Shift #6 - Collections/Blog Post Idea Research
Saturday, May 25, 2024 | 10:45 am-12:45 pm CST/11:45 am-1:45 pm EST (2 hrs)
Details
Michelle Hurt, student/intern
Jennifer Gonzalez, practicum supervisor
This is a screenshot of the main page of the Law Library's Digital Collections. The Law Library features certain collections, but you can also find the formal list of collections to go through.
Today's practicum shift consisted of doing research on the Law Library's digital collections while simultaneously thinking about topic ideas for my blog post. I started by writing down things I am interested in, like food and the environment. When it comes to food, I wondered if I could write about food trucks and laws regarding how a person can establish their own food truck. The collection I thought that would fit this idea is the Code of Federal Regulations. Unfortunately it was hard to find a particular law or code about food trucks; it seems that regulations are determined by state and local law. I did find other resources outside of the Law Library like the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington State, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Transportation. However, I think this idea would be a reach as I can't figure out a way to tie it back to a specific Law Library collection.
I perused the Code of Federal Regulations some more, just to see what ideas could be formed from a regulation I found in the collection. I thought about food security/access issues when I saw a regulation about canned peas. I wondered if I could write about my love of black coffee and tie it to a regulation about the standards of milk and cream. I even thought about my love of good cheese when I saw a regulation about definitions and standards of identity for various cheeses like cheddar cheese, washed curd cheese, soaked curd cheese, and colby cheese. Through my research of this collection, I learned that there are over 130 "titles" or categories. Each title or category can have as few as 1 item like the National Military Establishment category or as much as 16,478 digital information objects in the National Defense category. Before I ended my shift, I started looking through a new collection - the Evolution of the Conservation Movement - since I work for an environmental NGO. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to look thoroughly into this collection so I need to note it for another day.
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