Resources and Services for Law Faculty

Library Liaison Program

Library liaisons are assigned to each member of the law school faculty. These liaisons act as intermediaries between the Library and the faculty. Liaisons meet with their assigned faculty regularly to determine individual library needs and research interests. They also ensure that faculty members are aware of library services and collections and seek suggestions regarding how library services can be improved.

Library liaisons are available to assist faculty members with their research needs. They obtain library material for faculty members and arrange for other library services that are needed or requested. Specific services might include obtaining law review articles, making interlibrary loan requests, forwarding purchase requests for approval and ordering, creating automated current awareness accounts (such as SmartCILP, Lexis/Nexis alerts, Westlaw's WestClip and SSRN/LSN subscriptions), presenting research classes on subjects taught by the faculty member, and working with faculty research assistants. Research requests may also be forwarded to the Faculty Services Librarian.

Faculty are encouraged to contact their liaison with any library question, but are also welcome to deal directly with any member of the staff.

See Liaison Assignments

Faculty Services Librarian

Galen Fletcher is the Library's Faculty Services Librarian. One of Galen's primary responsibilities is to provide research support for law school faculty. Law school professors may contact Galen directly with research requests. He will complete the project himself, work on it with the Research Librarian, the other librarians, the library research assistants or some combination. Galen also assists the Library Liaisons with faculty research projects. He can be reached at (801) 422-9051 or fletcherg@lawgate.byu.edu. 

Research Librarian

The Research Librarian is a new position at the Law Library, created to provide greater research support for law school faculty. Shawn Nevers is the library's Research Librarian. Faculty support is one of Shawn's primary responsibilities. He serves as a liaison to several law faculty and works with the Faculty Services Librarian on faculty research requests. Training faculty and staff to use the library's growing electronic database collection is another responsibility. Shawn can be reached at (801) 422-8784 or neverss@lawgate.byu.edu. 

Library Research Assistants

The Law Library employs student research assistants to assist faculty with their research needs. These students provide support for faculty who either do not have enough ongoing work to justify hiring their own research assistant or need assistance beyond their own research assistant. The Library research assistants are meant to complement, not replace, individual faculty research assistants.They are supervised by the Faculty Services Librarian.

In addition to providing research support to law school faculty, the Library research assistants also assist library users at the second floor reference desk. Faculty members who need assistance with short term projects such as finding and copying a decision, statute or law review article or doing research on clear-cut issues are encouraged to contact the research assistants directly by telephoning the second floor reference desk at (801) 422-6658 or by sending an email to REFASST. Larger projects should be directed to the Faculty Services Librarian or Library Liaisons.

Faculty Research Assistant Training and Support

The Library faculty are available to work with and train faculty research assistants in the process of legal research and to suggest research strategies for particular research projects. RA training will be offered each semester in conjunction with the Advanced Legal Research course. All faculty will be notified of classes that may be of benefit to RAs. Classes will include federated searching, internet resources, WESTLAW, LEXIS, etc. In addition, individual or small group training on these and other subjects can be arranged through the faculty liaisons. For more information, contact Dennis Sears at (801) 422-7472 or searsd@lawgate.byu.edu. 

New Material Requests

Faculty members are encouraged to recommend new titles for the collection. Requests for purchase should be sent to the Law Library Director, Kory Staheli, at (801) 422-9223 or stahelik@lawgate.byu.edu.

Interlibrary Loan

Law faculty may request materials not available at the Hunter Law Library through interlibrary loan. Normally this process takes about 2 weeks. In some instances, materials such as periodical articles can be delivered more quickly. Once they arrive, ILL items may be checked out for 2 weeks. Occasionally requests can be renewed if the lending institution is willing to extend the check-out period.

Submit an ILL Request online.

For assistance, contact Interlibrary Loan at (801) 422-5481 or lawill@lawgate.byu.edu or Dianne Davenport at davenportd@law.byu.edu.

Proxy Privileges

Law faculty can establish proxy privileges for a secretary or a research assistant that allows the designated proxy to check out materials from campus libraries in the faculty member's name. Research assistants should never be encouraged or required to use their personal accounts to borrow materials for faculty members.

Law Library proxy privileges should be requested through Dianne Davenport via email.

The Harold B. Lee Library also provides proxy privileges according to their established policies. To set up HBLL proxy privileges, your research assistant should take a completed copy of the proxy form to the Circulation Desk at the Harold B. Lee Library (call 801-422-6061 if you have questions).

Who to Contact for What

The following is a list of contacts for some of the major services provided by Law Library. If the service you need is not listed, please contact your library liaison to request assistance:

Library Staff bios are available here.

Course Reserve

The Law Library maintains several reserve collections, described below. Reserve collections may consist of both materials purchased by the Library and personal copies. To place an item in one of the reserve collections, faculty members should contact Dianne Davenport at (801) 422-9052 or davenportd@lawgate.byu.edu. 

Locked Reserve: Locked reserve consists of course reserve, audio/visual reserve, software reserve, professor files, and hard-copy sample exams. All of these items are located behind the Circulation Desk and may only be borrowed for a limited time. Course reserve and professor files may be borrowed for 2 hours at a time. Audio/visual and software reserve items circulate for 24 hours.

Course Reserve: Course reserve consists of texts and supplementary materials for courses presently being taught. It is located behind the Circulation Desk. There is a binder at the attendant's desk that lists the title and call number of all items in course reserve, indexed by course and professor name. Items in this collection may be checked out for 2 hours. Overdue Course Reserve items carry a fine of $2.00 per hour.

Electronic Reserve: Electronic reserve consists of selected reading materials which are made available online in various formats. The Library maintains access to sample exams and the Perspectives on Law Collection. Readings for specific courses are most often available through individual class pages or through TWEN.

Reserve Library: The Reserve Library is located on the second floor, in room 280 JRCB (near Circulation). The Reserve Library consists of high-use monographs (texts, outlines, restatements, etc.), current legal newspapers, 3 week's worth of popular reading newspapers, 1 year's worth of popular reading magazines, bulletins from other law schools, unbound/current legal periodicals, along with most of the Utah Law Collection — including copies of the state code, and the codes for various Utah cities. The Biblical Law and Benson Collections are also located in the Reserve Library.

Copyright Clearance and Course Packets

Access Services provides a copyright and packet support center to assist in seeking copyright permissions for faculty projects and preparing and distributing course packets and reserve materials.

Questions regarding copyright issues should be directed to Laurie Urquiaga at (801) 422-6657 or urquiagal@lawgate.byu.edu.

Copyright Policy 

Copyright Clearance Request Option 1 (on-line form for request to be processed by Access Services)

Copyright Clearance Request Option 2 (printable form for request to be processed by Access Services)

Copyright Clearance Request Option 3 (PDF form letter allowing faculty to request permissions directly)

Sample Exam Bank

Copies of many past law school examinations are available under the professor's name at the Circulation Desk. These exams are also available in electronic format. Law students can obtain the necessary password by calling the Circulation Desk at (801) 422-3593.

Professors who choose to submit exams for inclusion in this collection should contact Dianne Davenport at (801) 422-9052 or davenportd@lawgate.byu.edu or Laurie Urquiaga at (801) 422-6657 or urquiagal@lawgate.byu.edu. 

Classroom Research Lectures

Law Library faculty are available to come into law classes to teach students how to conduct legal research in specialized areas and demonstrate how to use specific resources. The librarians can give students an overview of the Library's print holdings and relevant electronic databases. This type of instruction can be very useful to students, especially in seminar courses where a paper is required. Requests for such lectures can be arranged through faculty liaisons.

Upcoming Conferences & Workshops

American Bar Association Affiliated Upcoming Events
(Calendar of ABA section, committee, and other events & conferences; can search by topic, sponsor, date, or location)

Legal Scholarship Blog
(A collaborative service from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the University of Washington School of Law)

Legal Scholarship Network Conferences & Meetings 
(LSN Calls for Papers and Conference Participants)

List on Current & Upcoming Law School Symposia 
(by Rick Bales, Northern Kentucky University)

Law Review Electronic Submissions 
(Free alternative to ExpressO hosted by Northern Kentucky University

Scholarship Publication Services 

Scholarship Publishing Services

Guides on where and how to submit manuscripts for publication in law reviews and legal journals have been compiled by LexisNexis and various academic law libraries.

ExpressO
(UC Berkeley electronic submission service for law review articles)

LexisNexis Directory of Law Reviews 
(by Michael H. Hoffheimer, University of Mississippi)

Law Review Electronic Submissions
(Free alternative to ExpressO hosted by Northern Kentucky University)

Publishing in Law Reviews and Journals 
(by Deanna Barmakian, Harvard Law Library)

Writing for and Publishing in Law Reviews (By Mary Whisner & Ann Hemmens, University of Washington Law Library)

Resources for Keeping Up and Staying Current (By Mary Whisner, Stacy Etheredge, & Cheryl Nyberg, University of Washington Law Library)

Law School Faculty Bibliography Pages

New Book List

Since 2002, the Law Library has compiled a monthly list of newly acquired titles.

Faculty Routing

The Law Library will route newly received issues of periodicals to members of the faculty upon request. If you would like to have library material routed to you on an ongoing basis, please contact Teresa Odam, Serials Librarian, at (801) 422-3571 or odamt@lawgate.byu.edu.

Newspapers

The Law Library subscribes to a number of general and legal newspapers. These newspapers are available in the faculty lounge on the fourth floor and in the Rex E. Lee Room. After one week, newspapers are moved to the Reserve Library where they are kept for an additional six months.

Electronic Resources

The Law Library subscribes to a growing number of electronic databases. Law Library staff is available to provide training on the use of these electronic resources. To request training please contact Shawn Nevers at (801) 422-8784 or neverss@lawgate.byu.edu.

Current Index to Legal Periodicals (CILP and SmartCILP)

The Law Library subscribes to an online version of the Current Index to Legal Periodicals (CILP). CILP distributes the titles of articles from the table of contents of new law reviews. These title lists are organized by subject, and can be customized to specific preferences (SmartCILP). CILP is distributed weekly in both print and email formats.   

CILP is a current awareness tool prepared by the law librarians and staff of the Marian Gould Gallagher Law Library of the University of Washington School of Law. CILP indexes over 500 legal publications, which are organized within 100 relevant subject headings. A complete table of contents is provided for all journals that are indexed, and citations are in Bluebook form.

Electronic Clipping Services

Both Lexis/Nexis and Westlaw offer electronic clipping services. Lexis/Nexis' Alert and Westlaw's Westclip can be customized to run specific searches at various times and in various databases. The results can be accessed online or emailed. For assistance contact your library liaison.

Legal Scholarship Network (LSN)

The SSRN Legal Scholarship Network is an electronic archive of legal scholarship which aims to facilitate the distribution of scholarly information related to law, economics, and business scholars. The Law Library has a site license that allows faculty to receive email announcements of working papers and articles on many topics from American law schools. The Library can also assist faculty who wish to add their current scholarship to the LSN repository. For assistance please contact Shawn Nevers at (801) 422-8784 or by email. 

Email Alerting

A variety of email alert services and moderated listservs are available to help faculty keep abreast of current developments. To request email updates for any of the following please contact David Armond at (801) 422-4258 or armondd@lawgate.byu.edu:

BNA (Bureau of National Affairs) a variety of topics

Chronicle of Higher Education

CCH (Commerce Clearing House): Business & Finance, Health and Human Resources, Tax

Law Faculty Listservs by subject, e.g., CONLAWPROF@listerv.ucla.edu

LSN (Legal Scholarship Network)

LexisNexis new content announcements

U.S. Supreme Court Decisions

Westlaw new content announcements

Westlaw's Newslink:

• Newspaper summaries, e.g., Wall Street Journal or Washington Post;
• Periodical summaries, e.g., Time Magazine; or
• Recent Court Case Summaries, e.g., 10th Circuit Court of Appeals or Utah 

Library Access and Hours for Law School Faculty

Law faculty have 24-hour access to the collection with their campus ID card.

General Library Schedule 

Borrowing Privileges for Law School Faculty

Law school faculty have special borrowing privileges at the Law Library. Regular library materials are due in May of each year and may be renewed as needed. Journals may be checked out for one month. Non-circulating and reserve materials may also be checked out by special arrangement. No overdue fines are charged to law faculty for regular Law Library material, however, all items are subject to recall by other patrons, with charges incurred for late return.

To request material from the collection, faculty members may contact either their liaison or the second floor Reference Desk (801) 422-6658. Faculty may also come to the Circulation Desk on the second floor of the Library for assistance.

Gifts and Donations

The Howard W. Hunter Law Library gratefully accepts gifts of books and other materials.  Gifts are accepted with the understanding that the law library retains discretion to utilize or dispose of the items as warranted by library needs.  Gifts not added to the library collection will be returned to the donor upon written request at the time of donation.  Unless requested otherwise, a letter of acknowledgement will be sent to the donor of each gift.  The library does not assign a value to gift materials. All gifts should be directed to Andrea Howard in 260A JRCB.