First Year Moot Court Competition

Congratulations to our very own Tyler Brannon for advancing to the next round of the First Year Competition. Well done!!

Paychecks & Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time begins this weekend at 2:00 am Sunday, March 9. Please don't forget to turn your clocks forward (especially if you are working on Sunday!)

Also, please fill in your time sheet via Patriot Web before you leave for spring break. HR no longer accepts paper time sheets so if you don't use Patriot Web, I can't pay you.

Have a safe but fun spring break! I hope you get to take some time off and relax.

Special Hours for Spring Break

Just a reminder that hours change over spring break, Saturday, March 8 to Saturday, March 15.

Sunday: noon to 11pm
Mon. - Thurs.: 8am to 11pm
Friday: 8am to 6pm
Saturday: noon to 6pm

Normal hours resume on Sunday, March 16.

Inclement Weather Policy

Just a reminder about the law school's policy on inclement weather.

Important note: The law school and the rest of the university do not always respond to a weather event in the same way. As a result, you should rely on communication from the law school to learn the operating status of the law school and the law library. Do not rely on public announcements made by the media or by the university because those announcements might not apply to the law school.

The law school's official policy on inclement weather appears below. If you are scheduled to work and the library is open, you are expected to arrive on time. Please call me, Maya, or Mike to let us know whether you will be able to make it here for your shift. Please be sure you have our home and cell phone numbers with you.

In the event of inclement weather, we will communicate information about the operating status of the law school and the law library in three ways:
E-mail notice via the law school listservs
Notice on the law school web site
Recording on the law school main telephone number (703-993-8000).

For a weather event that develops overnight, we will try to make a decision and have it communicated before 7:30 a.m. the next morning.

Welcome Back

Happy New Year! I hope you had a joyous holiday.

We have extended the library hours on Saturday evenings and will now be open until 10pm.

Thank you all for your hard work and support. We could not run the library without you.

Extended Hours for the Exam Period

Good luck on your exams!!

Exams: Friday, Nov. 30 - Wednesday, Dec. 19

Sunday	10:00 AM - 11:00 PM
Monday - Friday	8:00 AM - 11:00 PM
Saturday	9:00 AM - 11:00 PM

Make-Up Exams: Thursday, Dec. 20 - Friday, Dec. 21

Thursday	8:00 AM - 10:00 PM
Friday	8:00 AM - 6:00 PM

Study Rooms

As exams approach, demand for study rooms increases significantly. Beginning on Sunday, November 25, we will observe peak usage rules for the group study rooms.

A minimum of two users is required for the smaller study rooms, and four users are required for the larger study rooms (248 and 356). Use is limited to one four hour period per day, per group.

Thanksgiving Hours

We will be closed on Thursday and Friday for the holiday, and open shorter hours on Wednesday and Saturday.

Wednesday, Nov. 21	8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday, Nov. 22	CLOSED
Friday, Nov. 23	CLOSED
Saturday, Nov. 24	Noon - 6:00 PM
Sunday, Nov. 25	11:00 AM - 11:00 PM

LRWA Research

The LRWA open memo project involves four jurisdictions:

• Florida
  
• Illinois
  
• Maryland
  
• North Carolina
  

When shelving, please pay special attention to these jurisdictions, as well as to the general legal research materials:

• American Jurisprudence
• Corpus Juris Secundum
• American Law Reports

Thanks for you help.

Banned Books Week

September 29 to October 6 is Banned Books Week. This annual event is sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA). In 2006, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) received a total of 546 challenges. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. Public libraries, schools and school libraries report the majority of challenges to OIF.

Celebrate your freedom to read! Click here for more information on books that have been banned or challenged.

“If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” ---- Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., in Texas v. Johnson

Welcome New Circulation Assistants

We have several new faces at the circulation desk.  Welcome to the law library!

Tyler Brannon, 1L-Auburn Univ: BA Economics

George Ingham, 1L-William & Mary: BA Economics

Joann Kim, Int'l Commerce and Policy-GMU: BA Global Affairs

Ashley Lyon, 1L-Univ. of Missouri: BS Agriculture Economics

Seth Whitaker, 2L-Brigham Young: BA Political Science

Welcome Back

Just a quick note to say how happy I am to have you all back working the Circulation Desk. The peace and quiet of summer gets a little lonely.

Mike and Maya are reviewing applications now and we expect to hire several new students in the coming weeks. Also, Emily has been hired as a permanent part-time circulation assistant and will be covering several shifts each week.

Best of luck in your studies!

Library Privileges for Recent Graduates

Law students who graduated last month retain their library privileges through the summer. They may borrow books and use study rooms until their IDs expire on September 30, 2007.

BARBRI Students

BARBRI classes are being offered here at Mason. These students are given IDs by BARBRI and so long as they are wearing their ID tags, there is no need for them to sign in at the Circulation desk to use the library. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Goodbye and Good Luck

Best of luck on your final exams and summer jobs.

A special congratulations to our graduates: Erick Helenihi, Ron Hur, and Mark McNally. You did it!

Library Usage Statistics

We would like to keep track of the number of people using the Library during the early morning and evening hours.

I've posted a chart by the study-room sign up sheet. Please fill it in for the times listed that take place during your shift. We also want to track usage mid-day during the weekends.

Questions? Comments? Let me know - thanks!!

Library Fine Amnesty Week

In honor of National Library Week, April 16-20, we will forgive up to $10 in fines per patron. To qualify, they MUST have returned all overdue books.

Please contact me, Mike, or Maya for help with forgiving fines. You will need to use the supervisor's access code.

ABA Site Visit

The American Bar Association visits each fully-accredited law school once every seven years. They will be here at Mason from Sunday, March 25 to Wednesday, March 28.

Please pay special attention to the condition of the library as you shelve over the next week. We want to ensure that everything is as neat and orderly as possible. Thank you.

Please Don't Make Me Yell at You

Some of you are diligent about recording your time in the binder and on Patriot Web, and for that I am very grateful. Your attention to detail makes the circulation desk run smoothly.

As for the rest of you . . . . .

Please, every time you work a shift, fill out your time sheet both in print and on Patriot Web. It will take 5 minutes, and remove the need for nagging reminders. Thanks.

Spring Break

This year, spring break is March 10 to March 17. Please let us know immediately whether you can work your normally-scheduled shifts. We will assume that you can, unless we hear otherwise. Thanks.