Author: bjshucha

Newly Updated ALWD Guide to Legal Citation Complements, Illuminates the Bluebook

If you’re a legal practitioner or scholar, you’re almost certainly familiar with The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation.  But you may not have heard of the ALWD Guide to Legal Citation. ALWD, from the Association of Legal Writing Directors, is designed to complement the Bluebook.  Whenever I have a  legal citation question that the Bluebook …

LSA Statement on US News’ Rejection of Scholarly Impact Metric

Earlier today, the Law & Society Association has issued a statement on U.S. News’ decision not to proceed with its proposal to add a measure of “scholarly impact” to its law school rankings.  LSA is pleased that the measure will not proceed. The Law & Society Association was concerned with the implications for our members, …

Convert Text to Speech & Download as MP3 with FreeTTS

So many interesting articles, so little time to read them.  Enter FreeTTS, a free online tool that creates an audio version of any text as a downloadable MP3 file so I can listen as I go about my day – on my commute, walking the dogs, doing the dishes, etc. It’s very easy to use.  …

2021 Release of the WI Criminal Jury Instructions Now Available

From the Wisconsin State Law Library: The Wisconsin Criminal Jury Instructions have recently been updated, with a 2021 release approved by the Wisconsin Judicial Conference’s Criminal Jury Instructions Committee. The fifty-ninth supplement to the Criminal Jury Instructions updates the publication on legislative actions and judicial decisions through August 2021. The update includes revisions of twenty-nine existing jury instructions, as …

State Street Adult Coloring Book Captures Life on UW Campus, Downtown Madison, 2020-21

If you’re an art enthusiast, a history buff, or simply a lover of Madison, head to the Goodman South Branch of the Madison Public Library this Thursday, Sept 9th from 6-7:30 for a talk by Doug Haynes, local artist, and creator of the State Street Adult Coloring Book. This coloring book depicts a central intersection …

In Response to Rising Need, UW Law School Launches New Eviction Defense Clinic

In response to the rising need for eviction defense, the University of Wisconsin Law School is launching a new Eviction Defense Clinic this fall.  This new clinic will join five other civil, anti-poverty clinical programs (listed below) as part of the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Economic Justice Institute (EJI).  The funding for the program …

Two Law Scholars Join UW Law Faculty: Nate Atkinson (Business Law) & Stephanie Holmes Didwania (Criminal Justice)

The University of Wisconsin Law School is thrilled to welcome two new faculty members: Nate Atkinson is an assistant professor whose research focuses on the fields of corporate misconduct, contract law, and social choice theory. As an economist, Atkinson applies quantitative analysis to the study of the law. Atkinson’s current research projects include examining how prosecutors’ concerns …

HeinOnline Enhances Subject Searching with New PathFinder – But Still Has a Few Bumps

HeinOnline recently introduced a new feature called PathFinder that offers more robust subject searching.  PathFinder is a multi-level subject taxonomy in which broad research concepts are divided into increasingly granular levels.  Both text and graphical interfaces are available as shown below.   PathFinder is available as a search option from the HenOnline Law Journal Library …

Google’s “About This Result” Panel Offers Insight into your Search Results

Have you ever been puzzled by the results from a Google search?  Found yourself wondering how Google connected those results to the words you typed, especially if you didn’t get exactly what you were expecting to find?  Fortunately, the newly enhanced About This Result panel offers some contextual insight into your search results. To view the …

Responding to US News’ Decision Not to Create Scholarly Impact Ranking – Law Librarians Still Play a Key Role in Maximizing Scholarly Visibility

After raising numerous concerns from the legal academic community, Brian Leiter reports that U.S. News has decided not to produce its own scholarly impact ranking.  Chief among these concerns is that the exclusion of interdisciplinary scholarship and books in the ranking would create an incomplete representation of law faculty scholarly impact, skewing especially heavily against schools with …