New York City Library Systems Database & E-book Access

In New York City,  a subway ride reveals readers using various hand held electronic devices. Smart phones may have displaced Kindles, Nooks, and tablets in numbers. What people are reading is less clear. Content varies from e-books to newspaper apps and beyond.

Some of the services that local libraries offer cardholders are not well publicized. However, excellent options for ebooks and research databases exist. Library offerings are free as opposed to Amazon, Barnes &  Noble, etc.. Ebooks may be downloaded to mobile devices and computers.

Below are links to ebook and database pages for local New York City library systems. You must have a valid library card and password. Working or living in one of New York City’s five boroughs entitles you to get a card for any of the listed systems. Other content such as video, music, audio versions of books is available.

E-books
New York Public Library:           http://www.nypl.org/ebooks
Queens Borough Public Library:  www.queenslibrary.org/entertainment/downloads/ebooks
Brooklyn Public Library:             www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/e-books-and-more

Databases
Brooklyn Public Library:              www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/eresources
New York Public Library:            www.nypl.org/collections/articles-databases?subject=&location=&audience=&language=&keyword=&limit=1
Queens Borough Public Library:   www.queenslibrary.org/research/articles-db/refdb/all

Additional databases are available at the libraries.

Online Legal Database Help Materials

Help Materials for Major Online Legal Research Databases

Westlaw Next Learning Materials
http://store.westlaw.com/westlawnext/learning-support/default.aspx


Westlaw Classic Help Materials
http://store.westlaw.com/documentation/westlaw/wlawdoc/web/wlcmgd06.pdf

Lexis Advance Help Materials
http://help.lexisnexis.com/tabula-rasa/newlexis/home?lbu=US&locale=en_US&audience=all

Lexis Help Materials

http://www.lexisnexis.com/documents/pdf/20081209050146_large.pdf

Lexis Help Index
http://help.lexisnexis.com/tabula-rasa/newlexis/index?lbu=US&locale=en_US&audience=all

LoisLaw Help Materials
http://law.niu.edu/law/library/help_faq1/loislaw.shtml

Supreme Court of the United States Term Preview - 2012

Video presentations regarding the new United States Supreme Court Term:
CSPAN Video Supreme Court of the United States Preview - October 1, 2012
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Court20121

CSPAN Video SCOTUS Term Preview - Sepember 2012 (Cato Institute)
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/308247-4

Public Broadcasting System SCOTUS coverage:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/news/supreme-court/index.html

National Public Radio Supreme Court preview:
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=162056741&m=162071403

Slate article: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2012/10/the_supreme_court_considers_whether_the_united_states_can_be_the_court_of_last_resort_for_aliens_who_have_suffered_human_rights_abuses_abroad_.html

Blog commentary on the new United States Supreme Court term:
http://www.google.com/search?tbm=blg&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=620&q=supreme+court+preview+2012&gbv=2&oq=supreme+court+preview+2012&gs_l=blog-hp.3..0.3862.8206.0.8891.26.26.0.0.0.0.96.1474.26.26.0.epsugrpq2..0.0...1.1.pb4GBVCf-kE

The Forum On Law & Culture At Fordham Law School

The Forum On Law & Culture At Fordham Law School presents its seventh film and lecture series in October.

Information regarding the series and film/lecture schedule is available at: http://www.forumonlawcultureandsociety.org/film-festival/2012

New York Law School CityLaw Speaker Series

New York County District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., will speak at the 2nd CityLaw Breakfast of the season, on Friday, October 5th.

Website for New York Law School's Center for New York City Law: http://www.nyls.edu/centers/harlan_scholar_centers/center_for_new_york_city_law

Information on New York City Law Speaker Series: http://www.nyls.edu/centers/harlan_scholar_centers/center_for_new_york_city_law/city_law_breakfast_series 

Video archive of prior Center breakfast speaker lectures: http://www.nyls.edu/centers/harlan_scholar_centers/center_for_new_york_city_law/city_law_breakfast_series 

Google Books as a Research Tool

On a occasion you may be searching for a title that is out of copyright but not in your local library collection. It can be very useful to try a search in Google Books which has scanned digital copies of over 20 million public domain books, reports, etc.into its collection from various partner libraries.

You may be pleased with the results of what is included and may even be downloadable as a pdf..

Google Books Advanced Search form:
http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search

About Google Books: http://www.google.com/googlebooks/about.html
http://chronicle.com/article/Google-Begins-to-Scale-Back/131109/

Prediction Is Very Dfficult...

Especially About The Future (Niels Bohr)

What is the future of libraries, books, and computers? Some interesting related articles from various publications are listed below:

Changes Planned At New York Public Library
The Bookless Library
The Stupidity of Computers
Watson Gets Wall Street Job

Justia Dockets

Many users have been frustrated with using PACER. Justia Dockets is a beta product which provides an alternative means of locating materials within PACER and provides a much more user friendly experience for finding federal court docket materials: http://dockets.justia.com/

Maximizing Google

Why is Google the dominant Internet search engine? Because it returns the most relevant search results.

Most people enter a query in no particular way. However, you can increase the relevance of your search results by using Google's advanced search form: http://www.google.ca/advanced_search and using features within Google (or other search engines): http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators.html or http://websearch.about.com/library/cheatsheet/blgooglecheatsheet.htm .