Wisconsin State Law Library

What's New - Carol Hassler

Staff News

At the end of May the library said goodbye to Devin Rogers, Cataloger. Devin began working at the Wisconsin State Law Library (WSLL) 6 years ago as a part time circulation and shelving assistant. A little over a year later she assumed the Library Assistant role, helping to process and maintain the library collection. In December 2012 Devin accepted the Cataloger position.

During her tenure as Cataloger Devin was instrumental in several library catalog enhancement projects and contributed to the Wisconsin Digital Archives. She has been involved in promoting library events like National Library Week and our 175th anniversary celebration and for over a year assisted users with research requests at the reference desk. Devin and her husband are moving back to their home state of New York and will be greatly missed.

WSLL is pleased to introduce Eileen Castro, our new circulation and filing assistant. Eileen recently graduated from the UW-Madison with a degree in Social Welfare. Welcome, Eileen!

Librarians Speak Out

State Law Librarian Julie Tessmer spoke at the Wisconsin Register in Probate Association's Spring Conference in April. Julie presented the program titled WSLL Web Tour which highlights the library's website and services. Of particular interest to the audience was the library's Publications page where we link to print-ready versions of our library bookmark, brochure, and Start Here guides.

Catalog Locations Demystified

Links explaining library collection locations were recently added to our online catalog. These new links lead to a brief description of the location (for example, Treatises) and where to find the item - whether at WSLL or our Milwaukee or Dane County legal resource centers. A floor plan is available for WSLL; floor plans will be added for the resource centers soon. If you need help locating any item in any library, please Ask a Librarian for help.

Law Day 2014

The Wisconsin State Law Library and Dane County Legal Resource Center (DCLRC) marked May 1st, Law Day, with a variety of events. WSLL presented two fifteen minute live online presentations on using HeinOnline, archived on our YouTube page. DCLRC librarian Lisa Winkler helped organize events at the Dane County Courthouse including a community mock trial, free CLE seminars, and free pro se legal consultations hosted in the DCLRC. Watch for a detailed recap of Dane County events in the next issue of Third Branch.

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This Just In - Pete Boll

New Edition and New Title! Family Law in Wisconsin: A Forms and Procedures Handbook, 8th Edition, (2013-2014 Revision), by Gregg M. Herman and Kelley J. Shock.
State Bar of Wisconsin, 2014
WSLL Call Number: KFW 2500 .L6 S952

The eighth edition of the State Bar's standard family law treatise has a new title. The System Book for Family Law is now known as Family Law in Wisconsin: a forms and procedures handbook. The title has changed, but the format and organization remain the same. Among the highlights in this newest edition are significant updates to chapter 14H on the impact of bankruptcy on divorce. Mandatory family court forms have also been updated. Please take note of the new title; however, WSLL staff will know what users mean when they simply ask for "the State Bar brown binder on family law."

New Edition! Wisconsin Real Estate Law, 2014 ed., by Scott C. Minter and Debra Peterson Conrad.
University of Wisconsin Law School, 2014
WSLL Call Number: KFW 2512 .M32 2014

Updated for the first time since 2010, this continues to be a collaboration of the UW Law School and the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association. Highlights of the 2014 edition include:

• Expanded and updated discussions on important topics such as listing contracts, offers to purchase, disclosure obligations, and agency duties
• Updates on contract interpretation and remedies, closing issues, housing discrimination, land use controls, and trust accounting
• State regulation of real estate brokerage
• The powers of the Real Estate Examining Board
• Licensing requirements
• Practical analysis of the changes to WB-11, Residential Offer to Purchase
• Disclosure and misrepresentation
• Mortgage lending
• Wisconsin and federal legislation on foreclosures and fraudulent lending/borrowing
• New Wisconsin regulations on shoreland development and wetlands
• Recent changes in landlord-tenant law

See our latest New Titles list for a list of new books and other resources.

For assistance in accessing these or other resources, please contact our Reference Desk.

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Tech Tip - Heidi Yelk

If you're a Firefox user, by now you've likely settled in to the latest version of Firefox - version 29, released about a month ago. If you are not a Firefox user, now might be a good time to take another look at this browser.

Among the "big three" desktop browsers, Firefox lags significantly behind Chrome and slightly behind IE. The new Firefox look is Chrome-like while making use of intuitive graphics.

Firefox 29 includes many slick new features but one of the most practical is the one-click bookmark tool. To bookmark a page, click the star and watch it jump. Click the bookmark icon to the right of the star to see a drop down menu of all bookmarks. When you re-visit a page you've already bookmarked, the star will be solid blue - a clear visual indication that it's already on your list.

Another new feature is "drag and drop" to customize the browser workspace. Drag and drop can be used to add actions to the menu or tool bar. Users can customize with features they use most - such as the "find" tool.

To add actions, click on the "menu" icon then choose "customize" in the lower left corner. Then drag and drop features to the toolbar.

The Mozilla Support Center offers many Firefox help topics which include short videos.

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WSLL Recommends: Millers Standard Insurance Policies

With over 187,000 annotations to state and federal cases decided since 1978, Miller's Standard Insurance Policies Annotated is a treasure trove of American standard property and liability insurance policy interpretations. This reference treatise also features over 1,000 endorsements, reported court decisions interpreting nonstandard policy language, and many forms reprinted with the permission of the Insurance Service Office, Inc. (ISO). Each annotation notes the prevailing party, jurisdiction, and decision date to help the reader quickly identify on point case law. There are a few different ways to locate information using Volume 1 Locator of Forms and Annotations. For a specific form - whether it is a policy, endorsement, or specific coverage provision - the Locator index lists forms alphabetically by form abbreviation. Check the Supplement Annotations Locator for recent updates. Without a specific provision in mind use Miller's Index to find forms and sections related to a particular topic, word, phrase, or coverage provision. This index is particularly helpful for finding information that uses a similar but different term, such as "family member" versus "relative." Topics include:

• Policy forms
• Personal auto
• Personal auto endorsements
• Homeowners, watercraft, flood and personal umbrella
• Commercial auto
• General liability
• 1973 / 1981 General liability policies and general liability endorsements
• Professional responsibility and management professional liability
• Commercial property
• Businessowners, equipment breakdown, inland marine and commercial umbrella

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Odds 'n' Endings - Danni Niles and Carol Hassler

The Prose & Cons reading area features soft seating and rotating book displays.

Recommended Reading

Very few heroines have captured the attention of audiences like V.I. Warshawski. A street-smart private investigator, V.I. was one of the first female characters in the mystery genre who was neither a victim nor vamp. Instead she barrels through city streets righting social injustices and occasionally crashing her car. Even when death stares her in the face, she still keeps her sarcastic wit. Her adventures are sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats.

The novel Blacklist is the perfect way to meet V.I. In this novel she has to solve a mystery that spans four generations. A reporter's death is connected to the McCarthy-era blacklists and tangled with sex, money, and power. But before V.I. can unearth the truth she has to confront some of the shadier depths of the Patriot Act. Blacklist won the Gold Dagger from the British Crime Writers for best novel of 2004. You can check out Blacklist or four other V.I. Warshawski novels in WSLL's Prose & Cons collection.

Prose & Cons Donations

Our Prose & Cons collection grows with your donations! Donate gently used legal fiction, DVDs, or Blu-Ray discs to the library by dropping them off at the Circulation Desk or mailing them to WSLL. Located in a comfortable reading area on the third floor of the Wisconsin State Law Library, browse our Prose & Cons collection for entertaining books and videos relating to courts and the criminal justice system.

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