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Another Lame Duck Congress: the Last Days of the 112th Congress

Posted by: Margaret Wood

Congress is once again in a lame duck session.  The Senate’s Virtual Reference Desk Glossary website defines a lame duck session as: When Congress (or either chamber) reconvenes in an even-numbered year following the November general elections to consider various items of business. Some lawmakers who return for this session will not be in the next …

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Happy Belated Birthday, Title IX

Posted by: Margaret Wood

This is a guest post by Pamela Barnes Craig, Instruction/Reference Librarian at the Law Library of Congress. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Pub. L. 92-318, 86 Stat. 235, 373 turned 40 years old on June 23, 2012.  Its birthday passed much like it became law—quietly and unassumingly.  Its impact, however, has been …

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The Electoral College – What Is It and How Does It Function?

Posted by: Margaret Wood

The following is a guest post by Barbara Bavis and Robert Brammer, both legal reference librarians in the Public Services Division of the Law Library of Congress. The 2012 Presidential election is projected to be close, and attention has turned to whether the Electoral College may diverge from the popular vote in shaping the outcome …

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National American Indian Heritage Month

Posted by: Margaret Wood

We often blog about various commemorative events, and I wanted to draw attention to November as National American Indian Heritage Month.  This began as a commemorative week in 1986 when Congress passed Pub.L. 99-471 designating November 23-30 as American Indian Week.  As directed by Congress in this law, President Reagan issued Presidential Proclamation 5577 in which …

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The Law Library of Congress at the National Book Festival

Posted by: Margaret Wood

As we did with AALL, we decided to collect feedback from Law Library staff about their participation in this year’s National Book Festival (NBF).  As I noted in last week’s post, this is the Law Library’s second year for participating in the National Book Festival and here is what some of the Law Library participants had to …

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Law Library of Congress at the National Book Festival

Posted by: Margaret Wood

This has been a busy week for the Law Library of Congress.  We have unveiled Congress.gov (our new legislative website), celebrated Constitution Day, and to round the week out, we are preparing for the National Book Festival.  This will be the Law Library’s second year at the National Book Festival.  Our staff will be manning …

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Flag Day and the Flag Code

Posted by: Margaret Wood

As a reference librarian working on the reference desk in the Law Library Reading Room, I answer a whole range of questions on state and federal law and some days it feels as though every question is on a new topic.  But in fact, there are some topics which are of continuing interest to our patrons, and one of them is flag …

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Law Day Program with Richard Dreyfuss

Posted by: Margaret Wood

The Law Library of Congress was fortunate to host citizen activist Richard Dreyfuss as our speaker for this year’s Law Day program.  Mr. Dreyfuss founded The Dreyfuss Initiative in 2010 with the aim of helping to ensure that today’s children learn how our government works and as adults are prepared to participate in that government. Mr. …

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Happy Birthday William: Shakespeare, Henry V and Salic Law

Posted by: Margaret Wood

When Andrew asked me if I would write a post for Shakespeare’s birthday, I enthusiastically agreed.  I had just been rewatching Kenneth Branagh’s film, Henry V and as a dedicated Anglophile thought, this will be easy!  I subsequently realized that as a writer for the Law Library’s blog I would need to write about Shakespeare and the law – …