Members of the Georgetown Law Community can now retrieve bar journals through our HeinOnline electronic database subscription. These PDF files provide access to the journals back to their inception. The database features over 60 bar journal titles, including:

• ABA Journal (Vols. 1-94, 1915-2008)
• Federal Lawyer (Vols. 1-56, 1953-2009)
• Los Angeles Bar Journal (Vols. 1-53, 1925-1977)
• Los Angeles Lawyer (Vols. 1-32, 1978-2009)
• Record of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (Vols. 1-63, 1946-2008)
• Virginia Bar Association Journal (Vols. 1-35, 1975-2009)

Articles can be retrieved with a BlueBook citation, by browsing the Bar Journal library or by simply searching HeinOnline.

   The Office of Documents and Administrative Issuances has released their new database for finding current DC Municipal Regulations (DCMR) and copies of the DC Register (DCR).  The DCMR and DCR are available in PDF format which make citation much easier.  In fact, when citing to the DCMR or DCR, you must use the official DC version available on this website and not Lexis or Westlaw. Lexis and Westlaw's versions of the DCMR are not current nor up to date because of the many changes that have been made in compiling the new official online version. In compiling the DCMR for its new release, many inconsistencies and mistakes were found in prior versions of the DCMR and are still found in the Lexis and Westlaw versions.  The new online version of the DCMR is the only source that contains the most up to date, official versions of the regulations.  Many inconsistencies exist between the DC government version and versions found on Lexis and Westlaw.  Be safe with citation, and in this instance, Lexis and Westlaw are not currently created equal to the official government source.

On October 12, 2009 the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued the sixth edition of the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP). The TMEP, provides USPTO trademark examining attorneys, trademark applicants, and trademark attorneys with detailed information about the practices and procedures for prosecution of applications to register marks in the USPTO.

The sixth edition incorporates USPTO trademark practice and relevant case law reported prior to September 1, 2009. The policies states that this revision supersede any previous policies stated in prior editions, examination guides, or any other statement of USPTO policy, to the extent that there is any conflict.

The TMEP may be viewed or downloaded free of charge from the USPTO Web site at: http://tess2.uspto.gov/tmdb/tmep/.

Members of the Georgetown law community who used to rely on the print Yellow Books for detailed directory information should now try the dynamic electronic resource which replaced them called the Leadership Library on the Internet. Whether you're searching for a job, preparing for an interview, networking with alumni of your alma mater or tracking down subject specialists, the Leadership Library can provide you with brief biographies of attorneys, judges and corporate executives, as well as federal, state and municipal government employees, association executives and members of the news media.

Researchers can use the Leadership Library to "Find a Person", "Find an Organization" or search by keyword. Individual entries provide the best contact information, often including e-mail addresses, as well as career and educational history.

Feel free to stop by the Reference Desk if you have any questions about this invaluable resource.

Our  Federal Court Rules Research Guide has just been updated. The guide describes resources for finding both common (e.g., Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) and obscure (e.g., Rules of the Courts of Military Criminal Appeals) federal court rules. It also briefly explains the rule-creation process and describes sources for researching the legislative history of the rules. Finally, it recommends secondary sources that help with rule interpretation and practice.

Legal researchers cannot rely on regular case reporters to locate jury verdicts and settlement decisions. However, a number of specialty publications exist which do report jury verdicts and the library's updated research guide outlines some of the resources available in the library and online through our database providers.

The guide also includes direct links to the model jury instructions available for the federal circuits and access to the American Bar Association's publications on topical jury instructions.

One new feature of the revised guide is the link to resources which research jury decision making and the jury process, such as the American Judicature Society's Jury Center and the National Center for State Courts Jury InfoCenter.

The TRACfed database allows Georgetown Law researchers to look at how the federal government spends its money and enforces the law. A new feature provides reports on the "lead charges" which resulted in federal prosecutions or convictions during the most recent month or most recently completed fiscal year. For example, researchers interested in federal convictions pursuant to 18 USC 554 (smuggling goods from the United States), can select that code section and retrieve a conviction report from all federal agencies in the latest month.

The Slaw.ca blog out of Canada reports on a new online interactive archive with hundreds of thousands of records on the Holocaust Era and Nazi art looting.

The archive is available online from Footnote.com and includes records related to legal issues such as:

• The Ardelia Hall Collection of records relating to the Nazi looting of Jewish possessions, including looted art
• Nuremberg War Crimes Trial proceedings

The Slaw.ca entry also mentions two other collections related to the Nuremberg trials:

• Yale's Avalon Project
• Harvard's Nuremberg Trials Project

Another collection of Nuremberg trial materials is the University of Texas' collection of the trial notebooks of Judge Mallory Blair, one of three judges who presided over Nuremberg Case No. 3: U.S. v. Joseph Alstötter et al.

The law library is organizing a focus group of law students to help us better understand your research experiences in your summer positions. Our interest is in both your research successes and your research failures, as your feedback will help us better tailor our offerings in legal research instruction to reflect your real-world research experiences in the workplace.
The session will be held on Monday, Oct. 5, at 12:00 noon, in Rm. 320 of Williams Library.
Lunch will be provided.
To participate, sign up at: http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/students/signupfg.cfm.

The law library has created a new guide to researching Congressional investigations.  The guide provides guidance on how to find relevant primary source documents, such as Congressional hearing transcripts, as well as case law dealing with the authority of Congress to conduct investigations. We have also listed some valuable secondary sources to help you get started on your research.