UHLC Nota Bene

As regular readers of this blog will already know, last year Congress.gov replaced THOMAS as the official government website for federal legislative information. Since then, the Library of Congress, which operates the site, has continued to make additions and improvements. The latest update occurred earlier this week, and includes the following new features: ·         A “Listen” feature that allows users to listen to audio files of bill summaries. ·         The addition of bill titles to legislative email alerts. ·         More appropriation tables, now going back to fiscal year 2005. ·         A “search within” feature for committee and member pages. For a full list of enhancements included in the update, see this blog post from the Law Library of Congress.

Earlier this month, Google launched a new version of its Google Patents search engine. Like the previous version, the new Google Patents combines patent records from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), European Patent Office (EPO), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (DPMA), Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), and China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO). What’s different about the new Google Patents is that it uses a machine classification model to integrate Google Scholar’s non-patent materials, which are classified under the Cooperative Patent Classification System. This makes it easier to search for prior art across a wide range of sources, including books and technical journals. The new Google Patents also incorporates Google Translate to allow users to search foreign patent documents using English keywords. For more information, see “About the new Google Patents” on the Google Help page....

Those who have enjoyed using the LexisNexis Tax Center will be happy to know that Lexis Advance now features a tax research tool that provides access to the Internal Revenue Code, the Treasury Regulations, tax cases, and administrative decisions, all available from one page. There are also numerous secondary sources, including practice guides, treatises, handbooks, and news sources such as the following: Lexis Tax Advisor-Federal Code Reporter Federal Tax Legislative Analysis (Matthew Bender) Rabkin & Johnson, Federal Tax Guidebook Tax Analysts Tax Notes Today Tax  Analysts State Tax Today Tax Analysts Worldwide Tax Daily Browsing under "Treatise & Practice Guides" is the most effective way to peruse the different treatises and practice guides The same search options that are available for Lexis Advance are available to those using the Lexis Advance Tax tool, and search results can be filtered by date and source and can be refined by further searches. Lexis...

The second edition of Mastering Professional Responsibility by Grace M. Giesel has been recently published by Carolina Academic Press and is now available in the library ( KF306.G547 2015 ). The first section of this book begins with an overview of the different sources of professional responsibility law such as the ABA model rules and ethics opinions and explores the attorney discipline process. The Lawyer-Client relationship is explored fully as issues ranging from competence to malpractice are discussed. Confidentiality, with a entire chapter devoted to the attorney client privilege and the attorney work product doctrine, and conflict of interest matters are also covered. This book is ideal for those desiring a background in professional responsibility, materials to supplement exam preparation, and could be helpful for preparation for the MPRE (Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam) The library has several sources for those interested in professional responsibility incl...

This week the new edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation arrived at the O'Quinn Law Library. Nearly 50 pages longer than 2010's 19th edition, the rules and structure are largely similar to previous editions, but some important changes have been made. Here are a few of the major revisions: Bluepages: The Bluepages (for non-academic citation) have been re-formatted to follow the same structure as the white pages (academic citation) and Bluetable BT2 includes revised jurisdiction-specific citation rules. Quotations, Rule 5.2(d)(i): No longer requires indication of the ommission of internal quotation marks. Short Forms of Cases, Rule 10.9(iii): Addition guidance provided for short forms of cites for slip opinions. Administrative & Executive Materials, Rule 14: Rule 14.2(b) has been expanded to include detailed information on citing comments to agencies. Rule 14.2(d) gives more detailed information on citing guidance documents. Rule 14....

Since Lexis Advance launched in December 2011, the structure and user-interface of the legal research platform has taken many forms. The 2014 Lexis Advance updates included additional content, improved browsing features, and a more user-friendly home screen. Recently, LexisNexis released its newest research tool, Practice Pages. The major legal research systems have in the last few years placed increased emphasis on customized pages centered around key practice areas like bankruptcy or intellectual property. WestlawNext provides an increasing number of customized pages through its Practitioner Insights, and Bloomberg Law covers a similar range of topics through its Practice Centers. Generally, these pages offer links to the leading primary and secondary sources as well as legal news and other tools. The Practice Pages introduced in Lexis Advance offer similar resources in its collection of topics. The more interesting feature of the Lexis Advance Practice Pages is the jurisdictiona...

Attorneys at Bracewell & Giuliani LLP have created an app providing helpful information on shale gas and hydraulic fracturing.   It aggregates news from a variety of news sources as well as energy law specific publications such as the Energy Law Blog and FuelFix.   Users can also select from approximately 50 countries to view news and a list of active oil and gas companies in that nation.   The app also provides an interactive map of the United States, showing the location of a number of shale plays as well as news from each state.   Finally, the app also provides a glossary of shale gas terms and a timeline showing the history of hydraulic fracturing. The app is free and available for both Apple and Android devices.    

The Sunlight Foundation has undertaken a project to create a free inventory of federal and state criminal justice data.   The inventory provides information regarding where researchers can find the data on the internet (if available) as well as the time period the data covers, whether it has been updated recently, and how often is it updated.   The inventory also includes information regarding whether the data is from a government, private, or non-profit entity and the name of the entity.   Currently, the inventory contains information about criminal justice topics for 36 states (including Texas), the District of Columbia and the federal government, but they plan to expand the information to all 50 states soon.   The data is available for a number of topics including Law Enforcement, Crime, Courts, Corrections, Victims, Financial, and Juvenile Justice.   To access the data or to submit a dataset, visit the Criminal Justice Data Project website.   To...