NCCU's Web VPN (Virtual Private Network)

Did you know you could access Law Library databases from remote locations?

NCCU's Web VPN (Virtual Private Network) provides remote access to the Law Library's Electronic Resources web page. There you have the ability to use Law Library resources as if you were on campus. Faculty, student and staff with a NCCU username and password have access to Web VPN.

To access NCCU's Web VPN, follow the following link: https://webvpn.nccu.edu and enter your username and password. The supported Web browsers are: Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla and Firefox.

Please feel free to contact a member of the Reference staff if you have any questions.

Welcome Faculty Services Librarian Michelle Cosby

Michelle Cosby joined the North Carolina Central University School of Law Library staff as the Faculty Services Librarian on May 6, 2010. She is active at the national and regional levels of the American Association of Law Libraries. Previously, Cosby was the Information Services Librarian at the University of Miami, where she taught a variety of bibliographic instruction courses. In November 2007, she joined the staff of the University of Kentucky College of Law Library as a Reference Librarian, where she provided reference services to patrons. Cosby received her JD and her MLS from Indiana University – Bloomington in 2006 and is a member of the Indiana State Bar.

Bar Exam Study Aids

Congratulations to the graduating class of 2010!

Did you know the Law Library houses various study aids to assist you with bar preparation?

• Rigo's Bar Review is a series of books which offers a review on all portions of the multistate tests, (Multistate Essay Exam (MEE), the Multistate Performance Test (MPT) and the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE)). Rigo's provides sample essays, questions and answers.
  
• The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) publishes study aids which are comprised of archived questions from past bar exams along with sample answers. The NCBE publications cover all portions of the multistate tests.
• The Law Library has gathered and compiled North Carolina Bar Exams from 2000 to 2008 in one centralized notebook.
  

We are committed to serving you and wish you success on the bar exam. Please stop by the reference desk if you have any questions about the bar review materials.

The Death of Civil Rights leader Dorothy Height

Civil rights leader Dorothy Height died today at the age of 98. Height was a key figure in the struggles for school desegregation, voting rights, employment and public accommodations. She served as president of the National Council for Negro Women for 40 years.
President Obama called her a hero and the "godmother" of the movement, noting she "served as the only woman at the highest level of the civil rights movement -- witnessing every march and milestone along the way."

The Law Library is Excited to Introduce a new Reference Service: Legal Eagle Reference Chat

The Law Library is excited to announce a new reference service, Legal Eagle Reference Chat. Legal Eagle Reference Chat is a service that allows NCCU law students, faculty and staff, to send instant messages with the NCCU Law Library reference staff. Reference chat can help you stay connected to the law library and assist in your research needs. The service is available Monday-Friday from 9:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m., Saturday 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. and Sunday 1:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.

In order to access Legal Eagle Reference Chat you must have a personal account with one of the three major chat networks: AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger. Each chat network requires you to install its own chat software or other chat software, such as Meebo, which allows you to chat over all three major networks. Below are the messenger networks and the reference chat screen names:

• Yahoo Messenger- legaleaglechat@yahoo.com

• AOL Messenger- legaleaglechat@aol.com
  

• MSN Messenger-ID: referencelaw@nccu.edu Screen name: legaleaglechat

The reference staff is committed to meeting your research needs. We look forward to chatting with you soon!

New Online Catalog

The libraries on the NCCU campus have a new online catalog!

The new catalog will look familiar to you and has a feel like online retailers such as Amazon. Search result illustrations are of the actual book cover if the copyright date is 2004 or later.

The new catalog also gives you the ability to mark items and save them to a list that you can print. You can also send it as text message or bookmark using applications such as Delicious.


Other features:

• Some items link directly to google books http://books.google.com which may enable you to have access to some or all of the item online.
• A sidebar with links to subject headings will allow you to narrow down your search easily.
  

If you have any questions about the new catalog, please contact a member of the law library staff.

RIA Checkpoint

The Law Library has discontinued its subscription to the CCH Tax Service database and is now using the University’s subscription to RIA Checkpoint for tax and accounting research.

When you are on campus, you can use the following URL to access the database: http://tiny.cc/HZuwX. However, when you are off campus, you will need to access the database using the Campus Web VPN network.

To access NCCU’s WebVPN, follow the steps below:

Go to: https://webvpn.nccu.edu.

1. From the log in page, log in with your NCCU username and password- generally your campus account log in information.
2. From this screen, click on the NCCU Library-Electronic Databases.
3. The alphabetical listing of electronic databases will open. Click on “R” to go to the page which has the RIA checkpoint link.
4. You do not need to pre-register to use RIA Checkpoint as the note on the website indicates.

Please contact any member of the reference staff, 530-6715 or referencelaw@nccu.edu, if you have any difficulty accessing RIA Checkpoint or would like additional training on the database.