Law Library Databases

BYU Law School alumni have remote access to two electronic resources through the Law Library: HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library and the LexisNexis Digital Library.

HeinOnline Alumni Access: Alumni can access HeinOnline’s extensive library of over 2,800 law journals. Use the HeinOnline Alumni Access link at the bottom of the Law Library’s home page under “Helpful Links” and log in with your NetID and password.

LexisNexis Digital Library Attorney Access: Alumni and members of the Utah Bar can sign up for an account to checkout e-book versions of legal treatises and volumes of the Utah Code Annotated. For more information and a complete list of titles, go to https://lawlibrary.byu.edu/information/digital-library-attorney-access/. 

Fastcase

All attorneys who have bar membership in the United States have free access to Fastcase. Check your bar association’s website for details.

Westlaw

The Law Library has two computer terminals near the reference desk with public Westlaw access. They are available for use by anyone when the library is open to the public. Researchers must limit their sessions to 30 minutes when someone else is waiting. You are welcome to return to the library to use the terminals.

Reference Services

Graduates are always welcome to contact Reference Services or law librarians with research questions! Contact information is available at https://lawlibrary.byu.edu/information/ask-a-librarian/.

Law Library Checkout Privileges and Document Delivery

Law School graduates may sign up for a Community User account. Open the Community User Agreement.

In addition, we can provide scans of pages from non-circulating materials and email them to you. Send the title, author, and page range, along with a link to the book in our library catalog, to Melanie Coleman. Please allow 24 hours for turnaround. Requests are not processed over the weekend. Requests received after 3 p.m. on Friday are processed the following Monday. Requests that violate copyright law will not be processed.

Harold B. Lee (Main Campus) Library Privileges

Circulation privileges at the Harold B. Lee Library are available for “friends of the library” donors. For larger donations you can get remote access to some databases. For more information, see https://lib.byu.edu/services/friends-of-the-library/.

CLE Credits

The Utah State Bar has authorized a limited number of recordings on CD and DVD for self-study CLE credit. Utah attorneys can check out these materials from the Law Library for free for a short time. For more information and a list of available recordings, see https://lawlibrary.byu.edu/information/self-study-cle-materials/.

BYU Email Addresses

In addition, BYU alumni have access to a permanent @byu.net email address that can be forwarded to the email service provider of your choice. For information go to https://alumni.byu.edu/email-forwarding.

Current Reference Hours for Fall 2023

Virtual Assistance

Any time we are offering reference services, we are offering them virtually. Email reference@law.byu.edu or call (and leave a voicemail if no one answers) 801.422.6658. Both are checked regularly during times we offer reference services.

Exceptions

Call 801.422.6658 or email reference@law.byu.edu
to inquire about additional exceptions to Reference Services hours.

Library liaisons are assigned to each full-time law school faculty member. These liaisons act as intermediaries between the Law Library and the faculty. Liaisons meet with their assigned faculty regularly to determine individual library needs and research interests. They also ensure that faculty members are aware of library services and collections and seek suggestions regarding how library services can be improved. Library liaisons are available to assist faculty members with their research needs. They obtain library material for faculty members and arrange for other library services that are needed or requested.

Specific services might include:

• obtaining law review articles
• making interlibrary loan requests (or you can contact Melanie Coleman at colemanm@law.byu.edu)
• forwarding purchase requests for approval and ordering
• setting up automated current awareness accounts (such as SmartCILP, Lexis/Nexis alerts, Westlaw’s WestClip and SSRN/LSN subscriptions)
• creating coversheets for scholarly works to be posted on SSRN
• uploading scholarly works to SSRN on behalf of the faculty member
• presenting research classes on subjects taught by the faculty member
• working with faculty research assistants
• compiling citations to the faculty member’s scholarly works

Liaison Assignments

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. 

Data project support is a faculty service the Law Library provides to law faculty. The support is provided by data assistants (undergraduate BYU students), who collect data and/or enter data that does not require being a law student or having any legal knowledge or background. The data assistants also work on data projects supporting corpus linguistics. The data assistants are hired, trained, and managed by the Data Project Manager, Teresa Odam. Faculty requests for data project support may be made through library liaisons who will coordinate with the Data Project Manager to ensure the carrying out and completion of the requested data project.

The reference assistants will continue to provide support for data projects that require some legal knowledge or background learned through the first-year legal research and writing program in law school, though traditional research requests may receive higher priority. More information about what the reference assistants can do for law faculty can be found here.

The Law Library faculty are available to work with and train law faculty research assistants in the process of legal research and to suggest research strategies for particular research projects. Contact your library liaison for individual training for your research assistant(s) any time through the year. General summer RA training takes place shortly after Winter semester. Contact Shawn Nevers for more information. Law Professors are also welcome to send their RAs to class sessions of Advanced Legal Research, scheduled during Winter semester. For the syllabus or more information, contact Shawn Nevers at (801) 422-8784 or neverss@law.byu.edu.

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.

Faculty members are encouraged to recommend new titles for the Law Library collection. Requests for purchase should be sent to the Law Library Director, Kory Staheli, at (801) 422-9223 or stahelik@law.byu.edu. You may have those new materials routed to your office as well.

What is Interlibrary Loan?

Interlibrary Loan is a FREE service that the Law Library provides through agreements with other libraries to expand the walls and provide access to a variety of materials that we may not have in our own collection.

The Details

ILL pulls materials first from the Law Library. If the material cannot be found here, then the search extends to the Lee Library and to other libraries after. It is rare for materials not to be available through this process. The library may purchase materials that are important to your research. Contact your library liaison about doing so.

How to Make a Request

• Go to https://lib.byu.edu/account/request/
• Click on Login in the upper right corner

• Sign in using your BYU NetID

• Click the icon next to your name in the upper right corner then select Request an Item from the drop down menu.

• Click on the Request an item button.

• Click on the Item Type you would like to request.

• Fill in the required information
• Click “Submit Request” at the bottom of the page

Items Not Available Through ILL 

The Law Library will not request materials that are available from the Law Library or Lee Library. This includes items on course reserve and all other non-circulating items.

• Requests for textbooks, casebooks, or any other required book will be cancelled. 
• Requests for fiction, non-fiction, etc. that are owned by the Lee Library but currently checked out will be cancelled. Please place a hold through your library account for these items.
• The Law Library will only fill one duplicate request per person. 

Have Questions?

Set up an appointment with Melanie, who is the Access Services Librarian; she will be able to help you navigate through the ILL process and help you obtain the materials you need.

ILL Materials

In most cases we are able to obtain the items you need, but occasionally some items cannot be sent physically. The Access Services Librarian will work with you to reach a solution. There are many other specific items that can be scanned and obtained rather than entire publications, textbooks, or print including

• Journal Articles
• Book Chapters
• Dissertations
• Page Requests
• Materials Cited in Footnotes
• Print Publications
• Table of Contents
• Microfilm
• Microfiche
• CD’s, DVD’s, etc.

Contact Information

Melanie Coleman—Access Services Librarian
Email: colemanm@law.byu.edu
Phone: 801-422-3656

Feel free to set up an appointment with Melanie if you have any questions about ILL.

Due to past experience, our recommendation for law faculty when materials are needed from the Lee Library is to contact their Liaison, the BYU Law Library Reference Services, or Melanie Coleman; or to submit an online request through InterLibrary Loan (ILL). We have developed procedures to retrieve materials quickly and to automatically reroute requests to other libraries (ILL) if a requested item is not immediately available at the Lee Library.

However, if needed, law faculty may request proxy privileges for a secretary or a research assistant that allows the designated proxy to check out materials from the law library in the faculty member’s name. Research assistants should never be encouraged or required to use their personal accounts to borrow materials for faculty members. 

Law Library proxy privileges should be requested through Melanie Coleman via email. The Harold B. Lee Library also provides proxy privileges according to their established policies.

The Law Library maintains several reserve collections, described below. Reserve collections may consist of both materials purchased by the Library and personal copies.

Course Reserve: The Law Library maintains one copy each of print casebooks some and other course materials assigned during the current semester at the Circulation Desk as a backup resource for students whose books are temporarily inaccessible (such as having forgotten a book at home). These materials are available for limited two-hour checkout. We discourage students from relying exclusively on Course Reserves for access to casebooks because books are shared among multiple students and will be inaccessible if the student cannot come to campus (such as due to illness).

Electronic Course Reserve: In order to provide contactless service and support learning on- and off-campus, the Law Library offers limited digital course reserves when requested by faculty and as licenses are available. Casebooks are not provided due to cost and licensing limitations.

Whenever possible, the Law Library is happy to license ebook versions of monographs or selections from books for course readings, or locate unrestricted digital copies of monographs. Licensing options are controlled by the publisher and can vary, from an unlimited license allowing simultaneous access, to an ebook subscription that can only be used by one person at a time. Some books are not available for any form of licensing. Although not preferable, the Law Library will make a print copy available on course reserve as a last resort.

Faculty are encouraged to contact the Law Library at least one month in advance with a reading list to allow for time to investigate and secure any necessary license.  Faculty will be provided with either a PDF of the reading or a URL to the ebook to make available to students. Reading lists for specific courses will be available through Canvas or TWEN, along with information about any limitations on use. Contact your library liaison, Laurie Urquiaga (copyright permissions and fair use), or Iantha Haight (ebook licensing) for assistance.

Locked Reserve: Locked reserve consists of audio/visual items, software, CLE recordings and similar material. Locked items are located behind the Circulation Desk and may only be borrowed for a limited time. Course reserve and professor files may be borrowed for 2 hours at a time. Audio/visual and software reserve items circulate for 24 hours.

Reserve Room: The Reserve Room is located on the second floor, in room 280 JRCB (near Circulation). The Reserve Room consists of high-use monographs (texts, outlines, restatements, etc.), six months worth of newspapers, along with the current Utah law collection — including copies of the state code, and the codes for various Utah cities. The Biblical Law and Benson Collections are also located in the Reserve Room.

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.

J. Reuben Clark Law School and Hunter Law Library

The Law School is committed to the enforcement and protection of copyrights as both a legal and an ethical imperative. A copyright is a set of exclusive rights that vests in the author of an original work of authorship (including literary, musical, dramatic, pictorial, sculptural, and motion picture works). The copyright attaches upon the work’s creation (when it is “fixed in a tangible medium of expression”); current law does not require the formalities of registration or of a copyright notice such as the “©” symbol. The exclusive rights covered by copyright include the right to (1) copy or reproduce the work or portions of the work (including by making electronic copies); (2) prepare “derivative works” based on the original; (3) distribute copies of the work or portions of the work (including by electronic means); and (4) publicly perform or display the work.

Any faculty member, staff member, or student who intends to copy or distribute any material that is not in the public domain and is, therefore, protected by copyright must first receive copyright clearance from the law school’s Copyright Coordinator under the procedures set forth here, unless the copyright is held by that faculty member, staff member, or student. Copyright clearance is required even if the material is believed to be covered by the doctrine of fair use, and even if permission has already been secured from the holder of the copyright by the individual faculty member, staff member, or student. “Copying” and “distributing” include not only making and distributing hard copies, but also making any digital or electronic copies, posting such copies on the internet or the law school’s web page, or distributing copies via e-mail.

Any faculty member, staff member, or student seeking copyright clearance must contact the law school’s Copyright Coordinator. Requests for clearance should be submitted on a form approved by the Copyright Committee. The request should be submitted as far in advance of the use of the material as is reasonably possible (preferably at least one month in advance). The form for the written request may be completed in hard copy or on the law school’s web page, and will require the person submitting the request to (1) identify the copyrighted works in question by author, title, publication date, journal citation (where applicable), publisher (if known), and ISBN/ISSN (if known); (2) describe the nature of any copying and/or distribution (e.g., hard copies, scanning, uploading, etc.); (3) identify the name of the course and number of students to whom the material will be distributed; (4) indicate whether the person submitting the request has ever previously received permission to use the material in question, and attach any documents memorializing such permission; and (5) indicate whether the person submitting the request believes that a fair use privilege applies, and provide a brief justification for such privilege.

Many single copies made purely for research purposes will be covered by the doctrine of fair use, particularly where only a portion of the original work is copied. For such uses, the Copyright Coordinator may provide clearances that may cover certain uses, without requiring specific clearance requests for each individual copy.

If a faculty member disagrees with a decision of the Copyright Coordinator, appeal may be made to the Associate Dean for Faculty & Curriculum.

The Law Library provides copyright and course material/packet support services to assist faculty in seeking copyright permissions for projects and preparing and distributing supplemental readings, course packets, and reserve materials. These services are governed by the Law School Copyright Policy.

Faculty should plan for 4 weeks of processing time for licensing requests.

Read the Law School Copyright Policy.

The BYU CLO has posted the following guidelines for all supplemental course materials:

• Linking to authorized online sources is a preferred option.
• Directing students to subscription content available through the BYU Librar[ies] is also a great option. For assistance linking to any particular Library content, contact [your liaison or Law Library Reference].
• Copying entire works is generally not recommended. Alternatively, copying limited portions of works to share with students will often be fair use. (The Fair Use Checklist and Interactive Fair Use Evaluation Log are helpful tools for analyzing fair use.)

Links to supplemental resources are always the recommended option, because links do not involve making copies. Linkable resources include authoritative sites on the open web, LexisNexis, Westlaw, HeinOnline and other library-licensed material. The Law Commons is an open-source repository of scholarly legal content, including law review articles from many highly-ranked journals. The Library of Congress provides access to online federal legal resources, as well as links to state primary legal resources. Cornell’s Legal Information Institute is another good portal to legal resources and information. Google Scholar can be also be useful as a tool for locating authoritative legal content, including case opinions.

If the supplemental material to be shared with a class is not available online, we will likely need to obtain copyright permission for that use. Faculty should keep in mind that permission to scan books or articles often requires payment of royalties, which must then be collected from each student enrolled in the class. Copyright permission must be secured before items can be copied and distributed.

Getting Help

Please contact your liaison or Annalee Hickman Pierson if you would like help with locating sources for supplemental course materials.

Questions regarding copyright issues and requests for clearance should be directed to Laurie Urquiaga at (801) 422-6657 or urquiagal@law.byu.edu.

Faculty who use copyrighted content as supplemental course material must obtain clearance before asking Library Circulation to scan and print or the web support team to post the material. For tracking purposes, clearance requests should either be submitted using the online form (option 1 below) or emailed to urquiagal@law.byu.edu (email requests should contain all of the information required on the form – multiple requests can be included in a single email). The requestor should plan to submit requests 4–6 weeks before the material will be needed, to allow time for processing.

Alternatively, faculty have the option to obtain clearance themselves, and then provide that permission record to Laurie Urquiaga. (This approach is often the best choice if the copyright owner of the desired content is a known colleague. A fillable PDF form letter is provided for convenience as option 2 below, but a less-formal email is sufficient if it contains adequate detail.)

After the use of copyrighted content has been cleared, requests for help with scanning and printing course materials or packets may be directed to Melanie Coleman. Melanie will forward scanned items to the web team if they are to be posted on Canvas or TWEN.

The Digital Services Librarian is available to help with course-related copyright permission requests. When requesting assistance, please submit bibliographic and course information as soon as possible. The BYU Copyright Licensing Office has obtained blanket permission to use many educational materials for the whole campus. In the absence of a blanket license, we will attempt to acquire copies of ebooks for students to access. The final option, individual licensing through the Copyright Clearance Center, almost always involves royalties that must be paid by students.

Educational uses are not, per se, Fair Uses. An educational use is most likely to be considered fair when it is one-time, last-minute, does not involve fiction or drama*, and is limited in scope. In those circumstances, obtaining timely permission is recognized to be difficult. But even the Fair Use of  copyrighted items should be reported to the Digital Services Librarian for record-keeping.

Please be aware that the Law School never assumes that using teaching materials more than once will be considered fair. And “consumables” (such as worksheets or problem sets) are never eligible for Fair Use.

Fortunately, in the United States many primary legal materials are deemed to belong to the public domain. Federal and State statutes, regulations and case opinions are increasingly available online as well as through LexisNexis and Westlaw. It is also generally reasonable to link to openly-available secondary resources without asking permission or paying royalties. Taken together with available LexisNexis and Westlaw resources, it is often possible to completely avoid making actual copies of most materials needed for preparing and teaching law classes.

Faculty should contact the help desk for assistance in preparing an interactive syllabus with links to required or recommended readings for any Law School class (“deep” links to LexisNexis or Westlaw resources may be included). The form below should be used to request permission processing for paper or electronic copying.

* A separate provision, §110 of the Copyright Act, exempts the use of many audiovisual formats for face-to-face classroom teaching. In interpreting §1201, the U.S. Librarian of Congress has ruled that capturing short excerpts of digital works for use in education can be a permissible circumvention of technical protection measures.

Password-protected digital copies of past law school examinations supplied by faculty members are available to current law students. Access to these exams requires an authorized ID and password.

Currently-available Exams

Your exam isn’t listed?

Please mail any exams you would like to make available to law students to Laurie Urquiaga at urquiagal@law.byu.edu.

Thank-you for submitting this request. You should receive a confirmation email shortly.

Do you need permission to use additional resources?

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

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)

Law faculty can receive notifications when their articles are cited by signing up for various citation alert services.

HeinOnline

On HeinOnline, faculty can sign up for email alerts in their HeinOnline author profile page for whenever their articles on Hein are cited by new publications and cases on Hein. View instructions on how to manage author alerts from HeinOnline here: https://help.heinonline.org/kb/how-to-manage-author-alerts/.

Google Scholar

You can make a Google Scholar profile and receive alerts any time your articles on Google Scholar are cited by other works in Google Scholar. You can read more about Google Scholar profiles and how to receive alerts here: https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/citations.html#citations. If you need help making your Google Scholar profile, see the screencast made by the BYU Law Library here: http://huntersquery.byu.edu/google-scholar-profiles/.

Contact your library liaison for any assistance you may need.

Because keeping up with current events and scholarship is important for faculty research and writing, the Law Library provides a number of current awareness tools. This page summarizes some common current legal awareness resources. Most of these resources are also available to students and can be utilized in teaching. Contact your library liaison with questions or to develop a current awareness plan tailored to your needs.

The following electronic news websites are available via site access and email newsletter subscriptions (in most cases):

• Bloomberg Law News: https://www.bloomberglaw.com/bloomberglawnews/ (including The United States Law Week and topic-focused news channels like Antitrust, Immigration, and Social Justice & Diversity; visit Bloomberg Law News for a complete list of offerings). Email Iantha Haight for an account.
• Environmental Law Reporter: https://login.byulaw.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.elr.info
• Financial Times (UK): register with your law school email address at https://www.ft.com/content/d1e380c9-6f77-43d3-88a4-93acfd47dfbd
• Greenwire: https://login.byulaw.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://subscriber.politicopro.com/eenews/pub/greenwire
• Law360: https://login.byulaw.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.law360.com/. Email Iantha Haight to set up an account.
• Law.com: https://login.byulaw.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.law.com. Email Iantha Haight to set up an account.
• Tax Notes (federal, state, and international editions): Register with your law school email address at https://login.byulaw.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://taxnotes.com/user.
• The Chronicle of Higher Education: Access at https://dbs.lib.byu.edu/higher-education. Register for email newsletters at https://www.chronicle.com/page/newsletters; newsletter links will not work off campus.
• The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com. Email Iantha Haight for help with your account.
• The Wall Street Journal: Register with your law school email address at http://wsj.com/BYULaw.
• The Washington Post: Access at https://login.byulaw.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.washingtonpost.com or register for a personal account with your law school email address at https://www.washingtonpost.com/subscribe/signup.

BYU Law faculty can subscribe to eJournals from SSRN’s Legal Scholarship Network (LSN) and the Entrepreneurship Research & Policy Network (ERPN) for the latest scholarship on topics of interest because the BYU Law Library is a subscribing institution. Contact your library liaison for help setting up your subscriptions, or follow the directions on SSRN’s website: https://www.ssrn.com/index.cfm/en/lsn/lsn-subscribe-orgs/.

You can modify your eJournal subscriptions through your SSRN account at any time. Contact your library liaison for assistance.

The Law Library can also assist with posting your scholarship to SSRN and including it in subject-matter eJournals. Contact your library liaison or Annalee Hickman Pierson, hickmana@law.byu.edu.

SmartCILP is a weekly email alert providing customized notifications of recently published law journal articles organized by topic, e.g. “Administrative Law” and links to the full-text publications on HeinOnline. Editors at the University of Washington’s Marian Gould Gallagher Law Library have been providing this service for over 80 years, and they currently index over 600 publications using 104 subject headings. To set up your SmartCILP research profile and begin receiving weekly SmartCILP notifications, contact your library liaison or click on the following link for instructions: https://help.heinonline.org/kb/creating-a-smartcilp-profile/.

You can change your profile as often as you like. Contact your library liaison or click on the following link for instructions: https://help.heinonline.org/kb/managing-your-own-smartcilp-profile/.

Many electronic resources have the option to create custom email alerts that can notify you when new legislation is proposed, new citations are available for a case or an article, or can run a set keyword search periodically and email you the results. For assistance, contact your library liaison.

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 following is a list of contacts for some of the major services provided by the Law Library. If the service you need is not listed, please contact reference or your library liaison to request assistance:

For more information about employees, see the Library Directory.

Administration

Name:

Shawn G. Nevers

Title:

Law Library Director

Email:

neverss@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.8784

Primary Responsibilities:

Direct library operations. Facilitate faculty research and support. Oversee and maintain the library's electronic resources. Provide reference services and assistance to students, faculty and public patrons. Teach legal research.

Name:

Iantha Haight

Title:

Deputy Director

Email:

haighti@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.9023

Primary Responsibilities:

Library administration, legal reference, faculty research support and development, management of the library's electronic collections, and legal research instruction.

Name:

Maureen Holman

Title:

Administrative Assistant

Email:

holmanm@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.7475

Primary Responsibilities:

Library maintenance, supply orders and inventory, basic support of Law Library Faculty and Staff. Schedule Law Library conference room and the Lee Reading Room.

Circulation

Name:

Melanie Coleman

Title:

Access Services Librarian

Email:

colemanm@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.3656

Primary Responsibilities:

Manage the overall process of circulation and supervise the student employees. Process routed and hold materials to law school faculty and ensure law school faculty needs are being met quickly and efficiently. Process InterLibrary Loan and Document Delivery requests to meet the needs of the law school faculty, staff, and students. Processes overdue items, damaged materials, fines and the overall process of requesting materials from libraries.

Collection Maintenance

Name:

Anne Moss

Title:

Collection Maintenance Assistant

Email:

mossa@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.7474

Primary Responsibilities:

Assist with collection organization, shelf management, and weeding of obsolete materials.

Public Services

Name:

Dennis S. Sears

Title:

Foreign & International Law Librarian

Email:

searsd@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.7472

Primary Responsibilities:

Responsible for the foreign, comparative, and international law (FCIL) collections. Teach first year legal research course. Provide reference assistance.

Name:

Kory D. Staheli

Title:

Senior Law Librarian

Email:

stahelik@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.9223

Primary Responsibilities:

Oversee collection development, select publications for purchase, provide faculty research assistance and support, and teach Legal Research courses.

Name:

Annalee Hickman Pierson

Title:

Head of Reference and Faculty Services

Email:

HickmanA@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.3596

Primary Responsibilities:

Oversee legal reference and faculty services, provide faculty research assistance and support, and teach legal research.

Name:

Nick Hafen

Title:

Head of Legal Technology Education

Email:

nick.hafen@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.2658

Primary Responsibilities:

Oversees legal technology trainings, law student technology certifications, and advanced technology learning platforms.

Student Services

Name:

Melanie Chao

Title:

Student Services and Outreach

Email:

chaom@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.9052

Primary Responsibilities:

Oversees library marketing and outreach. Manages student study carrels, study rooms, reference computers, building security, and keys.

Technical Services

Name:

Bonnie R. Geldmacher

Title:

Acquisitions Librarian / Head of Technical Services

Email:

geldmacherb@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.3572

Primary Responsibilities:

Acquires legal materials for the law library collection. Oversees cataloging and serials, looseleaf filing, donations, and the bindery.

Name:

Andrea Howard

Title:

Cataloging Specialist

Email:

howarda@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.1632

Primary Responsibilities:

Catalogs newly acquired print and electronic legal resources, processes old law material, and assists in paying for legal material for the Law Library.

Name:

Teresa Odam

Title:

Serials Librarian and Data Project Manager

Email:

odamt@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.3571

Primary Responsibilities:

Responsible for maintaining the serials collection in the Law Library. Coordinates with other Law Library employees to process data project requests from Law School and Law Library faculty.

Library and Networked Information Systems

Name:

David L. Armond

Title:

Head of Infrastructure and Technology

Email:

armondd@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.4258

Primary Responsibilities:

Lead the Library and Networked Information Department (LNIS) which supports, develops, and implements information technology within the Howard W. Hunter Law Library. Coordinate support with the Law School Computing Support Department for law school enterprise-wide information technology

Name:

Mark Harris

Title:

LNIS Manager & Programmer

Email:

harrism@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.9050

Primary Responsibilities:

Oversee technical aspects of the Library's electronic database collection. Maintain electronic resources to ensure they are accessible to faculty, students, and patrons of the Law Library and meet patron and institutional needs. Evaluate, implement and support programs and applications to better support the delivery of electronic information in the academic environment.

Name:

Laureen C. Urquiaga

Title:

Digital Resources Librarian / Law School Copyright Coordinator

Email:

urquiagal@law.byu.edu

Phone:

801.422.6657

Primary Responsibilities:

Manage the Library's presence on the web; overseeing website development, the digital archive, libguides and other web-related resources. Provide course packet support and monitor law school copyright compliance.

Law faculty have 24-hour access to the collection with their campus ID card.

General Library Schedule

Law school faculty have special borrowing privileges at the Law Library. Regular library materials are due in May of each year and may be renewed as needed. Journals may be checked out for one month. Non-circulating and reserve materials may also be checked out by special arrangement. No overdue fines are charged to law faculty for regular Law Library material. However, all items are subject to recall by the Lee Library or other patrons. Be aware that any fines accrued due to the late return of a recalled item are non-waivable.

To request material from the collection, faculty members may contact either their liaison or Melanie Coleman at (801) 422-3656 or lawill@law.byu.edu. Faculty may also come to the Circulation Desk on the second floor of the Library for assistance.

The Howard W. Hunter Law Library gratefully accepts gifts of books and other materials. Gifts are accepted with the understanding that the law library retains discretion to utilize or dispose of the items as warranted by library needs. Upon written request, at the time of donation, gifts not added to the library collection will be returned to the donor. Unless requested otherwise, a letter of acknowledgement will be sent to the donor of each gift. The library does not assign a value to gift materials. Contact Bonnie Geldmacher at 801-422-3572 for all gifts and donations.

Chat

Patrons may chat with a reference librarian, if one is available. Librarians strive to be available by chat 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday, except for federal and state holidays. Click the image below to access the chat feature, if a librarian is available to chat, or to access the Contact Us form if the chat feature is offline and not available.

Additional reference options are listed below.

Quick FAQs

More FAQs

Reference Desk

The physical reference desk on the main floor of the BYU Law Library is open. See the hours for this service here. The BYU Law community may also make appointments to receive in-person reference services with a law librarian by emailing reference@law.byu.edu.

Additionally, many virtual reference options are available to both the BYU Law community and other BYU and community patrons to receive reference services. The hours that virtual reference services generally are available via the reference department are listed here. See the virtual options for reference services below.

Submit a Reference Question

Patrons may use the Contact Us form to submit reference questions. We will attempt to answer reference questions within two business days. We remind you that we cannot offer legal advice. We can provide answers to brief, factual research questions and resource inquiries. For example, we can help identify and locate legal materials or provide guidance in using legal resources or tools. BYU Law faculty and BYU Law students will receive first priority for responses.

Call

To receive reference services over the phone, call 801-422-6658. The hours that reference services generally are available via the phone are listed here. If a reference employee does not answer, feel free to leave a voicemail because it is checked regularly. You may also email us your reference question at reference@law.byu.edu.

Law students may access library resources during regular hours. Law students also have 24-hour access to the J. Reuben Clark Building with their campus ID card, and may enter the library after the outer building doors are locked at 10pm. ID card access is governed by the Law School Security Policy.

General Library Schedule

The J. Reuben Clark Law School Building (JRCB) is open to the general public during normal operating hours. The Law School provides after-hours access to law faculty, staff, and students as described by this policy. The University has installed a swipe card security system that is designed to restrict access for the general public after normal operating hours* and provide managed access to authorized individuals after-hours.

Normal Operating Hours

The normal operating hours of the JRCB are defined as:

Fall and Winter Semester
Monday through Saturday 5:55 am until 10:00 pm.*
Sunday 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 pm.

Spring and Summer Term
Monday through Saturday 5:55 am until 8:00 pm.*
Sunday 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 pm.

Holidays and other restrictions
Monday through Saturday 8:00 am until 5:00 pm.
Sunday 8:00 am until 5:00 pm.
Or as posted.

Access to the Law Library

* The Law Library is not open to the public beyond the JRCB normal operating hours. However, library patrons who enter the Law Library before the building closes may remain in the Law Library until library closing. After the JRCB building doors are locked, Law Library patrons who are not authorized for swipe card access to the building cannot re-enter the building or Law Library until the building next opens, even though the library may not yet have closed.

Management of After Hours Access

After-hours access is managed by the C-cure security system. Building access is defined by predetermined assigned roles. Faculty and staff typically have 24/7 access to virtually all areas of the building. Law students have access to the co-curricular offices, the student commons (211, 213, 215), vending machine area (224), and other open areas (excluding administrative areas) of the law school after hours. There is no access to the Library once the Library has closed. The third floor doors exiting the library to the law school are secured at 8:00 pm Monday through Friday and are closed on Saturday and Sunday.  Exiting through these doors after closing hours is a violation of the security agreement and may result in fines.

To receive after hours privileges for the law building, law students must agree to the terms of the JRCB / HWHLL Security System Policies. New Faculty, Staff, and Students must present their BYU ID card to Melanie Chao to be assigned the appropriate privilege.

Anyone found inside the building after the normal operating hours should be willing and able to provide his or her BYU ID card upon request or exit the building immediately. Any staff member who feels uncomfortable requesting such credentials from a person within the building is encouraged to contact University Police who can appropriately evaluate the situation. For Police verification purposes, the C-cure system can be used to verify that an individual is authorized to access the building after-hours.

Because full-time and part-time custodial staff members perform most of their labors after the outside doors have been locked and before the public is let in to the building in the morning, Law Students should be cooperative with requests to vacate areas during normal cleaning operations.

Failure to abide by this policy may lead to a loss of after-hours access as well as Law School and University disciplinary action.

(Policy Date: September 2016)

As a courtesy, the Law Library assigns study carrels to regularly admitted law students in good standing. First-year law students are randomly assigned carrels in the “1L area” at the beginning of the school year. Second- and third-year students are able to select their carrels based on a randomly-generated lottery order. All law students are expected to abide by the terms of the “Carrel Occupancy Agreement.” (pdf version), including the Carrel Use Policy. (Repeated failure to abide by the terms of the Agreement may result in the loss of carrel privileges. It may also result in the denial of carrel privileges in future years.)Each carrel has locking cabinets and file drawers and is provided with power and data outlets. Carrel problems should be reported online or to the Circulation Desk.

View the carrel features video:

Carrel Use Policy

Carrel maps

• First Floor (download PDF)
• Third Floor (download PDF)

Thank-you for letting us know of any problems you are having with your carrel. Please use this form to report non-urgent problems. For urgent concerns, such as electrical malfunctions or water leaks, please contact the circulation desk immediately (801-422-3593).

Howard W. Hunter Law Library

J. Reuben Clark Law School

I, _____________________________________, agree and understand that my occupancy of a carrel is conditioned upon compliance with the terms stated below and may be terminated at any time, with or without cause. I also agree that I will be financially liable for any damages to the carrel resulting from my occupancy of it and acknowledge that failure to pay for damages may affect the receipt of my law school diploma and/or certification to take the bar exam.

Key Principles

• The primary purposes of the Law Library are to provide resources for legal research and a location for scholarship and study. These purposes are best accomplished in a clean, orderly, and quiet environment.
• As a courtesy, the Law Library has made study carrels available to assist students in their academic endeavors.
• Occupancy of a study carrel is a privilege, not a right. Inherent in this privilege are important obligations:

Terms

As a condition of carrel occupancy, I promise to conduct myself in a manner that is in harmony with the primary purposes of a library and bolsters an environment conducive to learning and study. By signing this agreement, I acknowledge that I must abide by the following rules:

By signing this form, I accept all the terms of this Agreement, including the Carrel Use Policy printed on the back of the form.

Signed: ___________________________________ Date: _________________ 

Students at the J. Reuben Clark Law School are expected to comply with all the requirements of the CES Honor Code, the Dress and Grooming Standards, and the standards of conduct established for the legal profession. These include “maintain[ing] the highest standards in their personal conduct regarding honor, integrity, morality, and consideration of others … ‘at all times and in all things, and in all places’.” To foster a professional atmosphere, demonstrate respect for others, and protect the Law School’s large financial investment in providing each student with a personal space conducive to study, BYU Law Students are expected to comply with the following rules:

1. Noise: Noise should be kept to a minimum in the carrel areas and in the library at large. Conversations should be conducted quietly and in locations that do not disturb others.
   1. Group and extended conversations are appropriate only in study rooms, the Rex E. Lee Conversation & Popular Reading Room and outside the library.
   2. Cellular phones should be silenced or placed on vibration within the library, and all telephone, Skype, Zoom, Facetime, or other video/web chat conversations should be conducted outside the library or in the Rex E. Lee Conversation & Popular Reading Room
2. Decorations: To maintain a professional atmosphere, avoid damage to carrels and chairs (and the expense of refinishing) and for other aesthetic reasons, all carrel decorations should be conducive to “an atmosphere consistent with the ideals and principles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (BYU Honor Code).
   1. Decorations must be kept within the confines of the assigned carrel space. Unoccupied carrels may not be decorated.
   2. Nothing may be stored or displayed on top of or underneath your carrel, on the outside carrel walls, or on building walls next to carrels.
   3. The library strongly recommends decorations not be physically affixed to the carrels, but any decorations a student chooses to affix may only be attached using non-permanent, residue-less methods. Students will be billed for any damage or marking to the carrel from the use of any adhesive materials (including those claimed to be safe) or other method of attachment.
3. Furnishings: Safety regulations (such as campus and municipal fire codes) prohibit the placing of unauthorized chairs, equipment, or personal furniture in the carrel areas.
   1. Library chairs are provided for each carrel. These chairs may not be replaced without written approval from the Law School Dean of students and the Student Services Librarian. Chair cushions may be used to improve personal comfort.
   2. Appliances such as: refrigerators, microwaves, personal coolers, hot plates, crockpots, lamps, personal heaters, or other electrical devices (other than 1 computer monitor) are absolutely prohibited in the law library carrels. Any appliances found on the premises may be confiscated by library staff without prior notice to the carrel occupant.
   3. Other items (including but not limited to standing desks, sofas, fans, personal trash cans, etc.) are also prohibited in the carrel areas, unless previous authorization has been given. All such items must be pre-approved in writing by the Dean of Students and the Student Services Librarian.
   4. Library furniture (including, but not limited to soft-seating, study room chairs, and items from the Rex E. Lee Conversation & Popular Reading Room) may not be rearranged or moved to the carrel areas.
4. Food and Drink: May be consumed by a law student in the library at his/her assigned carrel and under the following conditions:
   1. No food or drink is to be consumed in the stacks at any time.
   2. Only law students can consume food within the law library premises, and then only at the student’s assigned carrel. For this reason, any food or drink carried into the library should be concealed.
   3. Additionally, food or drink consumption should be discreet. Group festivities of any kind do not meet this condition and should be moved to the student lounge or other similar locations outside of the library.
   4. Smelly food of any kind is prohibited in the library.
   5. All evidence of food and drink must be cleared afterwards. Cleaning supplies are available at the circulation desk. Students will be held liable for any damage to library materials, furnishings or premises resulting from the transportation, storage, and/or consumption of food or drink.
5. Penalties:
   1. Lost Carrel Key/Not returned at end of occupancy charge:       $50.00
   2. End of occupancy carrel cleaning and removal of belongings charge:  $25.00
   3. Missing/Damaged ethernet cable charge:               $5.00
6. Violations: of Food & Drink, Noise, Decorations or Furnishing Policies:
   1. 1st time: Warning
   2. 2nd time: Meet with Library Administrator
   3. 3rd time: Loss of carrel privileges

• Be considerate of your fellow students at all times.
• The study rooms are intended to be used by groups consisting of two or more law students. Career Development may reserve a limited number of study rooms for on-campus interviews at non-peak times during a semester.
• Study groups must occupy a room within 15 minutes* of their scheduled reservation, or lose their reservation for that hour.
  (*This requirement does not apply to reservations for TA office hours. TA reservations may not be challenged until ALL study rooms on ALL library floors are otherwise occupied.)
• Unoccupied study rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis to any group of two or more law students.
• Using his or her Route Y ID; a law student may reserve a study room on behalf of a group for up to 120 minutes per day. As a courtesy to the community, groups are asked to leave at least 60 minutes between separate reservations in the same room by members of the same study group.
• Law students may not reserve rooms on behalf of friends or relatives.
• Complaints about study room monopolization should be directed to the SBA leadership.

Note: Room 388 has been designated as a study room. This room does not have a speaker installed. With the door closed, the occupants may not hear library or building announcements.

(NOTICE: Law School and Library staff have the right to enter
any study room at any time and for any reason.)

Contact Information:

For questions about the study room policy or to report monopolization of a study room, contact the SBA by sending a message to “sbaweb@law.byu.edu.”

For concerns about how the program is functioning, please contact Melanie Chao through email.

Maps & Directions

There are 15 study rooms in the Law Library, designated exclusively for Law School use. The rooms may be reserved for two consecutive hours by groups of two or more law students. Study groups may sign up for only two 2-hour blocks in a given room each day. Groups must occupy a room within 15 minutes of their scheduled reservation, or lose their reservation for that hour. Unoccupied study rooms are available on a first-come-first-served basis to any group of two or more law students. No food or drink is allowed in any study room.

For tips on study groups (including best practices, study group activities, and study group technology tools), see the Student Groups for Law Students research guide.

For personal study, consider instead the Quiet Study Room on the second floor.

A Quiet Reading Room in the northeast corner of the main floor of the library is available for law student study during all hours the library is open. This room, which was specifically designed to create a place for quiet study, is restricted to law students and is accessible only with a law student ID card. The room will accommodate up to fifty students and includes a mix of soft seating as well as tables and carrels.

The Rex E. Lee Room (393 JRCB)  is a great place to take a break, relax, and socialize with friends and family members. There is a collection of popular novels and magazines in the room in the room that law students may choose from to read and then return to the shelf. Many students donate their paperbacks to the collection when they have finished reading them. There is also a “kiddie” corner where children can read and play, and a variety of  games and puzzles students can use to unwind and relieve stress.

The Circulation Desk receives lost & found items from the J. Reuben Clark Building. These items are collected by the BYU Lost & Found Department once or twice a week. Be aware that it often takes a few days for items to be turned in. In addition, some “finders” of lost items take them directly to the campus lost & found.

Individuals who have lost items in the JRCB are encouraged to check several times with the Circulation staff to see if the items have been turned in, and also with the BYU Lost & Found Department (1055 WSC, (801) 422-3024).

Lexis

Graduating law students have access to Lexis through December 31, 2022. Beginning July 10, 2022, when you sign on to Lexis you will see the Graduate Homepage where you can select a gift from Lexis (Law360, Intelligize, Lexis for Microsoft Office, Practical Guidance, or a LexisNexis e-book).

Bloomberg Law

Graduating law students have access to Bloomberg Law for six months after graduation.

Westlaw

Westlaw provides access for six months after graduation for up to 60 hours per month. You must register for “Grad Elite” status at https://lawschool.thomsonreuters.com/grad-elite-status/. Just like with summer access, you may NOT use Westlaw to do research for a client— only for personal learning or preparing for the bar exam.

The Law Library also has two computer terminals near the reference desk with public Westlaw access. They are available for use by anyone when the library is open to the public. Researchers must limit their sessions to 30 minutes when someone else is waiting. You are welcome to return to the library to use the terminals.

Fastcase

All attorneys who have bar membership in the United States have free access to Fastcase. Check your bar association’s website for details.

Other Law Library Databases

Students have access to most other law library databases including Quimbee until the August 1st following graduation. After graduation, BYU Law School alumni have access to two electronic resources through the Law Library: HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library and the LexisNexis Digital Library. Alumni can access some databases like HeinOnline (all BYU Law content), Westlaw patron access, and VitalLaw by visiting the Law Library in person.

HeinOnline Alumni Access: Alumni can access HeinOnline’s extensive library of over 2,800 law journals. Use the HeinOnline Alumni Access link at the bottom of the Law Library’s home page under “Helpful Links” and log in with your NetID and password.

LexisNexis Digital Library Attorney Access: Alumni and members of the Utah Bar can sign up for an account to checkout e-book versions of legal treatises and volumes of the Utah Code Annotated. For more information and a complete list of titles, go to https://lawlibrary.byu.edu/information/digital-library-attorney-access/. 

Carrels

Carrels are available to recent graduates who are studying for the bar exam. Students who graduate in December are able to continue using the carrel they are currently assigned. Students who graduate in April will need to vacate their current carrel and pick a carrel for the summer via the carrel pick website. Further instructions regarding carrel picks will be sent to graduating students prior to the end of the semester.

Building Access

Security and building access to the J. Reuben Clark Building remain the same until August 1 of the year you graduate. Graduating students have 24/7 access to the building and the quiet reading room in the library during library hours until August 1.

Reference Services

Graduates are always welcome to contact Reference Services or law librarians with research questions! Contact information is available at https://lawlibrary.byu.edu/information/ask-a-librarian/.

Law Library Checkout Privileges and Document Delivery

Full checkout privileges extend through the end of the August following graduation. Afterward, graduates can sign up for a Community User account. Open the Community User Agreement.

In addition, we can provide scans of pages from non-circulating materials and email them to you. Send the title, author, and page range, along with a link to the book in our library catalog, to Melanie Coleman. Please allow 24 hours for turnaround. Requests are not processed over the weekend. Requests received after 3 p.m. on Friday are processed the following Monday. Requests that violate copyright law will not be processed.

Harold B. Lee (Main Campus) Library Privileges

Access to books and databases provided by the Harold B. Lee Library ends the August 31 following graduation. You can get circulation privileges by becoming a “friend of the library” for a $50 donation. For larger donations you can get remote access to some databases. For more information, see https://lib.byu.edu/services/friends-of-the-library/.

CLE Credits

The Utah State Bar has authorized a limited number of recordings on CD and DVD for self-study CLE credit. Utah attorneys can check out these materials from the Law Library for free for a short time. For more information and a list of available recordings, see https://lawlibrary.byu.edu/information/self-study-cle-materials/.

BYU Email Addresses

Graduating law students have access to their @law.byu.edu email addresses for one full year following graduation (until May 1 of the next year). Law School IT will contact alumni approximately one month before accounts expire to give you a chance to move your emails to another account.

In addition, BYU alumni have access to a permanent @byu.net email address that can be forwarded to the email service provider of your choice. For information go to https://alumni.byu.edu/email-forwarding.

Software (Microsoft Office, Zoom, Box, Eduroam, etc.)

Graduating students have access to BYU software for 30 days following graduation. For more information go to https://law.byu.edu/departments/it-services/laptop-initiative/software-and-services-for-students/ or email the Help Desk.

Course Reserve: The Law Library maintains one copy each of print casebooks and some other course materials assigned during the current semester at the Circulation Desk as a backup resource for students whose books are temporarily inaccessible (such as having forgotten a book at home). These materials are available for limited two-hour checkout. We discourage students from relying exclusively on Course Reserves for access to casebooks because books are shared among multiple students and will be inaccessible if the student cannot come to campus (such as due to illness).

Electronic Course Reserve: In order to provide contactless service and support learning on- and off-campus, the Law Library offers limited digital course reserves when requested by faculty. Casebooks are not provided due to cost and licensing limitations. Course reserves generally consist of monographs (books) and selections from books that can be licensed by the library. For details, please review your course Canvas pages, TWEN, or syllabi.

Locked Reserve: Locked reserve consists of audio/visual items, software, CLE recordings and similar material. Locked items are located behind the Circulation Desk and may only be borrowed for a limited time. Course reserve and professor files may be borrowed for 2 hours at a time. Audio/visual and software reserve items circulate for 24 hours.

Reserve Room: The Reserve Room is located on the second floor, in room 280 JRCB (near Circulation). The Reserve Room consists of high-use monographs (texts, outlines, restatements, etc.), six months worth of newspapers, along with the current Utah law collection — including copies of the state code, and the codes for various Utah cities.

Reference librarians and reference assistants are available to help direct patrons to information and resources that may answer their questions or aid in their research. Be advised that library policy prohibits reference librarians and reference assistants from doing research for patrons or answering specific legal questions; however, they can direct patrons to relevant sources and give instruction on their use. The full-time reference librarians are also responsible for teaching and conducting the legal research classes offered at the law school.

The physical Reference Desk is located on the main floor of the Library, and reference services are also offered virtually. Reference services are provided by both full-time librarians and part-time law student reference assistants. For reference hours, see here. For methods to contact the reference employees, see here.

Reference librarians are also available for additional assistance, like research consultations, by appointment and may be contacted by telephone at (801) 422-6658 or by email at reference@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.

Digital copies of past law school examinations supplied by faculty members are listed below. Access to these exams requires an authorized ID and password.

Participating Faculty

Your Professor isn’t listed?

Faculty participation in the sample exam bank is voluntary. Ask your professor to contact Laurie Urquiaga if he or she would like to contribute recent past exams to the collection.

The AccessLex Law School Scholarship Databank for Writing Competitions is the internet’s largest collection of writing competitions for law students. Essay contests provide students with opportunities to display the exceptional legal research, analysis, and composition skills developed and honed in law school.

Law students with a current BYU Student ID may borrow materials from the library:

Law students may check out up to 50 items at one time. Items may be renewed either in person or by telephone at (801) 422-3593. Each item may be renewed up to two times if the item is not on hold. Once items are more than five days overdue the law student is blocked from checking out any more items until the matter has been cleared up.

All books are subject to hold and recall. A patron is guaranteed a minimum of two weeks use per book before a recall will be allowed. When a book is recalled, the borrowing patron will be notified via e-mail.

Patrons will be assessed the cost of replacing any lost/unreturned library items plus a $15.00 processing fee. Alternatively, a replacement copy may be accepted. Replacement copies can be new or used, if they are in good condition. For items that are out of print and not available to purchase used, the amount charged will be calculated based on the subclass value listed on the Library of Congress’s Insurance Valuation spreadsheet. An item is considered lost if it is not returned within 28 days of the due date.

Loan Periods for Item Categories:

There is no grace period on overdue items.

Overdue Fines for Item Categories:

Because of the teaching and research needs of an academic law library, much of the material must remain on site and does not circulate. The following types of materials cannot be checked out: administrative regulations, codes, dictionaries, digests, encyclopedias, materials in the second floor looseleaf collection, materials in the Reserve Room, microforms, periodicals, rare books, reference books, reporters, restatements, session laws, and Shepard’s citators.

Abuse of any of these policies or of the library personnel may result in the loss of library privileges. Any appeals of fines or other policies should be directed to the Access Services Librarian.

Because law students and faculty enjoy extended loan periods, the Law Library reserves the right to recall circulating materials when necessary. If an item is required for a class, it may be subject to immediate recall. A rush recall requires the borrowing patron to return the book within 24 hours of notification.

A regular recall may be placed on any item that has been out of the Library for more than two weeks. The first patron is then given 7 days from notification to return the item. Recalls DO change the original due date of the item. Recall notifications are made by telephone and/or email (both if possible). The Library considers notice to have been given on the date the message was emailed or left on an answering machine. Overdue fines for recalled materials are double the normal rate ($2/day up to $20.00). Library policy prohibits forgiving overdue recall fines.

Law students should be advised that many law faculty like to be informed about any research within the law school that might be related to their own interests. In circumstances where both parties agree, students desiring access to material borrowed by a law professor may be directed to consult directly with the professor instead of recalling the specific item. This is an entirely voluntary option, and the student retains the right to request a recall.

What is Interlibrary Loan?

Interlibrary Loan is a FREE service that the Law Library arranges through agreements with other libraries to provide access to materials that we may not have in our own collection for academic use.

The Details

ILL pulls materials first from the Law Library. If the material cannot be found here, then the search extends to the Lee Library and to other libraries after. It is rare for materials not to be available through this process.

How To Make A Request

How to Make a Request

• Go to https://lib.byu.edu/account/request/
• Click on Login in the upper right corner

• Sign in using your BYU NetID

• Click the icon next to your name in the upper right corner then select Request an Item from the drop down menu.

• Click on the Request an item button.

• Click on the Item Type you would like to request.

• Fill in the required information
• Click “Submit Request” at the bottom of the page

Items Not Available Through ILL 

The Law Library will not request materials that are available from the Law Library or Lee Library. This includes items on course reserve and all other non-circulating items.

• Requests for textbooks, casebooks, or any other required book will be cancelled. 
• Requests for fiction, non-fiction, etc. that are owned by the Lee Library but currently checked out will be cancelled. Please place a hold through your library account for these items.
• The Law Library will only fill one duplicate request per person. 

Still Have Questions?

Set up an appointment with Melanie, who is the Access Services Librarian; she will be able to help you navigate through the ILL process and help you obtain the materials you need.

ILL Materials

In most cases we are able to obtain the items you need, but occasionally some items cannot be sent physically.  The Access Services Librarian will work with you to reach a solution.  There are many other specific items that can be scanned and obtained rather than entire publications, textbooks, or print including:

• Journal Articles
• Book Chapters
• Dissertations
• Page Requests
• Materials Cited in Footnotes
• Print Publications
• Table of Contents
• Microfilm
• Microfiche
• CD’s, DVD’s, etc.

Contact Information

Melanie Coleman—Access Services Librarian
Email: colemanm@law.byu.edu
Phone: 801-422-3656

Feel free to set up an appointment with Melanie if you have any questions about ILL.

To recommend a book purchase, please email suggestions to Kory Staheli, Law Library Director: stahelik@law.byu.edu.

If the catalog indicates that an item the Law Library should have has not been checked out, but it is not on the shelf, patrons can email Anne Moss. If the item is found, the patron will be notified by email. Missing books searches may take up to two weeks. Students may find the item quicker by checking the maroon “reshelving” shelves near where the item is usually shelved, by checking near the copy machines, and by checking on the study tables. After a student has verified that the item really is missing, it can be requested through ILL without penalty.

BYU Law Co-Op Printers

BYU Law provides Co-Op printers for BYU Law students. To learn more about the cost, how to install it and use it, see the BYU Law page on Co-Op printing.

Lexis Printers

Lexis printers are available for BYU Law students to use to print for free from Lexis’s website. Lexis printers are available near the entrance of the basement on the 1st floor, behind the reference desk on the 2nd floor (the ground floor), and on the 3rd floor near the Rex E. Lee room. There is also a Lexis printer outside the law library in the BYU Law Student Commons.

Faxing services are available for law students at the Circulation Desk for a minimal fee. Law students can both send and receive faxes. The Law Library fax number is (801) 422-0404. Students will be notified by email if a fax arrives for them.

During Fall and Winter Semesters, the Law Library is open from 7:00am until 12:00 midnight, Monday through Thursday; 7:00am until 10:00pm on Friday; and 9:00am until 10:00pm on Saturday. The Fall Semester Schedule will begin on the first day of 1L Orientation — Wednesday of the third full week in August.

During the Spring/Summer Terms, the Law Library will be open from 8:00am until 8:00pm, Monday through Thursday; 8:00am to 6:00pm on Friday; and 9:00am to 6:00pm on Saturday.

The Law Library is closed on Sunday.

Upcoming Exceptions to the Schedule:

Brigham Young University Academic Calendar.

The Howard W. Hunter Law Library is open to members of the public to engage in activities associated with the use of a law library, including law-related research, reading, studying, and writing. Because the primary mission of the Law Library is to serve members of the BYU Law School community, public patrons must be conscientious of law students and faculty and carefully adhere to the policies outlined below.

After-Hours Access

Law Faculty, Staff, and Students

To access the library between 6 pm and closing, approved patrons will need to swipe their ID card on the reader located by the second floor – east entrance of the Law Library. Approved patrons who forget to bring their ID card and need assistance accessing the library after 6 pm, please contact the circulation desk at 801-422-3593. For questions regarding ID card access or hours, please contact Melanie Chao at chaom@law.byu.edu or 801-422-9052.

BYU Patrons

Current BYU students, faculty, administrators, or staff can use the button below to request after-hours access. Upon approval, your BYU ID card will be activated to allow swipe card access after 6 p.m. Please allow 24 hours for your request to be processed and swipe card access activated.

Law Community Patrons

Eligible patrons include BYU Law School graduates, members of the Utah Bar, and UALC members. Use the button below to request after-hours access. Please allow one business day for a decision and to receive further information about after-hours access.

Public Patrons

This category encompasses all patrons that are not eligible for a Law Community account and are not currently a BYU student/employee. Use the button below to request after-hours access. Please specify why you need after-hours access and specify why you are unable to utilize the library before 6 p.m. Each application will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Please allow 2 business days for a decision and to receive further information about after-hours access.

After-hours drop-in access is not permitted for Public Patrons.

Library Facilities & Policies

Public Research Areas

Members of the public may research on the 2^nd (main) floor of the law library. The 1^st and 3^rd floors are designated as student study areas. Public patrons are permitted to select books on the 1^st and 3^rd floors, but should only remain on these floors for short periods of time while they use the collection.

Study Rooms

Study rooms are for law student use only.

Computer Use

Three computers near the reference desk are designated for use by the public for legal research purposes.

Noise

Noise should be kept to a minimum in the law library. Talking loudly or making noise that disturbs other library patrons is prohibited. Conversations should be conducted in quiet tones and in locations that do not disturb others. Cellular phones should be silenced within the library (alternative ring modes such as vibrate are permitted), and all telephone conversations should be conducted outside the library.

Food & Drink

Food and drink is not permitted on the 2nd (main) floor of the library.

Behavior

Library patrons may not engage in behavior which results in health and safety risks, property damage, or nuisance to other library users and library staff. The following are examples of behaviors not permitted in the library.

• Not attending children in the library
• Behaving in a manner that threatens other users or staff
• Engaging in sexual harassment, including viewing pornography
• Physical or verbal threats of violence, or fighting
• Intoxication
• Damaging or vandalizing library premises, furnishings, equipment, or materials
• Having offensive personal hygiene or body odor
• Monopolizing or impeding the use of furniture by others
• Refusing to leave at library closing time or impeding the closing of the library
• Talking loudly or making noise that disturbs other library patrons
• Engaging in uninvited conversations with other users
• Soliciting legal advice from library staff or law students
• Behavior in violation of federal, state, or local law
• Behavior in violation of Brigham Young University policies

Enforcement

Library staff will provide a warning to users whose behavior violates library policy.* If the violator fails to heed the warning and continues violating library policy, library staff will contact University Police to remove the patron from the building. Patrons required to leave the library for policy violations may not be permitted to return to the law library.

*Serious threats to health and safety of library patrons or staff will be reported immediately to University Police without warning.

View the BYU Law School location in a larger map (get directions from Google maps).

The J. Reuben Clark Building (JRCB) is located on the east side of the BYU Campus, between the Wilkinson Student Center and 900 East, and south of Heritage Drive. Visitor parking is available just south of the JRCB. The Law Library occupies the north wing of the building.

BYU Campus Map

Library Maps

First Floor (basement)

NOTE: The first floor is closed for construction until October 2022. Please contact ILL to request any item that is unavailable.

Second Floor (main)

Third Floor

For prospective law school applicants, BYU Law School tours (which may include a tour of the BYU Law Library) may be scheduled through the Law School Admissions Department.

BYU Law Library tours for other reasons may be scheduled by contacting the BYU Law Library Administrative Assistant at (801) 422-7475. 

All patrons who have a BYU ID card may borrow Law Library materials. BYU employees and BYU students will need to use their university identification card to check out materials.

Law school alumni, local attorneys, and students and faculty of Utah universities and colleges whose libraries are members of the Utah Academic Library Consortium may check materials out from the Law Library after setting up a Community Patron Account.

Members of the general public may not borrow materials but are welcome to use Law Library resources while on the premises. We provide scanners and printers for patron use.

The Circulation Desk can provide information about specific check-out periods and policies for various types of materials: (801) 422-3593.

The Howard W. Hunter Law Library gratefully accepts gifts of books and other materials. Gifts are accepted with the understanding that the law library retains discretion to utilize or dispose of the items as warranted by library needs. Upon written request, at the time of donation, gifts not added to the library collection will be returned to the donor. Unless requested otherwise, a letter of acknowledgement will be sent to the donor of each gift. The library does not assign a value to gift materials. Contact Bonnie Geldmacher at 801-422-3572 for all gifts and donations.

The Circulation Desk receives lost & found items from throughout the J. Reuben Clark Building. These items are collected by the BYU Lost & Found Department once or twice a week. Be aware that it often takes a few days for items to be turned in. In addition, some “finders” of lost items take them directly to the campus lost & found.

Individuals who have lost items in the JRCB are encouraged to check several times with the Circulation staff to see if the items have been turned in, and also with the BYU Lost & Found Department (1055 WSC, (801) 422-3024).

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 Dennis Sears: (801) 422-7472 or searsd@law.byu.edu.

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

The Utah State Bar has pre-authorized a limited number of recordings for self-study CLE credit. A fee is not charged to the attorney. Due to high demand, please call 801-422-3593 to verify the availability of CDs prior to coming to the library. The recordings approved for credit in 2023 are:

Note: The list of CLE materials changes every year.

All of the CLE materials must be picked up in person from the law library circulation desk at BYU and may be borrowed for a 24-hour loan period.  

You also have the option to listen to or watch these materials at the law library when the law library is open to the public. To listen or watch in the library, when you pick up your CLE materials from the Circulation Desk, you may also check out headphones and an external drive (which is compatible with DVDs and CDs), which will allow you to watch or listen to the CLE materials on any computer that has a USB port and applications for CD listening and DVD watching. An employee with Reference Services can get you set up on one of the law library computers to watch or listen to CLE materials.

After you have listened to the recording, please contact Annalee Hickman Pierson (HickmanA@law.byu.edu) to have your credit posted. When contacting her, you must include the following information: (1) your name, (2) your Utah bar number, (3) the name of the recording, (4) how many hours of the recording you listened to, and (5) the date(s) that you listened to the recording.

Alternative Sources of Credit:

• University of Utah CLE Collection
• Online CLE/MCLE through the Utah State Bar.

LexisNexis Digital Library Attorney Access Policy

The BYU Law Library provides access to the LexisNexis Digital Library through its Attorney Access program to the following individuals:

• BYU Law School alumni
• Members of the Utah State Bar
• Paralegals working for members of the Utah State Bar

The LexisNexis Digital Library contains ebook versions of the following Utah legal titles:

• Utah Code Annotated
• Utah Court Rules Annotated
• Utah Civil Practice

Ebook versions of well-regarded legal treatises including Nimmer on Copyright, Collier on Bankruptcy, and Business Organizations with Tax Planning are also available in the Digital Library. View the complete list of titles.

Interested patrons may apply for Attorney Access by filling out the form below and agreeing to comply with the terms and conditions of this policy. Processing the form and establishing access may take up to two weeks. Upon enrollment in the program, participation in Attorney Access lasts for one year provided the patron complies with the terms of use.

Participants in Attorney Access may check out up to two ebooks in the LexisNexis Digital Library at one time. The check-out period is seven days and may be renewed if the title has not been requested by another patron. The BYU Law Library reserves the right to recall an ebook and/or terminate the patron’s check-out early and without notice. The BYU Law Library cannot guarantee access to titles in the LexisNexis Digital Library. The BYU Law Library reserves the right to terminate the Attorney Access program or the patron’s participation in the program at any time and for any reason. Patrons agree with to comply with all applicable copyright laws and the terms of use of the LexisNexis Digital Library.

Questions? Email Iantha Haight at haighti@law.byu.edu.

Open the Google Form

Law Firms and Attorneys may request PDF scanned copies of library material by contacting the InterLibrary Loan Department at 801.422.3656 or lawill@law.byu.edu. Items from electronic databases may not be loaned or distributed. However, in-person access for many databases is available on site.

Law Firms in Utah

The Howard W. Hunter Law Library provides a scan-and-send service for law firms in the State of Utah free of charge. The Library will also lend print materials free of charge. However, the law firm must provide a UPS or FedEx account number to cover shipping costs.

Out-of-State Law Firms

The Howard W. Hunter Law Library provides a scan-and-send service for out-of-state law firms for a fee of $5.00 for up to 50 pages. Print materials will only be lent if a request is submitted through Illiad and an ILL number is generated.

The Law Library subscribes to dozens of online legal research tools. These resources are available off-campus only to authenticated law school users. However, most subscription resources are available within the law library for public use. Contact Reference Services for further information or for assistance with using these databases.

Westlaw Patron Access is a version of Westlaw open to the public. It is available on two of the three computers that are currently open to the public near the Reference Desk. Westlaw Patron Access allows access to all federal and state cases and statutes, KeyCite, ALR, and AmJur (plus many different parts of the AmJur series, like Forms and Causes of Action).

Use of the Patron Access terminal is limited to 30 minutes when someone else is waiting.

Westlaw also provides a means whereby the public can access Westlaw (with some time limitations). For information on how to do that, see this law library blog post.

The Law Library does not have any printers available for public patrons. The Law Library provides document scanners, which allow the option of saving a document as a PDF to save and print at home. If you need an on campus printing option, BYU has several Print Centers or Printer Kiosks across campus. 

The Y App can help you find the closest pharos printer. The Print and Mail website provides more information about these options. 

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The person using the equipment is liable for any infringement.

Please note that scanning all or even a substantial portion of a book in order to avoid purchasing a copy is not a Fair Use (see § 107(4)).

Scanned PDFs may be saved to USB flash drives, uploaded to cloud-based systems like your own Google Drive, Box, or Dropbox account, or emailed using web-based accounts such as Yahoo or Gmail.

Scanner Locations

The Law Library currently has:

• two KIC Bookeye open-face scanners (the newer one near the Reference Desk and the older one in the Reserve Room);
• four flatbed book scanners (2 near the Reference Desk on the 2nd floor, 1 in the Reserve Room, and 1 on the 3rd floor near the Rex E. Lee room); and
• two multi-page feed scanners (1 near the wall that at the end of the table has the reference co-op printer and another on the 3rd floor near the Rex E. Lee room).

Employees at the Circulation and Reference are trained and ready to assist anyone who needs help with scanning.

Microform

Copies of documents on microform can be made as digital scans on the public computer in the Microform area (first floor). Patrons may email those scans on that computer to themselves.

Thank-you for submitting your request/comment.

The appropriate library department should respond to you within a couple of days. Feel free to contact hunterlawlibrary@law.byu.edu if you don’t hear back after 3 working days.

BYU Law Faculty/Students – please use the priority reference form for quick research help.

The current page for the self-study CLE materials is: https://lawlibrary.byu.edu/information/self-study-cle-materials/.

The current page for the self-study CLE materials is: https://lawlibrary.byu.edu/information/self-study-cle-materials/.