Sacramento County Public Law Library News

By Coral Henning, Sacramento County Public Law Librarian

A great library tool that folks have been neglecting to use lately is the plain and simple, yet mighty, Thesaurus. In fact, you don't even have to go into a library these days to access a thesaurus, there are plenty available online¹ or even built into your word processing software. I say "neglecting to use" because over and over again I hear people using the same old words and I'm wondering: where's the color? Where are vivid descriptions? There's too much jargon and "talking points"; where's the pizzazz? (In fact, when's the last time you even heard someone use the word "pizzazz?")

Peter Mark Roget is probably the most famous name connected to the thesaurus. As I understand it, in 1805, he began a list of words to use for his own writing and publishing. After he retired in 1848, he went back to this list and started adding to it. He even interviewed patients in an insane asylum, gave them word association tests to get their input (advice, opinions, commentary). From the first edition in 1852 to today, the thesaurus has been ever growing (increasing, expanding, developing).

I'm sure you can still hear your 9th grade English teacher's voice talking about the wonderful (stupendous, excellent, amazing, astounding, fabulous, marvelous, sublime, surprising, wondrous) thesaurus.

A thesaurus also helps when doing research...take litigation research for example. Do you know how many alternative words there are for tort? Now, this may not be a fair example because tort has so many meanings, but what I like is that the words in this list are very colorful and more descriptive than the word tort. Here's a list:

The Sacramento Law Library has a regular thesaurus and a variety (assortment, collection) of legal thesauri. Entertain the judges with some new vocabulary words.

Below are upcoming MCLE classes at the Sacramento County Public Law Library:

EQUITY AND COMPARABLE WORTH - THE EQUAL PAY ACT

March 2, 2006 (Thursday) 10:00am -12:00pm

Instructor: Reginald A.H. Goodfellow, PhD

Understand the technical aspects of the prima facie case and the affirmative defense of the Equal Pay Act. 2-hours MCLE credit Registration fee: $65 Sacramento County Bar Member, $70 Non-County Bar Member

IMPROVE YOUR NEGOTIATION SKILLS

March 10, 2006 (Friday) 10:00am - 11:30am

Instructor: Judge Darrell W. Lewis (Ret.)

www.MediatorJudge.com

Apply mediator techniques in the negotiation of legal disputes. Learn to establish rapport with other people, gain their trust and influence their concessions in negotiations. Learn how to "read between the lines" of your adversary's responses and get the other person to walk away feeling happy about accepting your final offer. Learn how to tell whether the other person's "absolute bottom offer" is a bluff or not. 1.5-hours MCLE credit, Registration fee: $45 Sacramento County Bar Member, $50 Non- County Bar Member

POWERPOINT FOR LEGAL PROFESSIONALS

March 17, 2006 (Friday) 9:00am - 11:30am

Instructor: SCPLL Law Librarians

Learn how to use animation, photos, and documents to create PowerPoint slides useful for litigation purposes. No prior experience is necessary. 2.5-hours MCLE credit. Registration fee: $65 Sacramento County Bar Member, $70 Non-County Bar Member

5 W'S & 1 H: INTRODUCTION TO SACRAMENTO COUNTY PUBLIC LAW LIBRARY'S ONLINE DATABASES

March 22, 2006 (Wednesday) 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Instructors: SCPLL Law Librarians

This hands-on computer class will cover the basics of many online resources provided by the Sacramento County Public Law Library. US Court Forms, Hein Online, and Witkin will be covered, as well as more familiar databases such as LexisNexis and Westlaw. 2-hours MCLE credit. Registration fee: $15

1. Westlaw® incorporates a legal one in their search engine. Merriam-Webster(c) offers one for free at http://www.merriamwebster.com

March / April 2006