Wisconsin State Law Library

July 20th Library Closed for Staff In-Service

The David T. Prosser Jr. State Law Library will be closed from 8 am to 10 am on Thursday, July 20th for a staff in-service. The Dane County Law Library and the Milwaukee County Law Library will be open during this time.

To ask a question to the Wisconsin State Law Library while we are closed, you may call us at 608-267-9696 or Ask a Librarian online.

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Free Research with Your Library Card - Carol Hassler

The Wisconsin State Law Library provides our users access to three major legal databases when they log in with a State Law Library card. (Video: how to log in with your card) Index to Legal Periodicals, LegalTrac, and HeinOnline offer access to current legal articles. HeinOnline also provides an extensive catalog of primary law material, treatises and other secondary materials, and historical information.

Legal articles, which can be found in all three databases, are excellent sources for keeping up with trends and emerging areas of the law. You can find legal articles in law reviews, law journals, bar journals, and legal newspapers, all four of which are available full text in these three databases. In addition to being great sources for updating your legal research, articles are terrific places to find citations to recent cases or books to help you leap forward in your research.

Our most popular database, HeinOnline, also offers the greatest breadth of research material. Search the full text of thousands of law journals, as well as specialty collections like state Attorney General opinions, 50-State law surveys, and Federal primary law. HeinOnline also has a partnership with FastCase, so references to journals and historical statutory materials uncovered in FastCase can be accessed through the State Law Library’s provision of HeinOnline - making this a valuable tool for the small firm or solo attorney.

Index to Legal Periodicals provides access to many full text articles, as well as citations to law journals that are not available online. This database provides robust keyword searching as well as detailed and easily browsed indexes, like its assiduously maintained subject or author indexes.

LegalTrac offers an easy Google-like search screen to search thousands of journals, as well as tools to help researchers narrow their search by browsing through broad and narrow topics.

Log in to each of these databases from our catalog or by using the links on our Articles & Journals page.

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New Books - Kari Zelinka

New Title! Wisconsin Sentencing in the Tough-on-Crime Era: How Judges Retained Power and Why Mass Incarceration Happened Anyway, Michael O'Hear
University of Wisconsin Press, 2017
Call Number: KFW 2983.2 O34 2017

O’Hear analyzes imprisonment in Wisconsin, where judges have much discretion in sentencing and prison rates have still increased dramatically in the last 40 years. He shows that these results can not all be pinpointed to the “three strikes” laws and other crime bills.

Chapters include:

• The Seventies Synthesis
• The Equivocal Assault on Discretion, 1980-1995
• The Quest for Improved Community Corrections, 1980-1997
• The Demise of Parole, 1994-2002
• Managerialism’s Modest Comeback, the Early 2000’s
• Wisconsin’s War on Drugs
• Lessons

New Title! Do English-Only Rules Have a Place in the Workplace?: A Legal Research Guide, Amy R. Stein
William S. Hein and Co., Inc., 2017
Call Number: KF3466.S84 2017

It is unlawful to discriminate against an employee on the basis of national origin; however, English-only rules bring to light a grey area of the law. In our diverse workforce, this type of claim is increasing. This guide highlights examples in situations where employers and employees seek guidance.

Sections on secondary and primary sources include:

• Law reviews
• Federal statues
• Federal regulations and EEOC manual
• English only rules
• State statues
• Cases

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

Technology meets nature

Summertime is break time. If you have time to get outdoors and enjoy Wisconsin, you might find these apps interesting and useful.

Wisconsin DNR provides two mobile apps for outdoor activities: The Official Guide for Wisconsin State Parks and Forests and Wisconsin’s Fishing and The Official Guide for Wisconsin’s Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife. Go to DNR Mobile Apps for more information.

Identifying birds and plants is half the fun of being out in nature. Check out these apps to help you along the way. Key to Woody Plants of Wisconsin Forests by Field Day Lab at UW-Madison is a free app for Apple products. Wisconsin Wildflowers App is free on Google Play and iTunes. The Audubon Bird Guide app helps you identify birds by sight and sound. The Merlin Bird ID Wizard by CornellLab asks questions such size, color, behavior to help you identify birds - free on iTunes and Google Play.

Finally, no Boy or Girl Scout would be caught outdoors unprepared. Visit the Red Cross for a list of apps related to first aid (for humans and pets), weather and natural disaster alerts.

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Library News - Kristina Martinez

Staff News

Kari Zelinka has been hired as the new Acquisitions Librarian and will be in charge of purchasing materials for the State Law Library as well our other collections at the branch libraries and court offices, as well as providing reference services. She looks forward to learning more about the collections and highlighting new resources each month in WSLL @ Your Service. In her free time, she enjoys watching her kids and garden grow and change with the seasons.

Emily Shultz is our new library assistant working with the briefs collection. This fall she will be a second-year Library and Information Studies graduate student at UW-Madison. She previously worked at Memorial Library and has experience with digitization and metadata through a non-profit company called the Center for Railroad Photography and Art.

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July Snapshot

Iowa State Capitol, June 2017
Photo by Julie Tessmer

Now accepting snapshots! Do you have a photo highlighting libraries, attractions or points of historical interest? Send your photo to the editor at Kristina.martinez@wicourts.gov to be included in a future issue.

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