Washington and Lee University School of Law

Washington and Lee University School of Law

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Faculty Services

Research and Reference Services

The Law Library Reference Librarians are available to help you and your research assistants locate information, identify relevant books, articles and electronic resources, develop search strategies for databases, the web, catalogs and other sources, and provide assistance in determining the best legal research methodology for finding cases and statutes.

At your request, the Reference Staff will:

  • Work with faculty to identify resources in our physical and virtual holdings to support areas of teaching and scholarship.
  • Identify and obtain legal and non-legal resources of interest via interlibrary loan.
  • Create bibliographies identifying common resources of interest on the specified topic.
  • Provide special instruction or guest lectures on research techniques and material or tours.
  • Provide help and instruction to research assistants in specific areas of law.

The Powell Archives staff can assist in work with the Lewis F. Powell, Jr. papers and other primary sources of legal history in its holdings.  The archives also maintains the records of the law school's administration, teaching and learning including exams, moot court materials, publications of records and student organization records.  As well, the archivist advises students and faculty on access to relevant primary historical materials at repositories in this country and abroad.

Other services of interest to Faculty

Publishing Resources for Authors

The Communications Consortium Media Center provides information on submission procedures and criteria for opinion pieces in more than 100 newspapers published in the United States. 

Manuscript submission information on classification and rankings of law reviews based on subject, number of citations in journals and opinion is available from Washington and Lee's nationally recognized Law Review Rankings and Submissions project. 

LexisNexis provides addresses for over 600 journals in PDF, spreadsheet and word label format at the LexisNexis Directory of Law Reviews. 

Acquisitions

Reference librarians work with the guidance of the faculty and within the guidelines of the library's collection development policy to enhance the existing collection. Questions regarding items of interest to support individual research, scholarship or lectures should be directed to Caroline Osborne. 

Faculty gifts to the library, including hornbooks, texts and journals are welcome.  Please contact Caroline Osborne to arrange a contribution.

Current Awareness and Alert Services

Various publishers permit periodic electronic notifications of new books, journal articles, cases, amendments to statutes and working cases in defined areas of interest.  To set up an alert, clink on the link below or contact a member of the Reference Staff.  In addition to Westlaw and Lexis, the following also provide alert services. 

Headlines Service

Monday through Friday three of our librarians scan the headlines for items of interest to our faculty.  Articles viewed as potentially interesting to a faculty member are forwarded via email.  Faculty members with interest in a particular topic should notify Caroline Osborne of the interest.  If you are interested in coverage of a particular paper, please contact: 

Faculty members who are interested in coverage of other papers should contact Caroline Osborne to discuss arrangements on an individual basis.  The service does not operate on holidays and may be temporarily interrupted based on the individual librarians scheduling of out of office matters, although we will make every effort to compensate for scheduling conflicts. 

Borrowing and Circulation

Faculty members are registered for borrowing privileges upon arrival.  Most books can be checked out to faculty members for a semester.  Faculty members can renew books online. Loan periods for books borrowed through the University Library will vary depending on the material requested and the University Library's policies.

Law School faculty and staff may request books from the University Library or the Science Library using the forms at Library Requests. Books will be checked out and sent through campus mail to the faculty office. Receipt of a requested book may take up to five days. Periodicals, reference or reserve materials, audio/visual, photocopies, and McNaughton collection books will not be supplied through this service.

Course Reserves and Exam Files

Each semester faculty members are contacted prior to the beginning of a new semester to determine if there are books and other materials to be placed on reserve for students.  Faculty members who have placed items on reserve in the past are sent a list of the past reserves.  Please contact Bonnie Gates with any questions about reserve procedures or policies.

The Law Library maintains files of past examinations administrated at the law school and donated by members of the law faculty. Past exams are available online and in print at the Circulation Desk.  Faculty members wishing to contribute to the past exam files should contact Bonnie Gates.

For quick tips on Faculty Services, please see the Quick Tips for Faculty  handout.

For Reference Services contact:

Caroline L. Osborne
458-8545
osbornecl@wlu.edu

Judy Stinson
458-8544
stinsonj@wlu.edu

John Doyle
458-8554
doylej@wlu.edu

For Archives and Reference services contact:

John Jacob
458-8969
jacobj@wlu.edu

For Acquisition and Library Catalog information contact:

Jack Bissett:
458-8546
bissettj@wlu.edu

Acting Law Librarian

Caroline L. Osborne                                                                                                                                                   458-8545                                                                                                                                                     osbornecl@wlu.edu

Interlibrary Loan

Linda Newell
458-8553

Bonnie Gates
458-8140

Library Administrative Office

Macy Coffey
458-8541

Joan Kasper
458-8542

Circulation Desk

458-8552

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