REFERENCE AND RESEARCH SUPPORT

The Law Library is committed to providing quality and expeditious research support service to Law School Faculty.  You can obtain reference assistance at any time by calling the Reference Desk (542-6591) or by calling one of the Reference Librarians directly (click here for a list of phone numbers and e-mail addresses).  During break periods and the summer the Reference Desk is staffed on an as-needed basis, so for quickest assistance call a librarian directly.  In addition, the Faculty and Access Services Librarian, is charged specifically with assisting you with your library needs.

Reference Assistance
We are happy to provide one-on-one instruction and assistance in using GAVEL, the Law Library’s online catalog;  GIL, the union catalog of the other University of Georgia libraries; and any of the online periodical indexes and other research materials which can be reached from those libraries’ homepages.  In addition, the Reference staff can help you locate materials that are not available in the Library by searching bibliographic databases containing the holdings of libraries across the country.

Reference Librarians are also available to train faculty on Westlaw, LexisNexis, or any of the databases or other research tools available in the Law Library, and to assist you in obtaining passwords for databases such as CCH Research Network, CALI, and others.

The primary role of the Reference Librarian is as an instructor. The librarians do not research or interpret the law for library users. Instead, they assist researchers by showing them how to find and use library materials and by suggesting research strategies.

Research Refreshers
Upon request the Reference Department will conduct an individual session for a faculty member to introduce new Library resources or to refresh research skills. To set up an appointment, contact the Faculty and Access Services Librarian.

Database Passwords
If you need a new Westlaw or LexisNexis password, get in touch with the Special Collections Librarian.  For training in the use of these databases or in preparing online searches, contact any of the Reference Librarians.

Current Awareness
To help professors keep abreast of current legal scholarship and events, twice each day the Reference Librarians review the incoming legal periodicals and major newspapers.  If they see an article which might be of interest to a faculty member, they send a copy of the journal table of contents with the article title highlighted (or, in the case of newspaper articles, a copy of the article itself).

Annually the Faculty and Access Services Librarian will contact the faculty to determine their research interests.  In the meantime, if you find that your interests have changed, or that there is a new topic you would like for us to watch for you, please contact the Faculty and Access Services Librarian.

Current Index to Legal Periodicals
The Current Index to Legal Periodicals provides the quickest access to new legal scholarship, offering weekly updates of newly published articles from over 500 legal publications.  The CILP may report articles 4-6 weeks sooner than other legal indexes.  If you would like to arrange to set up a profile or have the CILP delivered to your box, please contact the Faculty and Access Services Librarian. Check the Current Scholarship Sites page for additional current awareness sites and services.

Routing
On special request, the Library will regularly route current periodical issues to faculty members as soon as the Library has processed them. Each faculty member may keep a routed periodical issue up to three days before returning it to the Library so the next faculty member on the routing list will also receive it promptly. To add your name to a periodical's routing list, please contact the Faculty and Access Services Librarian.

Faculty members may also receive the Smart CILP, an electronic current awareness service covering 400 English- language law journals, as well as the Westlaw and Lexis alert services. Upon request, the Reference Librarians will assist the faculty in setting up any of these services.

For the convenience of the faculty, the most recent edition of the following publications are shelved in the Dunlap Room. The previous editions of these publications are shelved in the Cheeley Room.

CLASSROOM SUPPORT

Classroom Presentations
The Reference Librarians are available to give general or topical legal research lectures to Law School classes, with or without accompanying research assignments. These presentations will focus on the major research tools used in the specific area of law -- both print and online -- and a discussion of research strategies in the field.

These presentations shall take place during regularly-scheduled class times and we strongly encourage that they be included in the course syllabus. The Law Library will not provide makeup classes, but we will make available handouts and other materials for those who cannot attend the live presentation.

Faculty members should request classroom legal research lectures at least two weeks in advance of the desired lecture date. To set up an appointment, contact the Faculty and Access Services Librarian.

Tours
Reference Librarians are available to give individual or group Library tours to faculty members, their classes or visitors. Library tours can range from informational and general to instructional and tailored for a specific area of interest. Faculty members should request tours at least a week in advance of the desired tour date.

Course Reserve
The Law Library invites faculty members to place books or photocopies on Course Reserve. Tangible materials, such as books and videos, are located behind the Circulation Desk and may be checked out for two hours at a time. Electronic materials, such as articles and cases, can be accessed by members of the Law School community using our online catalog (GAVEL) and a valid UGA ID number.

Before each semester begins, our Faculty and Access Services Librarian will send you a summary of the materials placed on reserve the last time your course was offered. Indicate which items you would like to keep in your Course Reserve and return the list to the Circulation Department.

The list of materials currently on Course Reserve can be accessed through GAVEL.

Submitting New Items for Inclusion in Course Reserves

Please use a Reserve Items Submission form for each item you would like added to your Course Reserve list. The form asks for

your name,
the title of the course for which the materials are assigned, and
bibliographic information for each item, including a short title by which the material will be known to students.

If the item is owned by the Law Library, Circulation staff will retrieve the item and place it in the Reserves area. If the item is suitable for E-Reserves (electronic course reserves), please attach one copy to the form or provide Circulation with an electronic copy on disk or as an email attachment.

It is important that you turn in your reserve lists as soon as possible before the beginning of the semester so that the staff may pull the books from the open stacks, recall checked-out items, request extra copies from other libraries on campus, and order additional copies if necessary.

And remember, please refrain from informing students that something is on Reserve until it is actually there.

CIRCULATION

Borrowing Privileges
Faculty members may borrow most Law Library materials for office use.  Exceptions include Rare Books, and the “Library Use Only” copy of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, which do not circulate at all.

All materials must be checked out at the Circulation Desk before the faculty member removes them from the Law Library.  Items circulate to law faculty for a period of one year.  Exceptions include Reference and Georgia Reference material, which circulate for three days only. 

At the end of the one year circulation, the faculty member will receive an overdue reminder that he or she still has the item.  The faculty member should take this opportunity to either return the item, or to request a renewal of the item for another year.  The Law Library will treat a renewal request as an affirmative declaration that the item is still in the faculty member’s possession as of the date of the renewal request.  Renewal requests will be honored unless another patron has requested that item, in which case it must be returned.  In the event the faculty member fails to either return or renew any item, the Law Library Circulation staff will retrieve the item.

Recalls
Any item that a faculty member has had for two weeks or more is eligible for recall by any other member of the law school community.  The faculty member will receive an automated email message from GAVEL notifying him or her of the recall, and that he or she has four days to return the item.  If a faculty member fails to observe a recall request, the Law Library will attempt to make verbal contact to ensure the material’s timely return.  In extreme cases, the Law Library staff has authority to retrieve materials from faculty offices, leaving a message noting the retrieval.

Returns
Materials may be returned to the Circulation Desk or into the Night Drop Box located outside the building at the entrance to the Law Library. 

Non-Circulating Materials
The following types of materials may not be checked out of the law library:
      1. Items located in any of our rare book collections
      2. Items located in Ready Reference.
      3. "Library Use Only" copy of the Official Code of Georgia.
      4. Non-circulating items in the Sohn Collection    

Questions
If you have questions for the Circulation Department, please call 542-1922.

DELIVERY REQUESTS

Office Delivery of Law Library Materials
All full-time and adjunct faculty may request delivery of books and photocopied materials from the Law Library using our online form. Materials will be delivered by the Library staff to the faculty member's mailbox in the Administrative Services office. Every effort will be made to deliver all requested materials within 24 hours of request (or by Monday, in the case of Friday or weekend requests).

For books, the request must include the name and e-mail address or phone number of the faculty member, along with the title and call number of the book. Prior to delivery, the Library staff will check the book(s) out to the faculty member.

For articles, the request must include the name and phone number of the faculty member, the complete article citation (volume, pages, author and year) and the title and call number of the journal. In addition, the form will include the question whether a Westlaw, LexisNexis or other database print of the article will be satisfactory.

A separate form must be filled out for each requested item. The Library staff member who first receives the request form will complete the form and immediately turn it over to the Circulation Staff, who will use it to search for the requested material. If further information is needed to complete the form the staff employee will refer the request to a Reference Librarian.

A Circulation staff member will deliver the material to the faculty mailbox (or, if it is unavailable, send to the faculty member an e-mail notification to that effect), and will then initial and date the request form to reflect the time of delivery or notification.

The Circulation Manager will regularly review completed request forms to assure that all requests are either timely filled or promptly answered.

Delivery of Materials from Other UGA Libraries
Law faculty can request delivery to their offices of materials held by other libraries at the University of Georgia. To request delivery of a work from either the Main Library or the Science Library, use the online form. The information required includes the author and title of the work, the call number, and the name, address and UGA Identification Number of the faculty member. If the requested material is available, it should be delivered within a day or two after the request is received.

The UGA Libraries permit a faculty member to authorize individuals to charge out materials in the faculty member's name. This permission is extended as a courtesy to the faculty member and should be used only when obtaining materials for the faculty member to use directly. A faculty member is responsible for all materials charged to this authorization. Use a Faculty Authorization form to allow others to check out materials for you. Permission is granted for no longer than one year and expiration date of the permission should always be included on the faculty authorization form.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
Subject to the Library's Interlibrary Loan policy and the availability of the requested works, the Library staff will assist faculty in obtaining from other libraries works not available from the UGA libraries.

FACULTY PAGES AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES

The Law Library maintains faculty bibliographies for current law faculty. These are available on the web as links from the faculty profiles. Bibliographies are updated each summer.

If you have additional items or would like your bibliography updated more frequently, or if you would like to make changes to your profile, please send the information to the Special Collections Librarian.

ONLINE EXAMS COLLECTION

While the Library no longer collects paper copies of old exams, the collection of exams provided electronically through GAVEL is growing.  If you would like to include examples of your past examinations in the file, please follow the procedure for submitting Course Reserves.

FACULTY WRITINGS COLLECTION

The Faculty Writings Collection is intended to be a comprehensive collection of items written by past and present faculty members of the University of Georgia School of Law. The collection contains published resources, authored or edited while they were members of the School of Law faculty. The library will retrospectively collect the publications of former faculty members on a continuing basis.

• A second copy is purchased for the general collection if it otherwise fits the Collection Development policy.
• We retain only the most recent supplement or update. Replaced pages are discarded.
• The collection does not include unpublished materials prepared for classroom use.
• Items are processed in the usual manner except we use archive call number tags and retain any book jackets.
• The items may be used only in the library.
• Article reprints are added to the collection if donated by a faculty member. Faculty members may request that unpublished materials be added to the collection.

Faculty Writings Display Case
The Faculty Writings Display Case showcases the writings of the current faculty. Contents of the Display Case are drawn from the Faculty Writings Collection. The Associate Dean for Faculty Development, in consultation with the Dean, will determine the specific contents. The Special Collections Librarian maintains the Display Case at the direction of the Associate Dean for Faculty Development.

• Emeritus faculty are included.
• Only the most current edition of a title is included.
• The publications of deceased faculty members will remain in the Display Case for two years after their death to honor their contributions to the school.

Library Research Assistant Program

Law faculty members often hire Law student research assistants. From time to time, however, a member of the faculty may require research assistance for short projects that do not justify the time and expense of hiring a traditional research assistant, generally projects under 20 hours duration. In those cases, use of a Library Research Assistant is appropriate.

The purpose of the LRA program is to provide quality research assistance to the faculty of Georgia Law. Students selected as LRAs are supervised, trained, and advised by the Reference Librarians. Additionally, the program offers students an opportunity to acquire necessary research skills to prepare them for legal practice.

The students are trained in the use of research tools and strategies and work within the Library under the direct supervision of a librarian. The LRAs perform a wide variety of tasks for the faculty using traditional and electronic resources. Students may produce legal memos, create bibliographies, and find and print cases, statutes, and law review articles. They may also perform cite checking and Bluebook checking for faculty. In addition, students may locate statistical data and information from other disciplines.

For longer-term projects faculty members should still hire their own research assistant. Librarians would be available to train these assistants and serve as consultants for them. If there is a conflict between simultaneous requests, the priority goes to the faculty member who has not previously used the service.

Contact the Faculty and Access Services Librarian if you have any questions or to submit a research request.

Visiting Scholars

Official visiting scholars are those whose visits are arranged through the Rusk Center or the Law School. Any question concerning the status of a visiting scholar will be referred to the Rusk Center or the Law School.

The Foreign & International Librarian serves as the primary contact for official visiting scholars at the Rusk Center. The Faculty and Access Services Librarian serves as the primary contact for other official visiting scholars.

The Law Library offers the same services to official visiting scholars as those offered to LL.M. students.

Official visiting scholars may check out materials from the library in the same manner as LL.M. students. Unofficial scholars are treated as members of the general public and, therefore, may only check out reserve items.

The Law Library assists official visiting scholars by providing:

* bibliographic instruction, including use of the library and electronic resources
* guidance in developing research strategies and in identifying relevant resources
* Lexis and Westlaw passwords