AACPLL Blog: Law Library News

Today is Read Across America Day! Organized by the National Education Association, this annual event is celebrated on Dr. Seuss’s birthday and is geared to motivate children to celebrate reading. This year’s highlighted book is Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss. The Law Library’s has adopted Read Across America Day with a legal twist. Check out these titles!

The Justice Case Files is a graphic novel series developed by the National Center for State Courts to educate the public about the courts. Developed by legal professionals, including judges and court administrators, this series provides the reader with insight how judges make decisions and other insights into the judicial system. The following Case Files available at the Law Library.

• The Case of Internet Piracy
• The Case of Stolen Identity
• The Case of Jury Duty

Full-color copies of the graphic novels in PDF are available, free of charge, at http://www.ncsc.org/education-and-careers/civics-education/justice-case-files.aspx.

Wolf v. Pig, published by West Group, is a picture book that examines the Three Little pigs through the lens of the “Superior Court of Appeals”. This book teaches the reader about how to read a court opinion and the annotations and key number system developed by Westlaw.

For more information about the government, court system and legislative process geared towards children, here is a listing of available online resources.

• http://bensguide.gpo.gov/3-5/lawmaking/
• http://kids.clerk.house.gov/young-learners/lesson.html?intID=31
• http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/bills-path/
• http://www.congressforkids.net/index.htm
• http://www.senate.gov/reference/bibliography/kids/kids.htm
• http://www.ncsc.org/education-and-careers/civics-education/justice-case-files.aspx

Happy Reading!

Your friendly law library interns have started a bucket list to visit the most beautiful libraries in the United States. Our first stop was the George Peabody Library, founded in 1857 and located in Baltimore, Maryland. The George Peabody Library (formerly known as the Library of the Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore) was originally a free public library and part of the Peabody Institute, which is now a division of The Johns Hopkins University.

Paul Espinosa, the Curator of the Peabody Library, gave us a great tour of the library’s architecture, exhibit space and special collections. As you can see in the photograph, the library’s architecture is dramatic and striking, with five tiers of ornamental cast-iron balconies leading up to a skylight 61 feet above the main floor. If you cannot visit the library in person, I would recommend viewing the Peabody Library through this site created by Matthew Petroff, available at http://www.360cities.net/image/george-peabody-library, which provides fantastic panaromic views of the library. Although I do not understand the physics behind the 360-degree view of the Peabody Library, I can attest that it accurately captures what you would see if you were standing there in person.

My favorite part of the tour was viewing the library’s special collections, specifically the books with a fore-edge painting (a scene painted on the page edges of a book so that when the book’s pages are either fanned or closed, you can see the painting). It was amazing to see the amount of detail on such small canvases, and I can only imagine the skill required to paint the paper edges. Check out examples of fore-edge painting and other gems from the library’s Special Collections here! For more information about the library, check out their website and Wunderkammer Tumblr (Wunderkammer = Cabinet of Curiosities).