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Law Library
Mission/Purpose
| User Profile | Facilities
| Services | Resources
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Research Guides
Mission/Purpose
The primary goal of the Boston College Law Library is to
provide academic, curricular, and technology support to the Boston
College Law School community in furtherance of its mission. To render
this support, the Library seeks to provide access to and assistance
in the use of collections and information; to provide instruction
in the use of legal and non-legal materials; and to support faculty
research and teaching. Secondarily the Library provides information
services to the larger community, especially to segments of Boston
College beyond the law school, to alumni/ae of the law school, to
other libraries, both public and law, and to the law library profession.
These goals are met in an environment that is sensitive to the comfort
of users and that enhances the work experience and supports the
professional growth of the library staff.
User
Profile
The primary user community of the Law Library is its faculty
and the students in the Law School's Juris Doctor program. This
program includes classroom and clinical training including a program
at King's College in London. The Law School also offers two joint
degree programs - a joint J.D./M.B.A. program offered in conjunction
with the Carroll School of Management, and a joint J.D./M.S.W. offered
with the School of Social Work. The collection is used by enrollees
in the joint degree programs as well as by other Boston College
faculty, graduates and undergraduates in need of legal materials,
BCLS alumni/ae, area attorneys, and students from educational institutions
with whom consortial relations exist. Borrowing privileges for these
groups vary.
Facilities
Opened in 1996, the $16.4 million, four-story law library
provides a technologically advanced and comfortable environment
for study and research. Housed in an attractive red-brick structure
with a central atrium, the library provides a variety of study and
research venues in addition to stack space for its print collection
and its microform facility:
- 200
study carrels and 44 study tables (4 seats per table) wired for
power and access to the BC network
- 2
audiovisual research rooms each housing 4 carrels equipped for
individual video playback and cable television viewing
- Brian
P. Lutch Computer Center equipped with 14 Macintosh and 15 IBM
computers, loaded with word processing, spreadsheet, database
and presentation software, plus access to the campus network and
the Internet; 4 laser printers; 2 scanners; and one fax machine.
The Center is audiovisually equipped for large screen projection
of video, cable television and computer data.
- 3
computer classrooms each equipped with 11 IBM workstations and
audiovisual capability for large screen projection of video, cable
television, and computer data
- CD/ROM
network that provides access to official legal publications and
indexes to legal literature
- 9
reservable Groups Study Rooms, equipped for video recording and
playback, cable television viewing and computer data display with
access to the Boston College network from all seating
- 2
student lounges featuring daily newspapers, a collection of general
interest periodicals, a popular book exchange, and computers for
e-mail access
- 13
workstations with direct access to BC's on-line catalog and gateway
to other databases
- Faculty
Research complex with 6 wired carrels reservable for faculty use
- 24
seat Conference Room
- Daniel
R. Coquillette Rare Book Room
- TTY
for public use
For
additional details, consult the Law
Library web site.
Services
Twenty-two library staff provide services to the community. Librarians,
all with advanced degrees, 7 with law degrees, provide formal legal
research instruction in conjunction with faculty in the first year
Legal Reasoning, Research and Writing program, teach an advanced
legal research course, and lecture in selected upper level courses
and in a variety of library workshops. Direct research guidance
is also provided to the moot court teams and other competitions
and to the staff of the Law School's 4 law reviews.
A faculty/librarian
contact program insures that all faculty have a reference librarian
"point person" to assist them with research and teaching support.
The librarians also provide monthly information to faculty about
where they have been cited, in legal literature, newspapers and
court documents. Faculty also have a delivery service from the library
to their offices available to them.
Reference
is provided throughout the week, Monday - Thursday from 9am - 8:30
pm; Friday until 6pm; and Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
Interlibrary
loan service is available to both faculty and students.
In
addition, the library provides technology support to the Law School,
backed up by the University's Information Technology department.
This includes the operation of the student Computer Center and three
teaching labs; front line support and training for all faculty and
staff; research and instructional support for faculty use of technology
in scholarly endeavors and in the classroom; short and long range
planning for use of technology and the associated development of
databases, networks and the selection of specialized software, licenses,
and peripherals; plus the interface with the University for all
financial and administrative aspects of technology management.
Resources
The Law Library's collection supports the teaching, research, writing
and clinical programs of the Law School community. The Library also
supports the undergraduate research of Boston College in a more
limited fashion, and provides access to its collections to the local
legal community. The emphasis of the collection is the primary and
secondary legal materials of the United States with an emphasis
on Massachusetts material; primary material for England, Ireland,
Canada, and Australia; and basic international materials including
coverage of the United Nations and European Union.
The
Law Library purchases materials in all formats. The primary emphasis
is on the purchase of material in paper with an ever growing number
of resources available in electronic format. The majority of primary
materials are purchased in paper, with the exception of microform
publications of United States congressional, United Nations and
European Union documents. The major legal electronic databases of
Lexis and Westlaw duplicate many of the paper holdings and provide
additional resources as well. Materials may be purchased only in
electronic format, if that method provides a wider distribution
and is more economically reasonable.
The
Library collects federal primary material, and state primary materials
for all fifty states. Its collection includes secondary materials
for the individual states on a limited basis. More emphasis is placed
on the purchase of secondary materials for the New England states,
particularly New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island. Collection of
secondary materials for Massachusetts is in depth. Also collected
are primary materials for Canada, England and Ireland and scholarly
publications for those jurisdictions. Primary and secondary publications
of the European Union and United Nations are also selected for the
collection. Selected court reporters and codes from the Federal
Republic of Germany and France are also purchased as well as selected
monographs for these two jurisdictions.
The
Library purchases rare materials in the area of legal practice in
the New England states prior to the Civil War, and tracts and treatises
related to slavery.
Research
Guides
Research Guides: The Law Library's Information Guides listed below
can be found at: http://infoeagle.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/lawlib/publica.html
- Reading
Legal Citations
- Finding
cases
- Using
Statutes
- Regulations
Research
- Using
Law Reviews
- Federal
Legislative Histories
- Using
Looseleaf Services
- United
Nations Research
- European
Union Research
- Massachusetts
Research
- Legal
Sources for Non-Law-School Courses
- New
Users' Guide
- Listservs
and Newsgroups
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