ASL Library

News and events at the Appalachian School of Law Library (Grundy, VA).

Friday, November 30, 2007

New Federal Rules in Effect

As we mentioned in this month's Library News, many of the federal rules will be updated on December 1. This includes the "style-only" revision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

We were curious: Why December 1?

When the Rules Enabling Act was first legislated in 1934 (Pub. L. No. 73-415, 48 Stat. 1064), there were two sections. One allowed the Supreme Court to prescribe court rules which would take effect sixty days after promulgation. The second allowed the Supreme Court to "unite the general rules prescribed by it for cases in equity with those in actions at law," but those rules had to be reported to Congress at the beginning of a regular session and would not take effect until after the close of that session. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were adopted through the second route in 1938. Later changes to the Rules Enabling Act allowed the Supreme Court to enact criminal rules (resulting in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure).

In the 1970s, Congress eventually agreed to the Federal Rules of Evidence, after making some major changes from the Supreme Court's version. Legislators began demanding more public input into the judicial rulemaking process, and in 1998, the Rules Enabling Act was updated. Now 28 U.S.C. 2074 requires the Supreme Court provide Congress with any proposed rule changes before May 1; those rules cannot go into effect any earlier than December 1.

So the "real" answer appears to be: because Congress said so. But clearly the underlying reason is to provide Congress enough time to approve or disapprove of the updates.

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Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Extended Exam Hour Access

The Library will again offer extended access during the two weeks of finals. Instead of closing at midnight, the Library will close at 2 am beginning on Monday, December 3 (for the technical folks, that's really Tuesday morning).

This extended access will end on Friday, December 14, at 5 pm.

Best wishes on finals from the Library staff!

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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Thanksgiving Week Hours

Due to this year's academic schedule, the Library will have modified hours during Thanksgiving week.

Tuesday, November 20 (regular hours)
Circ Desk: 8 am - 10 pm
Card Access: 6 am - midnight
Public Access: 8 am - 5 pm

Wednesday, November 21
Circ Desk: 8 am - NOON
Card Access: 6 am - NOON
Public Access: 9 am - NOON

Thursday, November 22 (Happy Thanksgiving!)
Circ Desk: CLOSED
Card Access: NONE
Public Access: NONE

Friday, November 23
Circ Desk: CLOSED
Card Access: 10 am - 7 pm
Public Access: NONE

Saturday, November 24
Circ Desk: CLOSED
Card Access: 10 am to 7 pm
Public Access: NONE

Sunday, November 25 (regular hours)
Circ Desk: 9 am - 10 pm
Card Access: 9 am - midnight
Public Access: 1 pm - 5 pm

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Thursday, November 01, 2007

Daylight Savings Time Ends on Sunday

Attention all time-challenged readers: The switch back to Standard Time will be on Sunday, November 4 at 2 am. "Fall back" to get an extra hour of sleep -- but breakfast will be one hour later than when your stomach clock thinks.

If your computer already changed back (and we know there's a few of you), you didn't get the updates at the beginning of the year. Computer updates will vary whether you have Windows, a Mac, or a variation of Linux (like Red Hat or Ubuntu).

Our Sunday access hours will be unaffected by the time change.

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