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InfoPro Home > Professional Development > Monthly Column
Getting Up to Speed – Pronto
(February 2005)
By
Leanne Battle,
Librarian Relations Consultant
The holiday season is over and winter
looks like it’s here to stay. It must be February! Sometimes it
feels like February is the longest month of the year as we wait
anxiously for spring to arrive. But take heart – it’s only
twenty-eight days until blustery March blows away the winter blahs!
Given that February is the shortest month of the year we have even
less time to get through our respective “to-do” lists. What we all
need this month is a few shortcuts.
We all have favorite areas of
research and areas that make us a little nervous. Questions about
demographics fill my heart with joy while questions from medical
malpractice litigators elicit something akin to nausea. What I need
for in many cases is a quick way to get up to speed – something to
help me identify core resources, identify key players and define
terms. In other cases I need a direct route to hard-to-find
information or a one-stop-shop to prevent endless wandering. So,
here’s a list of shortcuts that help me feel smarter, faster.
For general legal reference I rely
on two resources in particular:
- Virtual Chase Legal
Research Guides (http://www.virtualchase.com/resources/index.shtml)
Entertaining your first research question in the elder law area?
The Virtual Chase research guide offers an annotated list of
resources that includes statistics, dictionaries, medical
images, estate planning resources, etc. It covers elder law from
a variety of angles. There are similar guides for several other
areas of law and areas of non-legal research.
- Zimmerman’s Research Guide
(http://www.lexisnexis.com/infopro/zimmerman/)
Your firm is reviewing its travel reimbursement policies and
you’ve been given an hour to provide accepted reimbursement
rates for foreign and domestic travel. Eek! Don’t panic – just
refer to the Zimmerman’s Guide “travel expenses” entry. It
provides the relevant statutory sections as well as links to the
various rates set by the U.S. government. You have complete
information and 45 minutes to spare!
I once dreaded the long series of
phone calls, interminable waits on hold and various phone menu
systems I had to navigate to find information on obscure and defunct
government agencies, but no more. Now I have help provided through a
partnership between the UNT libraries and the USGPO.
- CyberCemetery
(http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/)
Gathering information on the recent history of national security
strategies in the United States? It might be helpful to see
reports, press releases and contact names from the now defunct
U.S. Commission on National Security/Hart Rudman Commission.
It’s all available from the CyberCemetery.
A fifty state survey you say?
Surely there’s a summer associate nearby who would be delighted to
handle such a request. Oh, the project just cannot wait until May.
Here’s a place to start:
- National Conference of
Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (http://www.nccusl.org/)
Best known for its work on the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) the
NCCUSL has drafted more the 250 uniform laws in a number of
areas for adoption in the states. This site provides the full
text of each Act as well as bill tracking and adoption
information for the states. There’s a good chance that your
fifty state survey regarding a legislative issue could be
answered right here!
- Martindale-Hubbell Law
Digests
The law digests are available in print as part of the
Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory set or as an independent
three-volume set. This information is also available on
LexisNexis at www.lexis.com. Here’s how to find it:
Legal Tab > Reference > Martindale-Hubbell > Law Digests
You can search the digests individually by state or as a
group.
The other resource that helps me
feel smarter, and look smarter, is my colleagues! Sometimes it
really is who you know and not what you know. Well
worn copies of various library association directories are never far
from my reach in the office. This is a very cooperative profession
so I never hesitate to call for help when I need it or to
reciprocate when I have the opportunity!
So as you hunker down for the last
few weeks of winter take advantage of the shortcuts that come your
way. Soon enough you’ll need that extra time to take a walk through
the spring flowers in the local park.
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