Law Library - Guide to Faculty Services
Acquisition and Delivery of Research Materials
- Requests to Purchase Material
- Interlibrary Loan Requests
- Document Delivery Requests
- Borrowing Privileges
- Retrieve/Return Bizzell Library Books
Reference/Research Assistance
- Faculty Research Support
- Research Assistant Training and Support
Current Awareness Functions
- BNA Publications
- Lexis Eclipse and Westlaw Westclip
- SmartCILP
- New Books and Databases List
- Print Journal Routing
Course Reserves
Online Research Training
- LexisNexis and Westlaw Assistance
Course-Related Legal Research Instruction
- Guest Lectures
Video Collection
Contacting the Law Library
Questions or Feedback
Acquisition and Delivery of Research Materials
The Law Library is committed to meeting the information needs of the law school's faculty and students. Through a combination of collection planning and development, interlibrary loan requests, and faculty acquisitions requests, the Law Library strives to maintain a collection which supports the faculty's research needs.
All faculty are welcome to submit requests for books, articles, and other research materials to the Law Library through one of the mechanisms listed below. If the Law Library currently has the item in stock, it will typically be delivered by the Circulation Desk staff to the faculty member's mailbox or office within 24 hours. If the Library does not have the item in stock, we will generally either purchase the item or attempt to interlibrary loan it. Faculty may also specifically request that an item be purchased and added to the collection. All faculty requests for purchases will be processed with the goal of delivering the item to the faculty member within one week.
Acquisition Requests
- web at https://jay.law.ou.edu/intranet/fs/library/acquisition_request.cfm
- email at Law-LibraryAcqusitions@ou.edu
Document Delivery and InterLibrary Loan Requests
- email at Law-LibraryCirculation@ou.edu
- web at https://jay.law.ou.edu/intranet/fs/library/request.cfm?type=Book
Borrowing Privileges
- The loan period for faculty is one year. Some items from the Reserve Collection and the Video Collection have shorter loan periods.
Bizzell Library Books
- The Law Library is happy to retrieve books from or return books to Bizzell Library. Simply bring your books to the Circulation Desk. If you are bringing the books in person, let the attendant know that some or all of the books are from Bizzell Library. If you would like the Law Library to retrieve a book from Bizzell Library, please send email to Law-LibraryCirculation@ou.edu.
Reference/Research Assistance
- Faculty Research Support: The Law Library's mission is to support the teaching and research needs of the law school’s faculty and students. The Law Library is happy to assist faculty with locating research materials and sources. This service is not limited to the retrieval of documents by citation. We are happy to consult with you on your research project, plan an approach, and locate relevant materials. To submit a research request to the reference librarians, please send an email to Law-LibraryReference@ou.edu, call us at 325-5268, or visit the Law Library Reference Desk between 8 AM and 5 PM, Monday-Friday or 8 AM - 4 PM on Saturday.
- RA Training and Support: The Law Library is happy to meet with your research assistant to plan a strategy for locating information relating to your research projects.
Current Awareness Functions
The Law Library offers several services designed to provide you with current awareness information on topics relating to your research and teaching areas.
- BNA Publications - the Law Library subscribes to the online versions of several BNA publications. The "Highlights" sections of these publications may be sent to you automatically via email. The email version of BNA Highlights include short summaries of recent cases with links to more complete news stories. This service is available for U.S. Law Week, Criminal Law Reporter, Family Law Reporter, Labor and Employment Law Reporter, International Trade Reporter, Securities Regulation Law Reporter, Corporate Counsel Weekly, and Antitrust and Trade Regulation Reports.
- Lexis Eclipse and Westlaw Westclip - the Law Library can assist you with creating customized searches in Lexis and Westlaw databases which run automatically every day. Results may be sent to your email account or printed.
- SmartCILP - SmartCILP is a personalized periodical awareness tool for legal researchers. After setting up a SmartCILP profile, subscribers receive an e-mail message each week that identifies journal articles which match their profile. The service focuses only on the subject headings and journals that the faculty member selects.
- New Books and Databases List - each month the Law Library distributes via email a list of the new books and databases which have been acquired. We also highlight new databases which are purchased by the main campus library. Older versions of the New Books and Databases List can be found here.
- Print Journal Routing - the Law Library maintains a collection of hundreds of printed legal journals and law reviews. These journals can be routed to you as they arrive. To be added to the routing list of any journal, just send email to Law-LibraryAcquisitions@ou.edu.
- SSRN and Bepress - the Law Library subscribes to both of these resources which make available faculty working paper series from dozens of law schools. Faculty can setup profiles on these web sites which will keep you informed about new papers which have been published in your areas of interest.
Course Reserves
- Course Reserves: Faculty may place materials on reserve in the Law Library by contacting Lisa Bowles, Circulation Librarian, or any member of the Circulation Desk staff. Reserve items may come from the Law Library collection or from the Faculty member's personal collection. All reserve items will be placed in the Law Library Reserve Room behind the Circulation Desk. These items will circulate for 4 hours only, and they may not leave the Law Library. If the Law Library does not have an item that needs to be placed on reserve, faculty may request that the Law Library purchase the item using the Acquisitions mechanism mentioned above.
Online Research Training
- Online Research Training: In this era of "information overload," it is easy to miss the announcement of new research sources. New databases are constantly being created. The Law Library is happy to provide one-on-one instruction on any online databases that are available to law school faculty, including Lexis, Westlaw, HeinOnline, OU's Library Online Resource Access (LORA), BNA, CCH, RIA, and other databases. If you would like to schedule a training session, please send email to Law-LibraryReference@ou.edu.
- LexisNexis/Westlaw Passwords and Training: If you need a LexisNexis or Westlaw password of if you have any difficulty with your password, feel free to contact the Law Library for assistance. Joel Wegemer, Associate Director and Darin Fox, Director of the Law Library, can assist you.
Course-Related Legal Research Instruction
- Guest Lectures: The Law Librarians are happy to provide customized guest lectures for your substantive law classes. This can be particularly useful just before assigning a major research assignment, such as a paper or class presentation. The Law Librarians will prepare a lecture (typically with a hands-on component) to familiarize your students with the major research sources in a particular area. We can work with you to develop assignments related to this instruction. To schedule a guest lecture, please send email to Law-LibraryReference@ou.edu. The librarians will appreciate as much advance notice as you can provide.
Video Collection
- Video Collection: The Law Library has a growing collection of videos (DVD and VHS) for use in the classroom. The current videos are listed here. If you don't find what you need in the current Video Collection, you may ask the Law Library to purchase a video here.
Contacting the Law Library
Acquisitions
- Email: Law-LibraryAcquisitions@ou.edu
- Web: https://jay.law.ou.edu/intranet/fs/library/acquisition_request.cfm
- Phone: 325-4311, press option 4
Reference Desk
- Email: Law-LibraryReference@ou.edu
- Phone: 325-5268
Circulation Desk (Document Delivery / Interlibrary Loan)
- Email: Law-LibraryCirculation@ou.edu
- Web: https://jay.law.ou.edu/intranet/fs/library/request.cfm?type=Book
- Phone: 325-5493
Administration
- Darin Fox, Director of the Law Library: darinfox@ou.edu
- Joel Wegemer, Associate Director of the Law Library: jwegemer@ou.edu
- Phone: 325-4311, press option 4