Law School's new web site features links to Nuremberg documents, U.S. laws

By Linda Myers

Among the many useful links on Cornell Law School's new web site, www.lawschool.cornell.edu , is one to documents in the law library's Nuremberg collection (see related story). Edited for the web and recently placed online in a joint project with Rutgers Law School, the documents are representative of the impressive resources the law library offers to students and researchers.

Also linked to the Law School's new homepage is the Legal Information Institute, Cornell's most accessed site, with summaries of Supreme Court decisions and links to laws and statutes across the United States.

The accessibility of such information fits into the plan to make the new Law School web site much more useful to users by being easily navigable, logically organized and much more visually exciting than in the past.

The web site project, which took five months to plan and design, was shaped by focus groups of key Law School faculty, current students, senior administrative staff and alumni, who also tested out the new site before its official launch. The new site was developed under the purview of Harry Ash, the Law School's associate dean for external relations, and managed by Douglas Jones, director of communication. Ithaca-based Eclat New York created the site's design, organization and Internet architecture.

The new home page, which features bright colors and fresh photographs of scenes from Myron Taylor Hall, has a dynamic horizontal format, with buttons for the most-accessed pages in a menu bar near the top and drop-down menus for easier access. The design is a sharp departure from that of the former site, which had a static vertical format and links arranged alphabetically.

Also on the new home page are a Law School A-through-Z list, a search function, and quick-jump links to an online version of Cornell Law Forum, which is published three times a year; and Cornell's home page.

In addition, the web site has new sections for alumni and giving. Still under construction in the ongoing project are new pages for admissions and faculty.

Lee Teitelbaum, Allan R. Tessler dean and professor of law, said: "We are very pleased with delivery of the new web site, which gives the Law School an enhanced Internet presence and illustrates just one of the communications initiatives in development to express our commitment to legal education and scholarship."