Public Services

The Law Library receives print copies of several national, local, and legal newspapers. The most current papers are available in the commons area near 484 JRCB. Older papers are stored in the Reserve Room for six months, after which they are discarded. For assistance with locating a newspaper article, contact your library liaison.

The Law Library subscribes to a growing number of electronic databases. A full list is available on the Law Library website. View the list of BYU Law Library databases here. Contact Iantha Haight at (801) 422-9023 or haighti@law.byu.edu with questions about access and training. Contact your library liaison if you are unable to find a database that meets your research needs.

Scholastica — contact Shawn Nevers for help setting up an account

Information for Submitting Articles to Law Reviews & Journals

Writing for and Publishing in Law Reviews (By Mary Whisner & Ann Hemmens, University of Washington Law Library)

Resources for Keeping Up and Staying Current (By Mary Whisner, Stacy Etheredge, & Cheryl Nyberg, University of Washington Law Library)

American Bar Association Affiliated Upcoming Events

• Calendar of ABA section, committee, and other events & conferences
• Can search by topic, sponsor, date, or location
• Mainly CLE events

Legal Scholarship Blog

• Law-related calls for papers, conferences, and workshops, as well as general scholarship resources
• A collaborative service from law librarians at various U.S. law schools

SSRN Legal Scholarship Network’s Professional Announcements

• An SSRN eJournal to which you can subscribe
• Includes calls for papers and calls for applicants

Law Library faculty are available to come into law classes to teach students how to conduct legal research in specialized areas and demonstrate how to use specific library and research resources. Librarians can give students an overview of the Library’s print holdings and relevant electronic databases. This type of instruction can be very useful to students, especially in seminar courses where a paper is required. Requests for such lectures can be arranged through library liaisons.

Faculty members are encouraged to recommend new titles for the Law Library collection. Please send requests to your library liaison. Requests for print purchases can also be sent to Kory Staheli, Collections and Legal Research Instruction Librarian, at stahelik@law.byu.edu. Requests for digital purchases and database licensing can be sent to Iantha Haight, haighti@law.byu.edu. We will route new print materials to your office if you wish.

The Law Library employs law student reference assistants to assist law faculty with their research needs. These law students provide support for law faculty who either do not have enough ongoing work to justify hiring their own research assistants or need assistance beyond their own research assistants. The reference assistants are meant to complement, not replace, individual faculty research assistants. The reference assistants work primarily on research requests and, if there is time available, data projects that require the student research assistant have at least one year of law school. The law student reference assistants are supervised by Annalee Hickman Pierson. Faculty who need assistance are encouraged to contact their library liaison.

In addition to providing research support to law school faculty, the reference assistants also provide reference services to library users virtually and in-person at the Law Library. 

Law Library tours for teaching support may be scheduled through Annalee Hickman Pierson: (801) 422-3596 or HickmanA@law.byu.edu.

Legal research lectures may be arranged for BYU undergraduate classes. These lectures are particularly helpful for students asked to conduct research in the law library. Law librarians can adapt their lectures to the subject matter of the course. To schedule a lecture, contact Annalee Hickman Pierson: (801) 422-3596 or HickmanA@law.byu.edu.

The Law Library purchases a number of study aids to assist law student with exam preparation. Current editions of study aids are generally shelved in the Reserve Room and may be checked out for 2 hours (subject to the reserve circulation policy). Older editions are shelved in the main collection and can be checked out for the normal loan period. For specific titles, check the library catalog.

Additionally, check out this research guide on Study Aids for Law Students, which gives more details about the different types of study aids and how to access some of them electronically.

Reference Services is a department in the BYU Law Library that offers research help to BYU Law students. Stop by the Reference Desk any time you see an employee there! Reference assistants are second- and third-year law students who can assist you, and the full-time law library faculty members teach the legal research courses and can give you in-depth research consultations to help you.

For reference hours, see here. 

BYU Law students may reach out to librarians directly to their individual emails to make an appointment for a research consultation when they need help with their 1L legal research class, an externship or clerkship assignment, or a paper for a class (like Substantial Writing or their law review note). BYU Law students may also email reference@law.byu.edu to make an appointment with a librarian if they don’t have a preference for which one helps them.

Librarians can show you databases that may help, places to do a preemption check, how to organize your research, where to find good sources to cite in your footnotes, how to Bluebook cite various sources, and much more.

BYU Law students may also ask reference and research questions via phone (801) 422-6658 and email reference@law.byu.edu. Questions from BYU Law students are prioritized and are generally answered within a couple of business hours.