Wisconsin State Law Library

Transformation and Transitions in 2021 - Amy Crowder

On April 20, 1836, then President Andrew Jackson signed an act creating the Territory of Wisconsin. (5 Stat. 10, April 20, 1836) The same federal act appropriated $5000 towards the purchase of books and the creation of a library to support the new government. (5 Stat. 10, sec. 17, April 20, 1836) Throughout the years, the Wisconsin State Law Library has served the legal information needs of the people of this state. In 2021, the library marked its 185th year of service.

The State Law Library continued to increase our services in 2021. One of the library's most notable accomplishments was hosting the current Wisconsin civil, criminal, and children's jury instructions on the State Law Library website. The library also expanded access for library cardholders throughout the state by adding two new sources to our digital collection, Lexis Digital, an eBook database, and CCH AnswerConnect which provides federal and Wisconsin tax-related information.

In 2021, the State Law Library continued to meet the demand for services remotely and in-person. Reference librarians researched and responded to reference questions via phone and email. With vaccines widely available in the state, the David T. Prosser Jr. State Law Library's doors re-opened to the public in July 2021. Once again, library users could independently use the library's print collection, digital subscription databases, and special collections such as briefs and legislative drafting files.

The State Law Library continued to reach out to the greater Wisconsin community. Librarians offered focused presentations to organizations and state agencies, well-attended CLE webinars, sessions at the Municipal Attorneys Institute, UW Forward Fest, and two sessions each at the Wisconsin Library Association Annual Conference and the Wisconsin Association for Legal Professionals.

The past year required transformation in services and regular communication with a broad range of library users and service partners. In 2021, the branch law libraries transitioned from remote phone and email reference help to socially distanced in-person services. The Dane County Law Library reopened its doors to on-site library services in May 2021, after a period of partnering with the Clerk of Court window to provide access to court forms. The Milwaukee County Law Library shifted from hallway pickup of court forms and copies to full walk-in services in August. For our two branch libraries, collaboration and communication with service partners were essential throughout the year.

In our 185th year of service, the Wisconsin State Law Library continued to be a reliable source of law-related information for the court system, government, attorneys, and the people of this state. To learn more about our year of service, please read the newly released 2021 Wisconsin State Law Library Annual Report.

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New Books - Kari Zelinka

New Book! Crisis Lawyering: Effective Legal Advocacy in Emergency Situations, edited by Ray Brescia & Eric K Stern, 2021
Call Number: KF 300 .C75 2021

While it's impossible to predict and plan for all situations, we all know that if you can remain calm in a crisis, outcomes tend to be better. If you are dealing with clients' crises as your livelihood, you may benefit from the insight in the essays collected in Crisis Lawyering: Effective Legal Advocacy in Emergency Situations. The authors give advice on how to keep the lines of communication open with clients, discuss what ethics rules apply to certain situations, and what to do when conflicts of interest occur.

Chapters include:

• A client's crisis becomes a legal crisis: a domestic violence ruling goes global
• When crisis comes to the newsroom: the media lawyer in a time of global unrest
• Key considerations for lawyers shepherding communities through long-term recovery from major disasters
• The crisis comes once a year: lawyering on election day
• Bordering on crisis: overcoming multiagency crisis coordinating challenges
• Leveraging lawyers' strengths and training them to support team problem-solving under crisis conditions
• Stay calm and carry on: how to stay on point when in a crisis

New Edition! Endangered Species Act: Law, Policy, and Perspectives, 3rd edition, 2021
Call Number: KF 5640 .E4824 2021

This newly updated, third edition of Endangered Species Act: law, policy, and perspectives is appropriate for new practitioners as well as experienced attorneys. The processes for listing species and designating critical habitat is described in great detail.  Chapters are authored by experts in government, private sector and non-profits. For information including state-level and international efforts to protect wildlife, check out this book today!

Chapters include:

• Historical background of the Endangered Species Act
• Critical habitat
• Interagency consultation and conservation duties under section 7
• Habitat conservation plans
• Landowner incentives
• Plants
• Citizen suits
• State Endangered Species Acts
• Captive wildlife
• Navigating the science-policy interface
• Reward landowners to recover species: a regulated community perspective

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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New Tax Display - Abby Hartenbower

Check out the books on display this month at the State Law Library! For the months of March and April browse a selection of books related to tax topics, including:

Federal Tax Procedures for Attorneys, by W. Patrick Cantrell
Call Number KF 6320 .C36 2015

Intended as a basic reference manual for the casual practitioner of tax procedure as well as by more serious scholars, Federal Tax Procedures for Attorneys offers a nuts-and-bolts approach to solving specific and common problems that arise in everyday tax practice. This practical guide is primarily focused with Internal Revenue Code sections 6000 to 9000. Author W. Patrick Cantrell, is both a lawyer and a tax professional and provides insight and practical tips on all aspects of federal tax controversies.

Home Business Tax Deductions, by Stephen Fishman, J.D.
Call Number KF 6395 .B88 F57 2022

Ensure you're getting all of your money back this tax season by consulting this helpful NOLO guide. Intended for home business owners, this book can show you how you can deduct all or most of your business expenses from your federal taxes. Not intended to be a tax preparation guide, this book can be used all year round to avoid common deduction mistakes.  The 18th edition covers amended and extended tax laws for business owners affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Visit the Wisconsin State Law Library's Legal Topics page on Tax Law and Tax Law research guide for a growing list of internet resources including forms, laws, revenue rulings, private letter rulings, publications and more.

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Tech Tip - Heidi Yelk

Finding (and citing) newspaper articles

On the surface, finding news content via the internet is fast and easy—until you're asked to find a specific article on a specific date that may be hiding behind a paywall. Here are some things to keep in mind when trying to find newspaper articles.

Dates: The day an article appeared in the print newspaper is not necessarily the same date it appeared online. When using an internet search engine, remember the engine is crawling newspaper websites. If the story is not where you expect it, check the day before and day after as well.

Headlines: An online article can (and often does) carry a different headline in print. A colleague may remember a date or headline of an article but the medium matters when you are trying to find that same article. The example here shows the same article with different headlines for different formats of the same publication.

Versions: Just as headlines can change, text of an online article may change also. The print version may be longer (or shorter) than the online version.

A proper citation should eliminate the problems of conflicting headlines, wrong dates, and confusion over revisions. The Bluebook now makes citing to an online newspaper easier than ever. Next month, Tech Tip will review proper citation of newspaper articles, with a focus on electronic versions.

If you are spinning your wheels trying to find a specific news article (or are being blocked by a paywall), don't waste valuable time. Visit a library or contact your librarian! Librarians are adept at deciphering bad citations and they have many resources and methods to access news content.

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Library News - Carol Hassler

Construct commercial leases

Amy Crowder penned an article in February's State Bar of Wisconsin InsideTrack on crafting commercial lease agreements. Get a survey of the best sources for form language and analysis in print and online through our library.

Winter CLE Classes

Webinars for 2022 are now open for registration through the Wisconsin State Law Library. Registration for each webinar is limited to 100. Registrations will be approved daily by the moderator. Once your registration is approved, you will get an email confirmation with connection information. Please reach out to carol.hassler@wicourts.gov with questions.

Tax Research Sources and Strategies
Thursday, March 10, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Location: Live webinar - Register for Tax Research Sources and Strategies
1 CLE credit
Tax research is always in season! Get an overview of major tax law databases available in the library or remotely with a library card. Learn about major sources for understanding federal and state tax law. Get tips for topical research using CCH AnswerConnect and major treatises. This class will survey tax decision sources and go over research strategies to find opinions by subject or citation.

Introduction to Wisconsin Legislative History
Wednesday, April 6, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Location - Live webinar - Register for Introduction to Wisconsin Legislative History
1 CLE credit applied for
I need the legislative history of a Wisconsin statute. Where do I start? What do I do? Participants will look at the primary resources used to research Wisconsin legislative history, learn about the online Wisconsin legislative drafting files, and learn some helpful tips and tricks along the way. This introductory class covers basic research strategies and sources.

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March Snapshot

Last month we joined other libraries in Wisconsin for #LibraryShelfieDay - a day to share library shelves and book displays. We shared photos of each of our three libraries on our Facebook page. Did you take a library #shelfie?

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

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