Protect Your Belongings

We would like to remind law students to never leave your valuables alone anywhere in the School of Law.  Your textbooks, book bags, purses, laptops and other belongings can be easily taken in just “30 seconds.”

We welcome visitors to the School of Law and to the Law Library, both those associated with the University and those who are not.  Having open doors, however, also means anyone can come into the building.  It would be wise to always be careful and make it a habit to never leave your belongings unattended.

If you see suspicious behavior, please notify law school employees right away.  You can call the University police yourself by dialing 330-972-2911 (if using a cell phone) or 911 if using a campus phone.

More information about campus safety here.

Thank you.

West Online Study Aids Will be Down for Maintenance

The West Study Aids site is scheduled for maintenance and will be temporarily unavailable from 6:00 pm CST Friday, March 30, 2012 through Sunday April, 1, 2012 at 6:00 pm CST. Access to the site will be made available as soon as the maintenance is completed.

If you would like to print select materials beforehand, the Study Aid Subscription allows you to print 150 pages per month.

Thank you for your patience as we make improvements to the site. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Customer Technical Support at 1-800-486-4876.

 

New Library Guides

Two new library guides are now available on the Law Library website.

Legal Citation

The Legal Citation library guide covers The Bluebook, ALWD Citation Manual, the Ohio Citation manual and international citation.  The Bluebook and ALWD pages list guides, manuals, videos and presentations that can help you understand legal citation.  There are also links to CALI exercises, Lexis Interactive Citation Workstation and Westlaw CiteStation, where you can practice citing using either ALWD or The Bluebook.  The general information tab has charts and PowerPoints that help students transition from ALWD to The Bluebook.

 

Legal Research Databases

The second library guide, recently launched, covers legal research databases available to law students here at the University of Akron.  The guide has links to tutorials, training, support phone numbers, password use policy, and a hint about a new legal database we will see next fall.

To get to all of the Law Library’s guides go to the Law Library web page and click on Library Guides, or click here.

For questions please contact Lynn Lenart, llenart@uakron.edu, 330-972-6357.

Summer Access to Lexis and Westlaw

Summer Access to Lexis Advance

Access to Lexis Advance will continue during the summer.  As long as you are registered for Lexis Advance you do not have to do anything to continue using Lexis Advance this summer.  If you have not registered for Lexis Advance, please contact our Lexis Account Manager, Jennifer Durkin at jennifer.durkin@lexisnexis.com.

Academic purpose restrictions still apply for the summer.  Academic purposes include, but are not limited to:

  • Summer course preparation and assignments
  • Research associated with Moot Court, Law Review, or Law Journal
  • Research associated with pursuing a grant or scholarship
  • Service as a paid or unpaid research assistant to a professor
  • An internship, externship or clinic position for school credit or graduation requirement
  • Study for the bar exam
  • Research skill improvement

Academic purposes do not include research conducted for a law firm, corporation, or other entity (other than a professor or law school) that is paying you to conduct research, or that is passing along the cost of research you conduct to a third party.

If you need access to materials that are still not available on Lexis Advance, you will need to contact our Lexis Account Manager, Jennifer Durkin (jennifer.durkin@lexisnexis.com), to get summer access to classic Lexis.

Students and graduates (including December 2011 graduates) engaged in verifiable 501(c)(3) public interest work may apply for access to Cases, Codes, Law Reviews, Shepard’s, and Matthew Bender treatises on lexis.com through the ASPIRE 2012 program. (Log in and then click this link  )

Summer Access to Westlaw

To access Westlaw over the summer, students need to register on Westlaw.   Log onto Westlaw and click on the image that says summer access.  Typically, it shows up on the right under the Weekly Poll feature. Academic use only restrictions apply for summer.  Academic purposes include:

  • Summer law school classes
  • Law review or law journal work
  • Project for a professor
  • Moot court
  • Unpaid, nonprofit public-interest internship/externship pro bono work required for graduation

Passwords may NOT be used for research for law firms, government agencies, corporations or other purposes unrelated to law school coursework. Students graduating this year can extend their passwords by following the special link for graduates.

Access to Casemaker continues year round.  Law students do not have to do anything to keep summer access.  Students can use Casemaker to conduct research for their employer.  Casemaker does not have an academic password restriction!

For more information about summer or graduate access, see our new library guide – Legal Research Databases

Food for Fines

Did you return a book a little late? Forgot what time your laptop was due?  Your chance to pay off those charges and help a good cause is here!  Starting March 5 through March 25  the Law Library and the University Libraries will be sponsoring their semiannual Food For Fines drive for the Akron-Canton Food Bank.

You can bring in non-perishable food items to pay for your fines.  Each food item is equal to .50 cents and there is no limit on the number of items.  This offer cannot be used to pay for billed or lost books.  Food may be dropped off at the Law Library Circulation Desk.

2 nonperishable food items = 1 dollar credit

The Super Six most needed items are boxed cereal, peanut butter, canned tuna, canned vegetables, canned beef stew and canned soup.  Here is a list of other greatly needed items.