O'Quinn Law Library Newsletter February 2007 P. 31 Jenel Cotton | 2 Resources | 3 Safety Tips | 4 Brown Bag Presentations
2007 Spring Brown Bag Presentation Series
During the 2007 Spring Semester, the O’Quinn Law Library
reference librarians will offer a series of lunchtime and evening legal
presentations on legal research topics. Each presentation will be given at 12
noon on Tuesdays, 5 p.m. on Wednesdays, and 12 noon on Thursdays. All
presentations will take place in Room 4 BLB.
1. Improve Your Database Knowledge and Research Skills--by Peter J. Egler, Head
of Reference, Week of 2/06/2007
The University of Houston libraries subscribe to a wide variety of databases,
including legal information databases. This presentation will highlight several
of the University of Houston libraries’ most useful databases, and demonstrate
how to locate all of the libraries’ databases. Many of these databases include
information that isn’t available in LexisNexis or Westlaw. Some of the databases
that will be reviewed include Academic Search Premier, Business Source Complete,
Hein Online, Legaltrac, and the New York Times historical database. Students
who are taking seminar classes this semester, or who will take seminar classes
in the future, will benefit for this presentation as they will learn about the
numerous database resources available to them through the University of Houston
libraries.
2. Administrative Law Research--by Jenel Cotton, Reference Librarian, Week of
2/13/2007
Administrative law encompasses laws and legal principles governing the
administration and regulation of government agencies with delegated power by
Congress to act as agents for the executive. This talk will provide an overview
of the development of the federal administrative system and will concentrate on
major administrative published material. The second part of the talk will
include how to use these materials when conducting legal research. At the end of
this talk, you will be familiar with the structure of the federal administrative
system and be equipped to research in the primary resources.
3. Tax Law Research--by Christopher Dykes, Reference Librarian, Week of
2/20/2007
This presentation will focus on the different sources of tax law including the
primary and secondary sources. The availability of certain documents will also
be discussed. The BNA, CCH, and RIA tax law research databases will be reviewed
along with the print sources. After attending this program, patrons will have a
basic understanding of tax law resources as well as some familiarity with the
databases.
4. Legislative History Law Research--by Chenglin Liu, Foreign & International
Law Librarian, Week of 2/27/2007
Legislative history research is essential for discerning the intended purpose
and meaning of particular statutory language. It is useful both for academic
research and legal practice. This talk will provide a brief introduction to the
federal legislative process, identify relevant legislative history documents,
and acquaint students with major print and electronic resources for finding
legislative materials.
5. Empirical Research--by Mon Yin Lung, Associate Director of the O’Quinn Law
Library, Week of 3/06/2007
The legal system and legal issues do not exist in a vacuum. Lawyers solve
problems of the real world; therefore they need to research non-legal facts to
support lawyering functions such as: advocacy/litigation, counsel, and lobbying.
At this session a student will learn where to find basic non-legal information
such as corporate, medical, scientific, credit histories/assets/liens, expert
witnesses, patents/trademarks, statistics, and general news.