TMLL Library News

November 9, 1989 The Opening of the Berlin Wall

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As a result of World War II, East and West Germany were established as separate states in 1949 -- but there was a steady outflow of eastern citizens who thought that they could find a better life in West Germany.  As a result of the forced collectivization of eastern agriculture, as well as other factors, this outflow increased very sharply toward the end of the 1950s.  Finally, in order to stop the wave of departures, the East German government (with the acquiescence of the Soviet Union) constructed the Berlin Wall in August 1961 and, at the same time, it fortified the entire East-West German border. 

 

The Wall and the border regime basically halted the departure of East German citizens.  A few people were occasionally able to slip through to the west, but hundreds of (mostly young) East German citizens were killed when they attempted to escape across the border.

 

In the late 1980s, various economic and other problems in the Soviet Union and its “satellite” states led to increased pressure on the Wall and the border regime.  In the summer of 1989, for example, hundreds of East German citizens were able to flee over the Hungarian border to Austria, and others took refuge in the West German Embassy in Prague and were transported to the west. 

 

Finally, on the night of November 9, 1989 the Berlin Wall was opened by East German border officials (perhaps as the result of a mistaken communication) and thousands of East Berliners spent a night of celebration in West Berlin.  Thereafter the Wall was permanently opened (and eventually dismantled), and the unification of Germany, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, followed in succeeding years. 

 

On November 9, 2009, therefore, we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall, which led to seismic changes in the political structure of Europe and the world.

 

The German Unification Collection of the Thurgood Marshall Law Library focuses on the complex legal and constitutional issues of that era: the period leading up to German unification, the events of unification itself, and the complex and sometimes bitter aftermath of that epochal historical event.

New Collections and Online Guides at the Thurgood Marshall Law Library

The Thurgood Marshall Law Library is pleased to announce the release of several new online resources in the library’s African Americans in the Law Special Collections.

The first of these is a multi-part introduction to materials in the Larry Gibson Collection. Professor Larry S. Gibson has played a leadership role in the campaigns of many Maryland and national politicians beginning with his first effort organizing the campaign of Joseph Howard for Judge on the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City in 1968. Success in the Howard campaign was followed by work on the local campaigns of Milton Allen, William H. Murphy, Paul Chester, Wayne Curry and Kurt Schmoke. At the national level he has worked on the presidential campaigns of George McGovern, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. The website – Crafting Victories – features documents, images, audio and video from this extraordinarily rich collection of Maryland and Baltimore political history.  - http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/specialcollections/craftvic/

In addition, the library has launched two new image galleries via the Law School’s Digital Commons project. The first focuses on campaign images from the Gibson collection while the second collection focuses on photographs from the Baltimore City Chapter of the NAACP.  http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/special_collections/

Finally, the Thurgood Marshall Law Library has partnered with Maryland Public Television to provide access to the 2001 documentary – Color at the Bar. This hour long video presentation created by MPT and the Monumental Bar Association effectively tells the story of how African American lawyers secured the right to practice law in Maryland.  http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/specialcollections/aalsc/index.html

Westlaw and Lexis passwords for new students

If you did not pick up your Westlaw and Lexis passwords last week during Orientation, you can come by the Library desk (right inside the Library entrance) on Wednesday, Sept. 2, from 4 - 6:30 p.m. to pick up the information.  It's important that you then register your passwords online (you'll get instructions on this) so that your passwords are activated.

New Library Catalog Interface

The Thurgood Marshall Law Library has adopted a new interface for its catalog, making it much easier to search for books and journals in the library and beyond.

The new interface is provided by WorldCat Local.  It uses easy keyword searching, and you can include author, title, or subject words, as well as dates in one easy search. 

Results are displayed with TMLL holdings showing first, following by holdings at other University of Maryland system libraries, and then by items held at other libraries around the country, and even the world. 

Once you have your search results, you can use the filters on the left side of the screen to limit them (you can limit by format, such as book, article, Internet resources), author, year, language or subject.

To search the catalog, either use the search box on the Library's home page, or choose Library Catalog from the drop-down menu under Catalog & Collections on any Library web page.

Library Welcomes New 1Ls

TMLL (the Thurgood Marshall Law Library) welcomes all new students to the University of Maryland School of Law.  If you'd like to find out more about the library, you can take a library tour - they're being offered between 2:15-5:15 p.m. on Wed. Aug. 26. 

Day and transfer/visiting students have scheduled times to pick up their Lexis and Westlaw passwords on Wed. afternoon (see the orientation schedule for exact times), while Evening students can pick up their passwords between 4:00-5:00 p.m. on Thurs. Aug. 27.

Librarians at the desk by the library entrance will be happy to answer any questions and help you find what you need.

Stonewall: Forty Years

On June 28th many Americans will celebrate the events that took place at a seedy bar in New York City 40 years ago - events that many historians and activists claim gave birth to the modern Gay Pride and Gay Rights movements: the Stonewall Riots.  Below is a brief list of materials available through the Thurgood Marshall Law Library that focus on LGBT rights and the impact of Stonewall in civil rights history.

Books: 

Bamforth, Nicholas. Sexuality, morals and justice: a theory of lesbian and gay rights law / Nicholas Bamforth. London;  Washington, [D.C.]. General Stacks - K3242.3.B36 1997

Before stonewall: activists for gay and lesbian rights in historical context / Vern L. Bullough, editor; Judith M. Saunders, Sharon Valente, associate editors; C. Todd White, assistant editor. New York: Harrington Park Press, c2002. General Stacks - HQ76.5.R56 2002

Carter, David. Stonewall: the riots that sparked the gay revolution / David Carter. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2004. General Stacks - HQ76.C315 2004

Mezey, Susan Gluck.  Queers in court: gay rights law and public policy / Susan Gluck Mezey. Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2007.  General Stacks - KF4754.5.Z9 M49 2007

Transgender rights / Paisley Currah, Richard M. Juang, Shannon Price Minter, editors.    Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c2006.  General Stacks - HQ77.9 .T716 2006

E-books:

Freedom to Differ: the shaping of the Gay and Lesbian struggle for civil rights. (Netlibrary). Miller, Diane Helene. New York University Press. 1998. 

One of the children: gay black men in Harlem. (Netlibrary). William G. Hawkeswood ; edited by Alex W. Costley. University of California Press, c1996.

Irreconcilable differences? Intellectual stalemate in the gay rights debate. (Ebrary). Thomas C. Caramagno. Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2002. 

Institutional Repository:

Khan, Ronald, "Why Does a Moderate/Conservative Supreme Court in a Conservative Age Expand Gay Rights?: Lawrence v. Texas (2003) in Legal and Political Time" (2008). Schmooze 'tickets'. Paper 94.

Articles:

Armstrong, Elizabeth A., and Suzanna M. Crage. "Movements and Memory: The Making of the Stonewall Myth." American Sociological Review 71.5 (Oct. 2006): 724-751. (via Academic Search Premier)

Arriola, Elvia R. "Faeries, marimachas, queens, and lezzies: the construction of homosexuality before the 1969 Stonewall Riots." Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 5 (1995). (via Heinonline)

Cusac, Anne-Marie. "The Promise of Stonewall." Progressive 63.8 (Aug. 1999): 10. (via Academic Search Premier)

Gillespie, Wayne. "Thirty-Five Years After Stonewall: An Exploratory Study of Satisfaction with Police among Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Persons at the 34th Annual Atlanta Pride Festival." Journal of Homosexuality 55.4 (Nov. 2008): 619-647. (via Academic Search Premier) 

Harvard Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law Review, 29 (1994). Symposium - Stonewall at 25. (via Heinonline)

Shepard, Benjamin. "History or Myth? Writing Stonewall." Lambda Book Report 13.1/2 (Aug. 2004): 12-14. (via Academic Search Premier)

Thorstad, David. "Homosexuality and the American left: The impact of Stonewall." Journal of Homosexuality 29.4 (Dec. 1995): 319.  (via Academic Search Premier)

General Internet:

A very accessible introduction to the events surrounding the Stonewall Riots can be found on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots.

Stonewall 25 - an exhibit at Columbia University on the 25th anniversary of Stonewall. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/exhibitions/sw25/ 

Remembering Stonewall (audio) - http://soundportraits.org/on-air/remembering_stonewall/-air/remembering_stonewall/

Associations:

University of Maryland School of Law, Lesbian Gay Bi-Sexual Transgendered Law Association

American Bar Association: Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

The National Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgendered Bar Association

Library Signs On To WorldCat Local

The Thurgood Marshall Law Library now offers access to OCLC's WorldCat Local database. From the pull down menu at the top of the library's Internet home page click on the option WorldCat Local UM Law.

WorldCat Local offers quick and easy access to millions of books, articles, manuscripts and electronic resources from libraries around the world. Researchers can select to limit results to just items in the Thurgood Marshall Law Library or in the University of Maryland System, to just local law libraries or from the full database of participating institutions.

For more information about this database or any of the electronic resources that the Thurgood Marshall Law Library subscribes to contact the library at 6-6502 or via e-mail.

 

Redesigning the Supreme Court's website?

The New York Times reported today that the U.S. Supreme Court has asked Congress for $800,000 to redesign its website.  The report includes comments of a Times' reporter's opinion of the site, as well as an interesting mockup of a new site by the Sunlight Foundation, an organization "dedicated to transparency in government."

You can find the current Supreme Court website at www.supremecourtus.gov.  While rather dated looking, and not comprehensive, the site does include access to the Court's recent opinions, oral argument transcripts and its docket.

Resources on Sonia Sotomayor and Supreme Court Nominations

From the Law Library at the Library of Congress - links and material on Judge Sotomayer: http://www.loc.gov/law/find/sotomayor.php 

From the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) - links and materials on past Supreme Court nominations: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/senate/judiciary/scourt.html 

Successful Summer Strategies Research Guide

Let the TMLL Successful Summer Strategies Research Guide help you orient yourself to your workplace and successfully complete your summer research assignments.  

The SSS Guide includes a variety of resources to assist you, including: 

    - General tips on approaching and handling workplace research assignments

    - Strategies for managing time and costs of research projects

    - Succinct explanations of various types of research (e.g., case law, administrative law)  and links to sources including "free" Web resources

    - Power Points on research topics that were presented at the SSS classes

    - "Research Stories" video clips in which law students discuss "real world" research

...And much more! Please check it out, and remember that you are welcome to consult the TMLL librarians for advice and help on summer research projects. Good luck!