Current Awareness

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 through the Law Library. Contact Iantha Haight with access questions:

• The Atlantic: to login, click “Sign In,” then “Sign in through your institution” at the bottom of the box. Type BYU and select “BYU Law School.” Log in with your BYU Law School Okta credentials. To sign up for email newsletters, click the three line “hamburger menu” in the upper-left corner, then click “Newsletters.”
• Bloomberg Law News: includes The United States Law Week and over 50 topic-focused news channels such as Artificial Intelligence, Immigration, and Securities. Log into Bloomberg Law, then “News & Analysis” in the upper-right of the menu bar. Click “Bloomberg Law News,” then select a news channel from the vertical menu. Once you have selected a news channel, click “Subscribe to Newsletter” in the upper-right corner to receive regular email updates. Email Iantha Haight for a Bloomberg Law account.
• The Chronicle of Higher Education: Access via the link using your BYU Net ID and password (this is a BYU Lee Library subscription). Register for email newsletters at https://www.chronicle.com/page/newsletters. Links in email newsletters to stories will not work off campus, but you can access the article via the direct link to the Chronicle here.
• Climatewire: news source for global climate and environmental news. Email Iantha Haight for an account.
• The Economist: register with your law school email address here. Upon registration, The Economist will ask you if you wish to sign up for email newsletters.
• Financial Times (UK): register with your law school email address here and sign up for regular email updates if you wish.
• Greenwire: news source for U.S. climate and environmental news. Email Iantha Haight for an account.
• Law360: popular legal news source from LexisNexis with over 60 topic- and state-specific news channels such as Compliance, Intellectual Property, and Sports & Betting. Access via the link using your BYU Law School account, or email Iantha Haight to set up a personal account. Sign up for email updates by clicking on the red “Newsletters” button in the upper-right part of the page.
• Law.com: access via the link using your BYU Law School account, or email Iantha Haight to set up an account. Click “Newsletters” in the upper-right part of the page to subscribe to email updates.
• Tax Notes (federal, state, and international editions): REGISTRATION ONLY WORKS OFF-CAMPUS. Register with your law school email address here. Click “Sign In” in the upper-left part of the page, then “Register Here.” To sign up for email alerts, go to “My Tax Notes” in the middle of the blue menu bar and click “Manage Email Subscriptions.”
• The New York Times: Try resetting your password through the “Log In” button to access your account. Contact Iantha Haight for assistance. To sign up for email updates, click “Account” in the upper-right corner of the page, then click “Newsletters” under “Your Content.”
• The Wall Street Journal: Register with your law school email address here. To sign up for email updates, click on your name in the upper-right corner of the page, then click “Emails And Alerts.”
• The Washington Post: Access via the link with your BYU Law School Account, or register for a personal account with your law school email address at https://www.washingtonpost.com/subscribe/signup. After creating your account, click on the link in the email from the Post to verify your account. Then return to https://www.washingtonpost.com, click on your username in the upper-right corner of the page, and click “Account Settings.” Click “My Subscriptions,” then click on the link to join the BYU Law School group account. Trouble? Make sure you verified your account via the email link and try logging out of washingtonpost.com and logging back in again.

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.