Contact Us
Circulation Desk 216.368.2792 lawcirculation@case.edu
Interlibrary Loan 216.368.8862 ill-law@case.edu ILLiad Request
Reference Desk 216.368.5206 lawref@case.edu
Search the Catalog
Find books, periodicals, AV materials, instructional materials and more
Search OhioLINK
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Keyword searches allow you to find words and phrases in author names, titles, subjects, notes, and other fields. Keyword searching permits Boolean searching, adjacency and proximity searching, and several truncation options.
OhioLINK also provides links to the library catalogs of all member libraries.
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Enter as much of the title as you know, starting with the first word.
If you know part of the title but you aren’t sure how it starts, you may want to start with a keyword search.
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Enter as much of the subject heading as you want, starting at the beginning. Punctuation is not necessary. If you do not know a specific subject heading, you may want to start with a keyword search. You may also browse for LCSH headings at the Library of Congress or MeSH headings at the National Library of Medicine.
Faculty Personal Librarians (Liaisons)
Law School faculty are assigned a Personal Librarian to serve as a personal liaison to the library and its various services. Personal Librarians provide a single point of contact for library needs, and can also provide specialized professional expertise to assist with your scholarly endeavors.
Services that can be provided by faculty liaisons include:
- training for student Research Assistants;
- advice and assistance in planning research projects;
- help with bibliographies or literature surveys;
- research classes (during or outside of your regular class time);
- requests for library acquisitions or new library services;
- and assistance with research tools or research technology.
Liaisons are not necessarily the staff members who will provide the requested service, but they will connect the faculty with the appropriate library contact.
Faculty with questions about liaison services or their liaison assignment should contact Andy Dorchak, Head of Reference, 216-368-2842, axd10@case.edu.
Document Delivery
Faculty Document Delivery (FReDD)
Law Faculty with permanent offices in Gund Hall may request any known item (e.g. a cited research work or a book of interest) from the library for delivery to their offices. We'll deliver items from our own collection, send staff to retrieve them from the Kelvin Smith Library, or mediate OhioLINK or Interlibrary Loan requests on behalf of the faculty member. The LawFReDD (Law Faculty Retrieval and Document Delivery) service allows library staff to retrieve circulating books from the law library or from the University's Kelvin Smith Library and deliver them to faculty members with offices in the law school, as well as make and electronically deliver copies from any non-circulating print materials on campus. To take advantage of this service you may chat with or email us. You also can initiate your own request through the "ILLiad" tool on the law library's web site or notify your liaison librarian. The shared ILL and document-delivery interface (ILLiad) will allow you to track progress on requests that you submit through it.
You can request any item and we'll retrieve it electronically or deliver it from campus if possible, or request it via OhioLINK or traditional ILL if necessary.
This service is provided by the law library alone, and logistical and other constraints require that the service be made available only to law faculty with offices in Gund Hall.
Contact your liaison or Donna Ertin, Head of Access, 216-368-8510, dme@case.edu, with questions about LawFReDD.
- Loan Periods for materials obtained on behalf of law faculty via LawFReDD may vary considerably, and should be indicated on the book band or on a due date slip in the back of the book. OhioLINK overdue fines ($.50 per day) cannot be waived.
Originality Investigations
A team of librarians assists with originality investigations on request by faculty or students (with faculty advisor permission), using iThenticate (TurnItIn) to try to detect accidental or intentional incidences of plagiarism in student papers. Law faculty can contact Andy Dorchak for assistance with such originality investigations.
Bibliographic Instruction
The Law Library will make every effort to accommodate requests for bibliographic instruction tailored to the specific research needs of particular courses. This service has been extremely popular for writing seminar courses and moot courts. The Law Library can also provide research pathfinders tailored to your course. Please contact your liaison or Andy Dorchak (216-368-2842, axd10@case.edu) for additional information.
Library Purchase Request
Law faculty may use an online form to request a new library purchase or acquisition.
Policies
Noise & Conversation
All students should be courteous and work together to maintain a good study environment. Students are encouraged to ask students who are being loud to please keep their voices down. The third floor is a quiet study area. If the noise is bothersome and continues, suggest the other areas that are not quiet, like the first floor, a study room, or Room 321. If it does not work, the student is encouraged to report it to the circulation desk on the first floor. Caveat: the study rooms allow normal conversational levels of speech. They are not soundproof; thus, please be respectful of other patrons when in study rooms.
Each floor has a different noise policy:
3rd Floor: The 3rd-floor area is quiet except for the study rooms and room 321. Students are to keep conversations very short and in a low speaking voice. Any cell phone use needs to be conducted in a study room or outside the library, i.e., the bridge or Ben's Place. The use of any other popular video-chatting app is to be conducted in a study room or outside the library. Lengthy conversations also need to go outside the library.
1st Floor: The 1st floor is not strictly quiet. Many services are rendered on the first floor so it can be noisy. One quieter area on the first floor is the Davis Room, located at the west end of the library's first floor.
Ground Floor: The ground floor is another designated quiet area.
Cell Phones
The Library knows you "want to stay in touch," but ringing phones and loud cell phone conversations add unnecessary noise making it difficult for many people to study and work. Be considerate to others: turn off the cell phone ringer or switch to silent-vibrate mode in the library. Put the call on hold and move outside the gates to talk.
Food & Beverages
Foods that are usually eaten hot, can disturb others around you, emit odors, and/or are messy therefore are prohibited in the law library. Small, vending style snack food and non-alcoholic beverages in spill-proof containers with tight fitting lids, are permitted in the library with the exception of the computer labs. Patrons are required to comply with signage and staff requests where and when food and/or covered drinks can be consumed. Please consume food in a responsible manner and dispose of trash in waste and recycling containers provided.
Study Rooms
Third floor study rooms are for CWRU Law students only.
Borrowing
Members of the CWRU community with appropriate authentication and persons with current a CWRU ID have check-out privileges. Bring the items you want to take out of the library to the Circulation Desk to be checked out. Return books to the Circulation Desk during library hours.
Loan periods / Fines: Loan periods and fines vary depending on the status of the borrower and the type of material checked out.
Renewals: You may renew books by contacting Circulation in person, by phone (216-368-2792) or by using the My Library Account found on the catalog home page. To renew books in person or by phone, you will need your CWRU ID. Materials from Course Reserve and the Reference Area cannot be renewed. These materials should be returned to the Circulation Desk.
Overdue Fines: Case Law Library monographs accrue fines at the rate of 0.25/day. Other fines for special loans, recalled items, etc. may apply. OhioLINK overdue fines (0.50/day for monographs) cannot be waived for any users. Interlibrary Loan Materials fines accrue at a rate of 0.50/day. For lost Case Law Library Materials, patrons will be charged $110.00 for each lost item.
Reserves: Frequently used legal materials, including nutshells, treatises, hornbooks, practice guides and other miscellaneous materials are located on the first floor of the library and to the right of the circulation desk. These items do not circulate. Only Law Faculty may check them out.
DVD Collection: The Judge Ben C. Green Law Library DVD collection is located on the first floor of the Library. Please see the circulation staff for help with this collection. A video-specific search tool is located here and allows you to limit your search to the law library. Only CWRU students, faculty and staff can check out DVDs from the law school.
Damaged Books: You are responsible for any damage that occurs to an item while it is checked out to you. A book is considered “damaged” if it is returned to the library in a condition that requires extensive repair OR is unable to be repaired and cannot be returned to circulation. Examples of damaged books include, but are not limited to, those with water damage, mold, writing on the inside of the book, torn or missing pages, and/or damage to the outside of the book. Damage will be assessed by the Library Staff, who will determine if the book can be repaired. Fines will be assessed according to the severity of the damage and range from $10.00 up to the replacement cost of the book or the total repair costs if the book cannot be replaced. If you wish to check out a book that is already damaged, please show the damage to the circulation desk staff. We will make a note in the record, so as not to hold you responsible when the book is returned.
Feedback / Suggestions / Complaints
Joseph A. Custer
Associate Professor of Law & Law Library Director
216.368.2794 | joseph.custer@case.edu