During the last presidential contest in which a candidate from Illinois was in serious contention for his party’s nomination, the Republican party was the party without a clear candidate.  According to Harper’s Weekly: A Journal of Civilization, one of the most widely read weekly publications in America at the time, Lincoln was not the strongest candidate and would have difficulty getting support from eastern states. After Lincoln’s nomination, the publication supported another candidate from Illinois, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, a Democrat who had beaten Lincoln in the 1858 Senate race.

HarpWeek, the online version of Harper’s Weekly allows scholars to explore this volatile era in American politics. Published from 1857-1912, the publication was mostly political in nature, though it also contained news, fiction (including serialized novels), essays, advertisements, and cartoons. Before the Civil War, the publication took a moderate editorial stance on slavery, mostly to preserve its Southern readership. During the Civil War, however, the publication supported Lincoln and the Union. Its articles and illustrations of battles provided some of the most important insights into the front.

After the War, the publication used its stature to support the Presidential aspirations of Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Grover Cleveland. In addition, Harper’s Weekly and its political cartoonist Thomas Nast used their resources and talent to expose corruption in New York by political leader William “Boss” Tweed.

HarpWeek allows researchers to search or browse all issues of Harper’s Weekly.  Election-specific material for Presidential contests between 1860-1912 (including candidate biographies, political cartoons, etc.) can be also found at: http://elections.harpweek.com/

Harper’s Weekly is available by remote access and on the Downtown, Main, and Rice campuses to all IIT students, staff, and faculty.

How many people born in China immigrated to the US in the 1950s?
Did the number of institutions offering law degrees increase between 1970 and 1990?
When did the median price of single-family homes in the Western United States first exceed the median price in the Northeast?

The Historical Statistics of the United States quickly answers all of these questions and more. Historical Statistics compiles extensive statistical data from over 1000 sources. These statistics cover five major topics: Population, Work and Welfare, Economic Structure and Performance, Economic Sectors, and Governance and International Relations. Subtopics include the environment, international trade, labor, and education. Some data is available as far back at the 1600s and generally goes up to the mid-1990s or later. The statistics are fully searchable, allowing researchers to find data across tables and topics.

Statistical tables are available in Web versions and in PDF’s. Each table features footnotes to original sources. Data can be saved in Excel or viewed as a graph. Historical Statistics can even create custom tables.

Historical Statistics of the United States is available by remote access through the proxy server and on the Downtown, Main, and Rice campuses.

For more current statistics, try:
US Census Bureau - extensive demographic and economic data about the United States
University of Michigan Statistical Resources on the Web - a portal of the best US and international Internet resources
UNSTATS - demographic and other statistics from the United Nations (a Library resource)

Need an industry report on biofuels or another emerging area? Want to know more about drug approval trends or the future of healthcare policies? Want to know more about e-tailing or online financial services? Business Insights may be able to help!

Business Insights is a database of detailed reports produced by industry experts on topics related to energy, consumer goods, finance, healthcare, and technology. Some of the companies that provide statistics and intelligence for these reports include: Reuters, IMS Healthcare, TNS, and ComputerWire IT Industry Intelligence.

All reports are available to be downloaded in a PDF format. In addition, Business Insights provides interactive iReports that allow students & faculty to customize reports by selecting only the relevant portions, insert presentation-ready tables and graphics in your own documents, or translate reports into nine different languages (French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Russian).

To find a report, you can either browse by industry or use keywords in the Search box. Reports are dated from 1998-present and are continually updated.

Business Insights is available by remote access through the proxy server and on the Downtown, Main, and Rice campuses.

The World Legal Information Institute is a free, non-profit, and independent Website developed as part of a collaboration among regional Legal Information Institutes.  Currently, WorldLII contains almost 900 databases of statutes, regulations, and case law from over 120 countries and territories.  It also provides links to its sister sites, covering specific regions of the world, such as southern Africa (SAFLII), the United Kingdom and Ireland (BAILII), or Canada (CanLII).  For some regions, secondary legal authority, such as access to law reviews and other periodicals is available. 

Coverage ranges from relatively recent additions (such as cases from the East African Court of Justice from 2006-present) to materials from the 19th Century (e.g., Ghana Land Law Decisions from 1872).  Not every country is covered, and how much and what type of material is available varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.  Additionally, material is not limited to laws and cases from the national level.  For instance, case law and legislation is available from Canadian provinces, Australian states, Indian states, Chinese provinces and other subnational authorities.  In some cases, treaties among nations in a particular region are also available.  While the majority of the material available via WorldLII tends to originate in common law jurisdictions, the amount available from civil law, Islamic law, and mixed-law jurisdictions is ever-increasing.   

And don’t forget the site that started it all, Cornell University Law School’s Legal Information Institute, which has perhaps the best free electronic version of the United States Code.

It’s 3 a.m. and the phone rings…your study buddy needs an article to finish your big project that is due tomorrow morning, and the Library is CLOSED. What do you do?

Don’t worry–you don’t need to physically hurt your buddy (though you should probably not work with that person again) or even fake an illness to convince your professor you need an extension. The A-Z Journals list can help you find the article that you need! The A-Z Journals list is an electronic resource that allows researchers find specific journal titles in most of the various databases to which the Library currently provides access. Law students should note that LexisNexis and Westlaw currently are not covered by the list.

Say the article you need is in the Harvard Business Review. Simply go to the A-Z Journals list and type “Harvard Business Review” in the box and click the “Go” button. The results list will show you that HBR is available full-text in the EBSCO Business Source Premier database from 1922. Click on the journal title, and a pop-up box allows you to enter the citation information. Simply enter the information you have and click the “Go” button, and you’ll be sent to the article you requested. If you don’t have any citation information, just click the “Go” button, and you’ll be sent to the journal’s available tables of contents so that you can scroll through each issue or conduct a search within the database.

The A-Z Journals list only searches for the exact search word/phrase you type and does not automatically truncate or provide spelling alternatives. However, you can use a * wildcard if you are unsure of a word (use “child*” for child, child’s, children, etc.). You can also choose “Starts With” or “Contains” to narrow or broaden your results.

If you have a topic, but not a specific journal, you can also try the A-Z Journals list’s “Category” tab to help you locate a specific title that may be useful. Simply choose a broad category (“Law”) and choose a narrow category (“Banking law”) and hit the “Go” button. Any relevant journals will appear below.

Some researchers will also find the “Locate” tab useful if they only have an ISSN or publisher.

Of course, the A-Z Journals list only provides access to journals that are currently online. If you require an article from a journal that does not provide electronic access, you will have to find the print copy in the Library’s collection (using the Library’s catalog) or request that an interlibrary loan copy be made for you.

As always, if you need additional assistance or have any questions, please contact the Reference Desk (refreq@kentlaw.edu; 312-906-5670). If you email us a question at 3 a.m., we’ll answer it the next morning when we open the Library.

The BNA Intellectual Property Library is a comprehensive collection of online resources related to copyright, patents, and trademarks. 

The BNA IP Library allows you to search full-text versions of United States Patents Quarterly (USPQ) First and Second Series from 1929-present.  In addition, this resource contains important IP statutes and regulations. Statutes include: Title 35 (Patents), Title 17 (Copyrights), Title 15 Chapter 22 (Trademarks), and Title 15 Chapter 63 (Technology Innovation) of the U.S. Code. Regulations include: Volume 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations, plus related provisions and policy pronouncements from other agencies.  You can also find information about examining procedures.

The BNA Intellectual Property Library is available to all IIT students, staff, and faculty on campus and DTC students, staff and faculty through the remote proxy server.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns using the resource, please contact the Reference Desk at: 312-906-5670 or refreq@kentlaw.edu

The SEC’s EDGAR system (Electronic Data-Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) is an online tool that displays financial and other information of publicly-traded companies online. EDGAR is the premier public source of information for all investors to who need to decide if a company’s securities are a good investment.

EDGAR documents are available through several databases including: Lexis (database: EDGAR Online), LexisNexis Academic (database: EDGAR Online), Westlaw (database: EDGAR), and the SEC website
(http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm).

Researchers may find the following forms especially useful:

• 8-K (current information, including preliminary earnings)
• 10-K (audited annual financial statements)
• 10-Q (unaudited quarterly financial statements)
• S-1 (general registration statement)

As with any other type of research, you should check to see if there have been any amended filings by looking for filing types followed by “/A” (i.e. 10-K/A).

In addition to general information about a company, EDGAR documents contain several filings that include information about the company’s executive compensation policies and practices. Some forms that are useful for this type of research:

• 8-K (current information, including preliminary earnings)
• 10-K (audited annual financial statements)
• Schedule 14A (annual proxy statement)
• & any registration statements.

The SEC provides several finding aids that will help you find needed information, such as the “Quick EDGAR Tutorial”
(http://www.sec.gov/edgar/quickedgar.htm), the “SEC Forms List”
(http://www.sec.gov/about/forms/secforms.htm) & “Researching Public Companies Through EDGAR: A Guide for Investors”
(http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/edgarguide.htm). In addition, specific company information can be quickly obtained through the use of the company’s “CIK number”, a unique identifier that the SEC assigns to all entities that file documents. You can find a CIK number through the “EDGAR Central Index Key (CIK) Lookup”
(http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/cik.htm).

One thing to remember about EDGAR, though: Most private companies do not file documents through the system since they are not required to do so by law.

EDGAR is available to all IIT users on campus & remotely through LexisNexis Academic & the SEC website. Special law school passwords are required for Lexis & Westlaw. As always, if you need further assistance, please contact the Reference Desk (refreq@kentlaw.edu; 312-906-5670).

Although the Downtown Campus seems a bit sheltered from the main campus, as members of the Illinois Institute of Technology family, we can all enjoy our university’s rich architectural history. Walk up to the 10th floor Berkson Reading Room at the Downtown Campus and marvel at the majestic space. Take a ride on the green line and travel through the unique McCormick Tribune Campus Center (MTCC), designed by Rem Koolhaas. Simply walk around main campus and see all the inspiring modern buildings designed by the university’s most famous leader, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. 

If you’re interested in learning more, the Graham Resource Center, the library of the world-famous IIT College of Architecture, provides IIT students, faculty and staff access to materials relating to architecture such as the online database Emporis Research. Focusing on buildings 12 stories tall or higher, Emporis is the world’s largest publicly available database on architectural and building data.

Emporis Research provides building-related information and data about the real estate and construction markets in more than 50,000 cities worldwide. Law and business students can use the database to partake in a virtual “architectural tour” of Chicago, or they can conduct in depth research on companies in the real estate and construction industries. Emporis Research also contains many tools that will allow you to analyze regions, compare markets, view statistics and export data.

The database is available to all IIT students, faculty & staff on-campus

This week’s Featured Resource is Chicago Public Library’s New Website. You will need to have a flash player installed on your computer to view this video tutorial. To view it full-screen, click on the bottom right button. If any of the slides do not load correctly, try going back and forward in the slide show to reset the player.

ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) is the largest database of education-related literature, providing access to more than 1.2 million records of education-related journal articles, case studies, and reports since 1966. When available, ERIC includes full text documents.
ERIC is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The database is available at the Downtown Campus through ERIC (EBSCO), ERIC (FirstSearch) and through the free website: http://www.eric.ed.gov/