Bluebook 19th Edition has arrived!

The 19th edition of the Bluebook has arrived and is available at the Reference Desk. This edition, overhauled and expanded the "Bluepages". These pages were created primarily for practitioners and law clerks to use when citing authority within non-academic legal documents. Additionally, Rule 18, Electronic Media and Other Nonprint Resources, has been revised to address increased citation to Internet sources.

A must for law students, the Bluebook is available for purchase from most legal book vendors. An online subscription is also available at www.legalbluebook.com.

Facebook Fan Page

Stay connected with the law library through our Facebook Fan Page. The Fan Page contains lots of useful information, such as links to helpful tutorials, and CiteMe, a tool that can help you improve your citation sentences. And don't forget to check out the "Boxes" tab. There you can click on links to chat live with a reference librarian or access our catalog without even leaving Facebook.

You can access our page by clicking here or by clicking the link on the left hand side of this blog.

Summer Access to Lexis and Westlaw

Access to Lexis and Westlaw are reduced in the summer months. If you need full access to these services for summer school or summer employment, please do the following:

Lexis Summer Access

If you are a current student, or a recent graduate doing Public Interest work, you can sign up for Lexis Aspire (on the top right hand side of the screen).

If you are in summer school, studying for the bar, or performing research for a professor, you too can have summer access. Sign-on to your Lexis account and visit the Summer Access page.

Westlaw Summer Access

Westlaw also grants summer extensions if you meet their requirements. Please go to the Westlaw Password Extension Page to see if you qualify and to gain access.

If you have any problems with these procedure, please see a reference librarian or call 919-530-6715.

Free Online Access to State Codes and Registers

If you are doing administrative research, you may need access to a state's code (think Code of Federal Regulations) or a state's register (think Federal Register). Finding this information online can prove difficult at times. The Administrative Code and Register (ACR) Section of NASS has compiled all of the online version of these documents for all 50 states.

Remember though, these may not be the official versions of these materials, please consult the Bluebook for citation information.

Click here to access the State Code and Register site.

Click here to access the ACR home page.

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.