Blog Posts: Sara A. Sampson

Changes in the Reading Room

Returning students may notice that the main Reading Room looks a little different. Over the summer, we moved things around a bit. We moved the most popular study aids to the shelves near the circulation desk, reorganized our reference collection and made space for 3 more tables. The tables have built in outlets for keeping your laptops and phones charged. We also purchased two stand-up desks in case students want to try one out.

Use a Stand-Up Desk in the Library

Remembering the UNC Speaker Ban

Next Thursday, April 11, the Wilson Special Collections Library will mark the 50th anniversary of the Speaker Ban Law with an address from a former UNC student body president Robert Spearman.

Wilson Library's North Carolina Collection Gallery is currently exhibiting A Right to Speak and to Hear: Academic Freedom and Free Expression at UNC.

How to Create the Section Symbol in Word

If you're new to creating legal citations, you might wonder how to get the § in N.C. Gen. Stat. §1-181. It's not that simple. Here's a step-by-step guide to inserting the symbol and setting up a shortcut key to make it simple in the future.

Pronouncing Supreme Court Cases

The most recent edition of The Green Bag has an interesting article about how to pronounce names in U.S. Supreme Court cases. Yale Law Library is hosting a companion webpage that has audio files of the names that are likely to be mispronounced. So the next time you're unsure how to say Baas v. Tingey or Padilla v. Kentucky, check it out.

Research Assistant Training

All summer Research Assistants must complete mandatory library RA training. The first hour will cover library basics, including: RA library cards, ILL services, time card login, Lexis/Westlaw access, and more. The second hour will focus on useful legal resources, including: HeinOnline, BNA, ProQuest Congressional, FDsys, and interdisciplinary materials.

Returning Research Assistants, who completed the training last year, will only be required to attend a 1 hour RA update session.

Sessions begin May 10, so register now.

UNC Buildings: A History

Learn more about the history of the buildings that make up the The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by visiting one of the new exibits over at the Davis and Wilson Libraries or by attending a lecture by UNC's Historic Preservation Officer on April 5.

Best Legal Movie Lines

What's the best line from a legal movie? The editors at Bloomberg Law have selected their 10 favorites. They include lines from The Paper Chase, The Firm, Erin Brockovich, The People v. Larry Flynt, A Civil Action, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Few Good Men, My Cousin Vinny, A Man for All Seasons, and The Verdict. Many of these movies are available in the Law Library's collection of legal movies; just click on the links above for details.

Right now, My Cousin Vinny is winning the popular vote.

New CALI Lesson on North Carolina Primary Legal Sources

CALI has just posted a new lesson on North Carolina Primary Legal Sources (primary legal sources are documents that actually contain the law like constitutions, treaties, statutes, regulations, and cases). This hour-long lesson covers both print and online versions as well as low-cost options such as CaseMaker and the free web.

The lesson was co-authored by our very own Julie Kimbrough, Assistant Director for Collection Services, and Nikki Perry over at North Carolina Central University School of Law.

If you haven't set up a CALI account yet, stop by the reference desk for UNC's activation code.