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.
News
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)
- Environmental Law Reporter: https://proxlaw.byu.edu/login?url=https://elr.info/index.cfm
- Greenwire: https://proxlaw.byu.edu/login?url=https://www.eenews.net/gw
- Law360: http://www.law360.com.proxlaw.byu.edu/
- Law.com: http://proxlaw.byu.edu/login?url=https://www.law.com
- Tax Notes (federal, state, and international): Contact Iantha Haight haighti@law.byu.edu for an account.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education: https://www.chronicle.com/page/newsletters
- The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com
- The Wall Street Journal: http://wsj.com/BYULaw
- The Washington Post: https://proxlaw.byu.edu/login?url=https://www.washingtonpost.com
Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
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, hickmana@law.byu.edu.
Current Index to Legal Periodicals (CILP) and SmartCILP
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/.
Email Alerts
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.
Print Newspapers
The Law Library receives print copies of several national, local, and legal newspapers. The most current papers are available in the fourth-floor faculty lounge. Older papers are stored in the Reserve Library for six months, after which they are discarded. For assistance with locating a newspaper article, contact your library liaison.