Library Services to Law Faculty

Ask-a-Librarian is the email, chat, and text reference service provided by the University of Miami Law Library.  It is only available to law school faculty, staff, and students.  This service is designed to help locate library materials, provide referrals to appropriate resources, or answer brief reference questions. Faculty also may use it to request reference assistance with more in-depth research projects.  The email address is library@law.miami.edu.  To chat with a law librarian, go to https://law-miami.libanswers.com/, scroll down to Ask a Librarian Chat, and enter your name and affiliation to start the chat.  The number to text with a law librarian is 305-712-6542.  This service is available when the reference desk is open (Library Hours).

All of the Law Library’s holdings can be located through uSearch, the online library catalog. uSearch can be accessed from any computer or mobile device with an Internet connection at http://search.law.miami.edu/.

The law library catalog is the default search and includes physical books housed in the law library as well as available e-books. The search can be expanded to include material at all other University of Miami libraries by selecting the All UM Libraries option. A search can also be expanded to include articles and other material by choosing Everything. (Note: Everything does not include material from most other law school databases but it does include many law review and other articles.)

The Library's webpage includes information about the Library and links to internet resources in addition to a link to uSearch, the online library catalog. The internet links include subscription databases provided by the Library, as well as other helpful legal research websites. Additionally, the webpage has information on library and reference department hours as well as a directory of staff telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. Please contact Robin Schard at 305-284-6441 or rschard@law.miami.edu with any suggestions for additions to the Library's webpage.

Librarians are available to provide the law faculty with a number of services. Reference librarians train faculty, faculty assistants and research assistants (See the section on Research Assistants - Research Training below.) in the use of Law Library materials and electronic databases, the internet and the electronic resources offered by Richter Library. Other services provided by the Reference Department include performing short research projects, searching online databases, compiling legislative histories and topical bibliographies, and locating materials in other libraries. For specific information on services that the reference department provides, please contact Abby Deese, Assistant Library Director for Reference & Outreach, at 305-284-1927 or aldeese@law.miami.edu or the reference desk at 305-284-3585 or library@law.miami.edu.

Reference librarians conduct both individual and group training on a variety of resources. They are available to teach guest lectures on legal research in general or on specific topics. A discussion of research strategies can be a practical component of your course, particularly in classes that involve writing papers or extensive research. Examples of subject-specific lectures include lectures on researching estate planning, Florida law, the internet, and international and foreign law. Reference Librarians have also done individual training on specific online services for faculty or for classes, such as Lexis, Westlaw, or Kluwer Arbitration. Please contact Robin Schard (305-284-6441 or rschard@law.miami.edu) or Abby Deese (305-284-1927 or aldeese@law.miami.edu) for information on this service.

Many professors disseminate course information to students by uploading that information to a course management system (CMS) on the web.  In addition to basic course information and readings, a CMS supports discussion groups, quizzes, links to web pages, and more.  There are several course management systems available.  The University subscribes to Blackboard, but similar products are available on Westlaw (TWEN) and Lexis (Lexis Classroom).  Please contact Robin Schard (305-284-6441 or rschard@law.miami.edu) or Abby Deese (305-284-1927 or aldeese@law.miami.edu) if you are interested in using one of these products. 

The reference librarians prepare online research guides describing research techniques and tools for specific areas of law.  Topics covered by existing guides include Florida legislative history, immigration, international arbitration, and Puerto Rico legal research.  The librarians also will create new research guides as requested.  Please contact Abby Deese (305-284-1927 or aldeese@law.miami.edu) for a complete list of existing guides or to request one on a new topic.

Reference librarians offer topical and advanced research training to research assistants to ensure that they utilize online and print resources efficiently.  Training and refresher sessions include print, Lexis, Westlaw, and other online resources.  Particular topical areas can be incorporated that address your research needs. 

Individual training and orientations are usually held when research assistants are hired.  Please contact Robin Schard (305-284-6441 or rschard@law.miami.edu) or Abby Deese (305-284-1927 or aldeese@law.miami.edu) for information about this service.

Research assistants can check out material from the Law Library for faculty as their proxy.  The student needs a signed letter from the supervising faculty member, which also includes the period of time the student is to have this privilege.  This information can be emailed to Bill Latham, Circulation Librarian.  Contact Bill Latham (305-284-1935 or blatham@law.miami.edu) for more information concerning proxies.

Faculty must complete a separate form to give their research assistants proxy power at Richter Library.  For more information, contact the Circulation Desk at Richter Library (305-284-3233 or richter.circulation@miami.edu).

To have the library staff retrieve items from the University libraries, see Document Delivery below.

Professors are responsible for any materials checked out of the Law Library or Richter Library by a proxy on their behalf.

Reference librarians will train faculty assistants in the use of any resources provided by the library, including subscription databases (e.g., Westlaw or Lexis), course management systems (e.g., Blackboard), and other library services.  Please contact Robin Schard (305-284-6441 or rschard@law.miami.edu) or Abby Deese (305-284-1927 or aldeese@law.miami.edu) for more information.

The Circulation staff can help you locate material in the Law Library and answer directional questions. In addition to re-shelving and circulating material, the Circulation Department maintains the Reserve and Course Reserve Collections. Circulation staff members also provide assistance in using Law Library equipment, such as microfiche machines.

The Circulation desk can be reached at 305-284-3563.  Contact Bill Latham (305-284-1935 or blatham@law.miami.edu) for additional information about the Circulation Department.

Occasionally, material is already checked out to one person when another person needs it. If so, the Law Library staff may be able to recall the material. Please contact Elizabeth Batista (305-284-3728 or ebatista@law.miami.edu) to recall books. The reverse may also be true, and we may need to retrieve, for another patron, material that a faculty member has checked out. We greatly appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

Course Reserve materials are kept behind the Circulation Desk and are arranged by faculty name.  These materials may include Law Library books, photocopies of course material, audiotapes, videotapes, personal copies of books owned by faculty, and more.  Materials may be placed on Course Reserve before or during the semester by providing the Circulation staff with these items. 

Faculty can see what is currently available on Course Reserve by using uSearch, the online library catalog.  Course Reserve materials may be searched by course name or professor’s name.

Faculty members who wish to place a book or other material from the Library’s collection on Course Reserve should complete a Course Reserve Form (doc) and submit it to the Circulation staff.  Please submit a completed form for every item to be placed on Course Reserve.  Be sure to include the name of the course or seminar and any specific restrictions on use. 

Photocopied materials and personal copies delivered for Course Reserve will be returned at the semester’s end, and the Law Library materials will be returned to the shelves.  Unless otherwise directed, Course Reserve materials do not circulate outside the Law Library and circulate within the Law Library for three hours at a time. 

Bill Latham (305-284-1935 or blatham@law.miami.edu), will be able to answer any questions on the Course Reserve Collection and procedures.

Material that is heavily used by students and other patrons is automatically placed in the Reserve Collection. The Reserve Collection is located behind the Circulation Desk on the first floor. Examples of the type of material in this collection include hornbooks, nutshells and court rules. Recent issues of some periodical titles, such as the Florida Law Weekly, or the Miami Times are also located on Reserve.

Reserve materials generally circulate within the Law Library for three hours at a time although, for some titles, there are copies that may be checked out overnight. No material circulates outside the Law Library during the Reading/Exam Period.

The Law Library maintains a collection of past law school exams for students to review. Exams are placed and kept on course reserve at the discretion of the faculty member teaching the course. The Circulation staff will make the exams available to students whenever the faculty member teaches the relevant course. Some faculty members have switched to allowing their past exams to be shared with students electronically through the Circulation Department.  Bill Latham (305-284-1935 or blatham@law.miami.edu) will be able to answer any questions concerning Exams on Reserve. 

Faculty members seeking books, journals or other material not on the Law Library shelves have several options. Reference librarians may be able to assist in locating the item or the information sought. Reference librarians are available at 305-284-3585 or library@law.miami.edu. Circulation staff may be able to find materials which have been misshelved and can recall materials checked-out to another Library patron. Circulation staff members are available at 305-284-3563. Faculty may also use the interlibrary loan services of the Law Library (305-284-3728).

A modest collection of law-related movies is available in the Reserve Collection behind the Law Library’s Circulation Desk.  Materials may be checked out for 7 days.  Faculty can use uSearch, the online library catalog, to browse movie titles.  Richter Library also provides access to several film databases.  To recommend an addition to the Law Library collection, contact Helen Wohl, Assistant Library Director for Technical Services (305-284-2823 or hwohl@law.miami.edu).

Upon request, the Law Library will retrieve materials from our collection or from other University libraries. The items will be checked out under the faculty member's name. Document Delivery can also arrange for duplication (subject to copyright restrictions) of materials and route requested items to faculty offices. Occasionally, requests may be fulfilled by printing out a digital version of the requested document instead of photocopying a print version of the requested text. Please contact Elizabeth Batista (305-284-3728 or ebatista@law.miami.edu) for document delivery. The Document Delivery Department will also return items to Richter Library. If, however, the faculty member returns items directly to Richter Library, he/she should always get a receipt for the transaction to avoid any confusion.

The faculty circulation period for Richter Library is one year from the date of checkout for most material, and the individual faculty member will be responsible for any books not returned to Richter Library. The University will bill for items not returned. Richter Library will also bill for books not returned when recalled.

From time to time, a faculty member may need to use materials not available at the Law Library or other University Libraries. In such instances, the materials can be requested through the interlibrary loan department. There is no charge for this service and standard requests are generally filled within two weeks although other delivery options (e.g. fax or first class mail) may reduce the time it takes for material to arrive. An Interlibrary Loan Request Form for requesting material is available on the library's webpage, or faculty may also contact Elizabeth Batista, Interlibrary Loan Assistant, at 305-284-3728 or ebatista@law.miami.edu for interlibrary loan requests.

Interlibrary loan material can usually be kept from two to four weeks, depending on the lending library. Most libraries will allow an additional two weeks renewal upon request. Late return of books negatively affects our ability to borrow books from other libraries, so please try to assist staff in meeting these deadlines. If interlibrary loan material is not returned in a timely fashion, the lending library will exact a fee. The faculty member may be required to pay any fines, processing and replacement costs.

The Law Library provides access to Lexis, Westlaw, Bloomberg Law, and many other subscription databases, online services, and digital publications; a list of these resources is available on the Subscription Database page.  Many of these resources, including Lexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg Law, are restricted to law faculty, staff, and students.  Additionally, some of the material is limited to law faculty only, so please do not distribute passwords (where required) to students.

If you have a Lexis/Westlaw/Bloomberg Law password and need assistance accessing the database, or to request online research assistance, contact the Reference Desk by phone (305-284-3585), email (library@law.miami.edu), chat (https://law-miami.libanswers.com/) or text (305-712-6542).  

To obtain or renew a Lexis, Westlaw, or Bloomberg Law password, contact Robin Schard (305-284-6441 or rschard@law.miami.edu).  Requests for network passwords, e-mail accounts, or assistance using the network equipment should be directed to UMIT Service Desk – Faculty Support (305-284-6565 or help@miami.edu).

For training, refresher sessions, or to request research instruction for your classes using any of these tools, contact Robin Schard (305-284-6441 or rschard@law.miami.edu) or Abby Deese (305-284-1927 or aldeese@law.miami.edu). 

 You can also access these databases from off-campus and on your personal device on-campus.  Start by going to the Subscription Database page.  Once you click on a link, you will get a sign-on screen.  Always use your CaneLink sign-on credentials, even if the access shows Miami Law Network.  For additional information, see the Off-Campus & Wireless Access webpage.

The Law Library welcomes faculty recommendations of books, periodicals and digital resources for addition to the Law Library collection. To recommend or request a specific publication, please contact Helen Wohl (305-284-2823 or hwohl@law.miami.edu), or a reference librarian at 305-284-3585 or library@law.miami.edu. 

The Acquisitions staff will notify each faculty member when his or her order has been placed, and, if requested, route the requested item to the faculty member after processing. If the faculty request indicates that the material is needed by a particular date, Acquisitions staff will attempt to meet that deadline. If the delivery date cannot be met, the Acquisitions staff will ask the faculty member whether the Law Library should initiate an interlibrary loan request for the intermediate time period. For more information, contact Helen Wohl (305-284-2823 or hwohl@law.miami.edu).

The Law Library maintains a collection of Law Faculty and Law School publications in the Archives. Faculty members wishing to donate their publications to the Law Library should either leave the items in the library pick-up area outside of their office or contact Elizabeth Batista (305-284-3728 or ebatista@law.miami.edu). The items should be clearly marked as a faculty publication for the Archives and include the name of the person donating the material.

Additionally, the Law Library displays extra copies (e.g., offprints) of faculty publications and makes them freely available to the law school community and the public.  The display is on the first bookcase closest to the reference desk.  To contribute extra copies, faculty members should either leave the items in the library pick-up area outside of their office or contact Elizabeth Batista (305-284-3728 or ebatista@law.miami.edu).  The items should be clearly marked as a faculty publication for display and distribution to interested readers. 

Please contact Bill Latham (305-284-1935 or blatham@law.miami.edu) about getting material from the Archives and Special Collections.

Upon request, the Law Library will route current issues of periodicals to faculty. The Serials staff can send each member of the faculty a copy of their current routing list. Faculty may update their list by adding or deleting periodical titles, or initiate a new routing request at any time, by contacting Helen Wohl (305-284-2823 or hwohl@law.miami.edu). The Serials staff will follow these requests with a note to the faculty member indicating the date of each routing addition.

In addition to the Periodical Routing service, the Law Library offers other current awareness services for faculty.  For information or help in setting up any of these services, contact Robin Schard (305-284-6441 or rschard@law.miami.edu) or Abby Deese (305-284-1927 or aldeese@law.miami.edu). 

Some of the current awareness services are:

SmartCILP, available through HeinOnline, sends weekly email notifications that alert faculty to recently published, subject-specific articles pulled from over 600 legal periodicals.  In most cases, faculty can access the full text of the articles via links in the email.  To create a SmartCILP account and designate specific research interests, click here and enter your CaneLink credentials.  From the HeinOnline home screen, under the heading Browse Databases by Name, click the link for Current Index to Legal Periodicals (CILP); then from the dropdown box that appears, click the link for Create New SmartCILP User.  On the next screen, enter your UM Law (law.miami.edu) or Miami (miami.edu) email address.  [NOTE: if you already have a MyHein account, you must use the same email address associated with that account.]  Then click the Create/Update icon.  You will be redirected to a form where you can select the content you want to receive in your weekly SmartCILP notification.  On the form, enter your name, select the Topics – Subjects – Journals for which you want updates.  After making your selections, click the Create/Update icon under the heading Subscription Status.

Legal Scholarship Network (LSN), part of the Social Science Research Network (SSRN), is a service providing email delivery of abstracts of recent working papers and accepted papers.  When possible, the complete text is posted to the website.  To sign up for email delivery, go to  https://hq.ssrn.com/login/pubsigninjoin.cfm, enter an email address, and click Join SSRN.  Then enter the requested information, and click Create Account.  On the next screen, click Subscriptions from the list on the left side, scroll down to Legal Scholarship Network, and click “Click here” to select journals and research areas of interest.

Bloomberg Law offers email alerts to Bloomberg Law News, U.S. Law Week, and subject-specific newsletters.  After signing in to Bloomberg Law with your customized user name and password, there are two separate links to use under the heading Popular Links.  For general law news, click the link Bloomberg Law News and then click Subscribe to Newsletter in the upper right.  For U.S. Law Week and for newsletters on subject-specific topics, click the link Subscribe to Newsletters and then select the newsletters of interest.

Faculty members may also elect to receive a personal copy of the official Florida Statutes, either in print or CD-ROM. The six-volume statutes are issued annually in October. To obtain your copy of the statutes, please contact Helen Wohl at 305-284-2823 or hwohl@law.miami.edu.

Faculty members wishing to donate books or other materials to the Law Library should either leave the items in the library pick-up area outside of their office or contact Elizabeth Batista at 305-284-3728 or ebatista@law.miami.edu. The donated items should be clearly marked as a gift and include the name of the person donating the material.

The Law Library staff place several daily newspapers in the Faculty Lounge. The newspapers delivered to this room are the Miami Herald, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. These newspapers should not be removed from the Faculty Lounge so everyone has the opportunity to catch-up on the day's news.

Maps of the Law Library can be found at the Circulation or Reference desks or on the Library's webpage.

The Law Library has some audio-visual equipment to use with information sources in alternate formats. Two microfiche and microfilm reader/printers are located on south side of the second floor, near the microform cabinets. There is also a reader/printer on the first floor behind the reference area. Two television/DVD/VCR machines are also found in this section of the first floor. Headphones for the VCR's, audiotape cassette players, and computers can be checked out from the Circulation Desk.

Faculty may check out the audio CD-ROM “Survey of Florida Law” to get CLE credits in Florida.  This CD-ROM is published by the Florida Bar and includes general credit hours, professional responsibility credit hours, and ethics credit hours.  Visit the Circulation Desk to see the specific topics and to check it out. Other free Florida CLE resources are available though the Florida Bar's Practice Resource Center.