Filing a late return
• Working out a long-term payment plan
• Getting a Taxpayer Assistance Order
• Stopping collection efforts
• Avoiding property seizures
• Protecting your assets
• Learning what to say when facing an auditor
• Appealing the auditor’s decision

Also included are answers to the 25 most frequently asked tax questions, a glossary of tax terms, and more than 30 sample forms.

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

To make a long story short...

In the world of web pages and email, computer users often want to send URLs (webpage addresses) within an email message. In most cases, this allows the recipient to simply click on the URL within the message and go directly to the web page of interest. Chances are that you got to this newsletter via a clickable link in your email.

But what happens when the URL is ridiculously long and does not paste nicely into an email message? Oftentimes the URL gets “broken” within the email message, and then it no longer works as a clickable link. Fortunately, there are many free services on the Internet that can turn a long, unmanageable URL into a shorter, more manageable one.

One of these services is TinyURL.com. Using this free site, you can enter a long URL into a box and click a button, and the service will return a shorter, “tiny” link which can be used in place of the real URL.

Let’s say you are interested in sending your fruitarian friend a link to US Patent 6,612,440. The URL for that patent on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office page looks like this:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nphParser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2
=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=
50&s1=6612440.WKU.&OS=PN/ 6612440&RS=PN/6612440

Instead of putting this long, unwieldy URL in an email, follow these simple steps to make a shorter, substitute URL:

• Highlight and copy the long URL (left click on the address to highlight it; then right click on the address and choose Copy from the popup menu).
• Open a new browser window and go to http://tinyurl.com.
• To enter the long URL in the box, right click inside the box and choose Paste from the popup menu.
• Click the “Make TinyURL!” button.
• The service will then display a much shorter substitute URL. In this case it gave me http://tinyurl.com/28qcf.
• You can now copy and paste this shorter URL into your email, and send it off knowing that it’ll be much easier for the recipient to use.

As mentioned above, TinyURL.com is one of several such services available on the Internet. Others include SnipURL, which also allows you to customize the new, shorter URL; Make a Shorter Link; and Shorl.com.

Upcoming Hands-On Classes

There are still a few openings in our April classes. Register today using the form available on our Classes & Tours webpage.

Westlaw at the Wisconsin State Law Library
Wednesday April 6, 2005 9–10 a.m.
Come learn about FREE Westlaw at the Wisconsin State Law Library! Westlaw representative Jon Green will demonstrate WestPack, a new service offered on the library’s public access computers. This service includes free searching of state and federal primary law – cases, statutes, codes and legislation. Library users also have access to KeyCite, online forms and treatises such as McQuillin: The Law of Municipal Corporations, Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice 2d, Fletcher Cyclopedia of the Law of Private Corporations, and much more.
PLEASE NOTE: This class will be presented as a lecture/demonstration.
FREE Class. 1 CLE credit applied for.

[If you’re unable to attend this class, visit us on Thursday, April 14 during National Library Week for a brief one-on-one session with our staff! Details are in the “What’s New” column above.]

Internet Tips & Tricks
Wednesday April 20, 2005 8:30-10:00 a.m.
As increasing amounts of information become accessible on the Internet, the legal researcher faces enormous challenges and frustrations in locating legal information efficiently. In this hands-on session you’ll learn tips and tricks for using the Internet without losing your mind. Learn the difference between search engines and directories, and how to use them to locate information quickly. Discover the secrets of the "invisible web." Track Wisconsin appellate dockets. Utilize free legal research sites. Save time and money, and let someone else do the work for you, by using resources such as the State Law Library's web site as an Internet "legal yellow pages."
Fee: $50.00. 1.5 CLE credits applied for. Registration is limited to 8.

Odds 'n' Endings -- Julie Tessmer

Check Your Credit Report for Free

Free Credit Reports are now available to Wisconsin residents. An amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months. For more information on this topic visit our Legal Topics page on Credit/Debt.

Notables for April

April is National Poetry Month, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets.

There are a number of famous lawyers who were also poets, including John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States; Francis Scott Key, author of the Star-Spangled Banner and other songs and poems; and James B. Martindale, publisher of the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. To read more about famous lawyer-poets, visit the University of West Virginia’s website. The College of Law has compiled an extensive list.

3 - Remember to set your clocks to “spring forward” for Daylight Saving Time! The Uniform Time Act of 1966 provided the basic framework for alternating between daylight saving time and standard time. However, the current system of beginning DST at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in April and ending at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in October was not standardized until 1986.

12 - Happy 56th Birthday to attorney and author Scott Turow! Our Prose & Cons legal fiction collection contains several of Turow’s legal thrillers. We welcome donations of new and gently used legal fiction books, audiobooks, videos and DVD’s to the Prose & Cons collection. Thanks!

15 - The Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution states, “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes….” If you’re a procrastinator when it comes to doing your taxes, you may be interested in reading some of the history behind the various tax filing deadlines used in the past. The Tax History Project provides information on the history of tax day as well as links to Presidential tax returns.

27 - Administrative Professionals Day This annual event was originally organized in 1952 as "National Secretaries Week" by the National Secretaries Association. The organization is now the International Association of Administrative Professionals.

28 - Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day