Reference Question of the Week

This blog shares common questions and answers handled by an academic law librarian. The blog is intended to aid our students and to collaborate with the law librarian community. We do not answer questions for the general public. We will not respond to comments nor will we monitor the same. This blog is not affiliated with any vendor or sponsor.

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I Want That Book I Used Before

JoanShear | 23 February, 2007 09:07

Question: A student was looking for a book he had used before, but he didn't know the title. He thought it came from the Ready Reference Collection and remembered it was a paperback that listed law libraries in America. The desk attendant found American Libraries Directory but that isn't paperback, so reference was called in.

Answer: When asked which law library he was looking for, the student specified he wanted the library for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The librarian gave the student the BNA Directory of Judges and Clerks to see if court libraries are listed in that as well. The student mistakenly opened to listing for D.C. Court of Appeals (the highest court in the D.C. local court system), and was explained the difference between the D.C. federal and local courts, which have very confusing and similar names.

It was then that the librarian realized the book we were looking for was the AALL Directory and Handbook. Unfortunately there was no library listed under U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in the D.C. geographical listing. This made the student feel better about his failure to find the D.C. Circuit on his last use of this book when he found the other 12 U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal. In the D.C. geographical listing there was a library called U.S. Court of Appeals Judges Library as well as a library for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. A visit to the DC Circuit Court’s website, whose URL we got from the BNA Directory, confirmed that the library associated with U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is called the Judges Library. The student found the address he was looking for.


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