Law Library Life

by Brian L. Baker
Director of the Law Library & Assistant Professor of Law

The Law Library Staff hopes everyone is rested and ready for law school. This year will bring many challenges and changes.

Law Library Renovation

In January, the first phase of the Law Library renovation will begin. Most of this phase will take place on the "C" Level of Building 39. This space will house the Technical Services Department. The bulk of the renovation will be done in three additional phases during the Spring Semester. The Law Library will be available for use at all times.

New Law Library Staff

The Law Library added new staff members over the summer. Returning law students remember Mr. Rick Apgood, our new Reference Librarian who joined the staff in April of 2002. In July, the Law Library was delighted with the addition of Ms. Han Ouyang, who has extensive experience. Ms. Ouyang is the Head of Technical Services, and Acquisitions Librarian for the Law Library. Also in July the Law Library was fortunate to hire Mr. Marvin Williams as a Serials Technician in the Technical Services Department. Mr. Williams will also be working during the weekends at the Circulation Desk.

A brief bio of each of these new Law Library staff members follows:

Rick Apgood serves as the reference librarian at the UDC-DCSL Library. Prior to this position he was a law librarian and adjunct professor of law at the University of Utah. He has worked at the Library of Congress Law Library, Georgetown University's main research library, and at public libraries in Salt Lake County, Utah. Rick has a B.A. degree in history from the University of Utah, an M.L.S. from Simmons College in Boston, and his JD from the Washington College of Law at American University. He is a member of the Utah State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, The American Association of Law Libraries, and the American Library Association. Rick served for two years as the general counsel to Singlepoint Resources, Inc., a Utah based technology firm where he is still a member of the Board of Directors. Rick's professional interests include corporate and business law, legal research and legal history.

Han Ouyang is the Head of Technical Services and Acquisition Librarian and oversees library acquisitions, cataloging, serials, and database maintenance, etc. Han received her M.L.I.S. from Brigham Young University and both her Certificate of Medical Psychology and B.A. from West China University of Medical Sciences. Before she came to the David A. Clarke School of Law Library, she worked for a law firm for almost five years and at various libraries for eight years. If you have any questions about technical services, send her an e-mail at houyang@udc.edu.

Marvin A. Williams is currently assigned to the UDC-DCSL Law Library as a Technical Services Technician. He received a Masters in Media Instructional Systems in 1984 from UDC. Prior to joining the School of Law staff he was assigned to The Learning Resources Division Media unit and the University Cable station for a total of twenty-three years. His external interests are world militias, political trends, and grass root organizations.

User Survey

The Law Library is soliciting your opinions in the form of a User Survey. Each law student and faculty member will receive a copy in his or her mailbox. In addition, copies will be available at the Law Library’s Circulation Desk. Please, take the time to fill the survey out, and return it to any of the Law Library staff, or place in the Law Library Director’s faculty mailbox (Brian L. Baker). The survey asks a lot of important questions that will be used to guide service delivery. Now is the time to have your voice heard.

Law Library Intranet

The Law Library’s Intranet page is being expanded and updated regularly. To access it, point your browser to http://library.law.udc.edu. If you are using a computer on campus, you will be taken directly to the webpage. If you are connecting from home, you will need to sign-in via our proxy server. The sign-in asks for your username and password. Your username will be the first four letters of your last name combined with the last four digits of your Social Security number. For example, my username would be bake9830. Your password is your whole Social Security number, without the dashes.

On the Intranet page, among other things, there are links to proprietary databases to which the Law Library subscribes. These databases are only available through the Intranet page. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please contact our Electronic Services Librarian, Mr. Barrett Graham.

Email

Law student email accounts can be accessed by pointing your browser to http://mail.udc.edu and logging in. The username and password protocols are the same as those to access the Law Library’s Intranet page mentioned above. Once you log in, you can set up a forwarding address to another email address you may have. Be forewarned, however, it is important to monitor this email address because this is where all official email to the Law School student body will be sent. Once again, if you have any questions or concerns about the email service, contact Mr. Barrett Graham at 202-274-5582.

Public Services

This year new services and programs are bringing a steady stream of students to the Law Library. Law Library Director Brian Baker, Cataloging Librarian Angela Minor, and Electronic Services Librarian Barrett Graham participated in the general Orientation program. Since then all the 1Ls have been lining up to have Barrett Graham help them configure their laptops for the wireless LAN.

Staff members Veronica Howard, Bridget Tucker, Kim Walker, and Marvin Williams were on hand at Orientation in the Law Library to give a warm welcome to 1Ls. Reference Librarian Rick Apgood; Circulation and Interlibrary Loan Librarian, Eddie Caparas; Barrett Graham; Angela Minor; Head of Public Services, Helen Frazer; Head of Technical Services, Han Ouyang; and Brian Baker all pitched in to lead small groups through a hands-on library tour/introductory exercise with state statutes, regional reporters, legal dictionaries, and legal encyclopedias.

Next year we want to make the Law Library’s contribution even better. We hope all the 1Ls will stop by and let us know what they liked and what else we can do to make their Law Library introduction more useful and interesting.

Finally

The Law Library staff hopes that all of you have a productive school year. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the Law Library staff either in person, or by phone at 202-274-7310.