By mail:
Valparaiso University School of Law Library
656 S. Greenwich Street
Valparaiso, IN 46383
Library Information
About the Library |
Contacting the Library |
|---|---|
Staff Directory |
Electronic Reserves |
Hours |
Interlibrary Loan |
Reference Hours |
The Reporter -Library Newsletter |
Library Blawg |
About the Library
Welcome to the Valparaiso University Law Library. With its skilled and dedicated staff, varied collection, and wide range of services, the library supports the teaching and research mission of Valparaiso University School of Law.
As the largest legal research facility in Northwest Indiana, our library contains more than 314,000 volumes in hard copy and microforms, and offers electronic access to LEXIS/NEXIS, WESTLAW, CALI, Lexis/Nexis Congressional, Access UN, Hein Online, ADR World, LegalTrac, LLMC Digital, RIA Checkpoint, the U.N. Treaty Collection, BNA Core titles, and the Inspire Network. Since we believe that the ability to perform legal research is a skill that is essential to the practice of law, we place a high priority on providing research instruction to law students on both a formal and an informal basis. Our professional law librarians even teach a very popular internet research continuing legal education course.
Whatever your legal research and resource needs are, chances are we can offer some quick assistance. Reference questions are often an opportunity for librarians to provide one-on-one teaching of research strategies and techniques.
The Library supports the School of Law curriculum and provides all the basic primary and many secondary materials for researching U.S. federal law as well as law in the 50 states. These include federal, regional, and state reporters and digests; federal and state statutes and administrative regulations; treatises; and looseleaf publications.
A complete run of over 1200 periodicals, including all the law reviews published by accredited U.S. law schools, is maintained by the Library. In addition, the Library houses one of the few existing collections of the records and briefs of the Indiana Supreme Court and the Indiana Court of Appeals. Audio- visual materials, including over 1000 audio and video tapes produced both commercially and locally, are available in the Library.
Since 1978, the Law Library has been a selective federal depository for United States government information in various formats. Holdings include post-1970 Congressional materials and the reports and decisions of many government agencies. The Library also provides the bibliographic tools to facilitate access to these documents. Besides government documents, the large microform collection includes the U.S. Supreme Court records and briefs from 1974, the Readex U.S. Law Collection from 1984, the Congressional Record and Federal Register since their inception, the session laws of all states since 1981, and a full collection of Indiana session laws.
The basic arrangement of the Law Library collection is as follows. The Reference Collection, including primary Indiana material, and most U.S. law materials are located on the main level. Reserve materials and unbound periodicals are shelved in a room located behind the Circulation Desk and must be requested there. On the upper level are the remainder of the U.S. law material, all state materials and books on subjects other than U.S. law, such as British law, foreign relations, health, statistics, women's studies, history, and religion. Materials located on the lower level are the depository collection of government documents, bound periodicals, and microforms.
The Law Library collection is organized in the familiar Library of Congress classification system. The Library's online catalog, Galileo, provides access to the law collection as well as to the holdings of The Christopher Center for Library and Information Resources (University Library). Two public access Galileo terminals are located on the main floor and one on the upper level. Galileo is accessible from any networked terminal on campus and by dial-in, telnet, and World Wide Web access from remote locations.
Staff Directory
The Valpo Law Library team consists of six professional librarians and six staff members. Our librarians all have master's degrees in library science and three also have Juris Doctor's degrees. All have extensive legal research experience and four teach the first year and advanced legal research courses.
It is impossible to run a successful library without highly skilled and energetic staff members. Valpo is fortunate to have some of the best. They are involved with the day-to-day activities of the library, including circulation, interlibrary loan and processing the variety of material that comes into the library.Visit our pictorial directory for more information on the Valpo Law Library team including contact information.
Hours
Regular Hours (during the academic year)
Monday through Thursday: 7:30 a.m. to Midnight*
(library is open from Midnight to 1:00 a.m. for law school students only)Friday: 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.*
Saturday: 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.*
Sunday: 9:00 a.m. to Midnight*
*Note: While the library is open to the public as described above, the School of Law is locked at 9:00 p.m. every night and accessible only to law school students, faculty, and staff members with valid campus IDs.
Summer Session II Hours (July 23 - August 25, 2007)
Monday - Friday: 8am to 5pm
CLOSED WEEKENDSPlease Note:
The Library will be open from 9am to 5pm on Saturday August 25th
Regular Hours resume on Sunday, August 26th
Reference Hours
During the academic year, reference assisance is available:
Monday through Thursday: 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Sunday 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (when school is in session)For reference availability when classes are not in session, please call (219) 465-7827
Policies
Library Access
The Law Library serves the students and faculty of the Valparaiso University School of Law. It is also open to members of the practicing bar, the Valparaiso University community, and the general public.
Borrowing
The Law Library does offer borrowing card privileges to the general public. Alumni of the Valparaiso University School of Law are entitled to free library cards; for all other persons, the cost of the card is $15.00. Library borrower's cards are valid for one year and also enable the card holder to check out materials from the Christopher Center for Library and Information Resources, Valparaiso University's main library. To obtain a borrower's card, please visit the circulation desk. Please keep in mind, however, that much of the Law Library's collection consists of non-circulating materials that may not be taken out of the Library.
Additionally, the Law Library is a member of the Academic Libraries of Indiana, Inc. (ALI), an association of all 72 of Indiana's academic libraries. Faculty and students of other ALI institutions are welcome to borrow any circulating Law Library materials with an ALI Reciprocal Borrowing Card.
Food and Beverage Policy
- No food is allowed in the Law Library or computer labs.
- Beverages are allowed, but only in closed, sturdy containers.
Cell Phones
Cell phone use is prohibited within the Law Library.
Contacting the Library
By phone:
(219) 465-7827 (Circulation Desk)
Electronic Reserves
The Law Library makes course reserves and old exams available to the Law School community through electronic reserve. To access electronic reserve materials, visit the e-reserves website.
Access to the e-reserves is controlled by a username and password that is changed each semester. To obtain the username and password, inquire at the circulation desk.
Interlibrary Loan
Books or journal articles that are not available in the collections of either the Valparaiso University Law Library or the Christopher Center, or online, may be requested from other libraries through our online Interlibrary Loan program - ILLiad.
Book Requests: Check Galileo to see if the book is available either at the Law Library or the Christopher Center. If the book is located in the Christopher Center's collection, go there and check out the book. If the book is not available at either location, place your request through your ILLiad account.
Article Requests: First, check this website's Online Research Resources for links to websites where full-text articles may be available. The following are a number of links included in Online Research Resources that may be useful in locating articles:
Legal Articles: LexisNexis, HeinOnline, Westlaw, and LLMC-Digital
Non-legal Articles: Google Scholar, Inspire and the Christopher Center's JournaLocatorAlso, search the Internet by journal title and by article title as articles are sometimes available free from the publisher in PDF format.
Check Galileo to see if the journal title is available in hard copy at either the Law Library or the Christopher Center (Do not search for an article title in Galileo). If the journal is located in the Christopher Center's collection, go there and locate the article. If the journal is not available at either location, place your request through your ILLiad account.
Although we make every effort to get items quickly, it may take a book 7-10 days to be delivered. Articles may be received sooner. Due dates for interlibrary loans are determined by the lending institution and must be observed in order to avoid jeopardizing our interlibrary loan status with other lenders. If an extension is needed for a particular book, a renewal can be requested through your ILLiad account. Lending institutions may or may not grant a renewal based upon their own policies.
To create your account and/or place your request, click on the ILLiad link below and follow the instructions provided.
ILLiad
You may also print a copy of the Law Library's pamphlet containing complete interlibrary loan information.
For more information, contact the Interlibrary Loan Manager at (219) 465-7876 or email Pat.Glenn@valpo.edu. The Interlibrary Loan Office is located on the 2nd floor of the Law Library in Room 253 near the computer lab and is open Monday-Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The Reporter - The Law Library's Newsletter
The Law Library Staff publishes a newsletter, The Reporter, on an irregular basis. The Reporter contains information about services, publications, and events of interest to Law Library Patrons. Click below to be taken to the edition of The Reporter you would like to view. Hard copies of the most recent newsletter are available in the library.
Direct any comments on articles or issues to the Reporter's editor, Sally Holterhoff in Room 14 of Wesemann Hall.
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