American Association of Law Libraries



NOTE TO READERS: I had to miss the first class due to a funeral so I put together these notes for my colleague who was covering for me—may prove useful to someone who has never taught an ALR class before

First Class Lesson Plan

1. Attendance.

2. Handout syllabus (10mins)

• Contact information—I am always available either in person or via email so please don’t hesitate to reach out.

• If you know you are sick or need to miss a class, it is IMPERATIVE that you let me know as far in advance as possible—points will be docked from class participation for unexcused and/or excessive absences

• Note that there is no textbook, but readings are assigned weekly and are to be read by the date they are listed under

• Grades—six homework assignments, each 5 questions each—60% of your grade—will require a substantial amount of work outside class—some people take 1-3 hours, some might need more, but you should never hesitate to contact me if you need help

• Final project will be a 7-10 page research plan on a topic of your choosing—I will talk about this more next week, but in the meantime read page 4 and start thinking of a topic you might be interested in writing on

• Any questions about the class that weren’t addressed? Shoot Alison an email

3. Brief bibliographic instruction (20mins)

• Class will focus on specific sources, but it’s also important to know how to locate books, articles, and electronic sources

• Demo catalogue—how to find a book Ex. International human rights

• Demo Index to Legal Periodicals—how to find journal articles—then show how to locate the actual full-text from cites in ILP—maybe demo journal list?

• Ex. European union and pollution

• Show Electronic Resources page and explain how to remotely authenticate into databases

• Show Fordham University search and journals/databases

4. Demo HeinOnline (10 mins)

• Many resources will be found in Hein—what are the tricks to using it efficiently?

• Don’t search in Hein if you can avoid it

• Show how to browse through libraries

• Show how to use Citation Navigator to pull up one of the law review articles that I have listed in my reading assignments—the one for next week’s class is 5 IJLL 347 (type that in exactly and see how Hein recognizes it—it wouldn’t recognize “int’l j legal information”)

5. Bluebooking:

• Guide to legal citation

• Will need to use the Bluebook to do citations for your homework

• Concerned with Rule 20 – Foreign Materials – p.179

• Concerned with Rule 21 – International Materials – p.185

• Also useful are the Tables in the BlueBook on Foreign Jurisdictions starting at p.277

• Then Table 3 at p.426 gives help for particular intergovernmental organizations like European Court and Commission of HR, United Nations etc.

• Also Table 4 at p.428 for Treat y sources

6. Have everyone register for Lexis Webcourse (10mins)

• Have everyone log into Lexis—anyone who does not remember their password, please call customer service at your earliest convenience and get it 1-800-455-3947

• On the Law School home page, click on the “Web Courses” button on the right-hand side

• Click on the red “Courses” tab in the upper left-hand corner

• Select “Fordham University” from the right side bar list

• Click the “Enroll” link next to “Advanced Legal Research: FCIL 2011”

• Once everyone is enrolled, have them go to the “Assignments” section of the webcourse

• Have everyone open “ALR-FCIL Diagnostic Assignment”

7. Diagnostic assignment (5mins)

• The first three questions will help me shape the curriculum—i.e., I don’t want to spend too much time going over basics of treaty law if most of the class has already taken International Law

• It will NOT be graded, just try your best

• You can work with other people if you want, but everyone needs to submit an assignment individually

• Explain that the students would have done it during the second half of class if I were there, but that they don’t have to stay and do it if they don’t want to

• However, it needs to be completed and emailed to Alison by the end of the day—my email address is on the top of the assignment

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