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Faculty Services

Group photo of all law library staff taken in June 2023

We're here to help!

Each faculty member is assigned a professional librarian as a liaison. The liaisons can answer reference questions, assist with database usage, help locate materials, train research assistants, provide information about library services, and generally support research activities.  Please contact John Cannan for more information. Liaison List

Villanova Law Staff may email reference@law.villanova.edu  or contact any of the reference librarians directly.

 

Research Resources

Books in Our Collection are listed in the law library catalog

Faculty should request delivery of books in our collection by completing our Law Library Book Concierge form.

To recommend or request new book titles, subscriptions or other resources for possible acquisition by the Law Library, please contact Steve Elkins or a liaison librarian.

Villanova University Falvey Library (Main Campus Library)

Law faculty have full borrowing privileges at the university’s Falvey Library

Book borrowing at Falvey may be done in person using Falvey's Pickup & Go service. Faculty can also set up a proxy so that their liaison or RA may borrow for them-contact your liaison for more information.
 

Inter-Library Loan

Materials not available at Villanova can be obtained from another library. Inter-Library Loan requests may be made by using this form or emailing Mary Jo Heacock.

The law library offers a number of services to keep faculty informed about new publications and developments in their areas of interest.


Monthly Acquisitions List

A list of all new acquisitions can be found here.

A list of all new books can be found here.

 

Alert Services

Many faculty subscribe to email alerts in particular subject areas. The liaison librarians can recommend services to best suit faculty interest. Popular options include:

  • SmartCILP – an electronic version of Current Index to Legal Periodicals, subscribers set up a profile in particular subject areas and receive weekly emails announcing newly published law review articles.
  • Our law library subscription to SmartCILP is through HeinOnline. Contact your liaison for assistance. Faculty may also setup their own alerts by going here and putting in their Villanova email without the law domain. Ex: name@villanova.edu.

To manage your existing SmartCILP notificaitons follow these instructions:

1. Log in to your MyHein account.

2. Once logged in, click the "Manage SmartCILP Notifications" tab.

3. Checked boxes represent your current notification settings. To add notifications for any topics, subjects, or journals, select the corresponding box. To remove a notification, deselect the blue check mark.

4. Click Create/Update to save your changes.

  • WestlawLexisBloomberg, and many other services allow researchers to set up searches to run at regular intervals and to designate an email address to receive the results. Contact your liaison for recommendations and assistance.
  • SSRN – Our Law School’s subscription to SSRN allows faculty to sign up to receive notification of new posting in areas of interest to them. The library adds new faculty to our institutional account at the beginning of each semester. For further information, please contact John Cannan.

  • News & Legal News - News alerts and subscriptions to services such as Legal Intelligencer, New York Times, Law360, & WSJ are available for Faculty. See the Law Databases page or your liaison for more information. 

Faculty Scholarly Publication Decisions

There are a number of sources that faculty find useful in making decisions about where to submit and publish their scholarship. These sources include:


Faculty Working Papers and Publications

Most law faculty post drafts of their papers and links to their publications on SSRN (Social Science Research Network) and SelectedWorks.

  • Create or log into your SSRN account

The liaisons assist faculty in creating and updating their SelectedWorks and SSRN sites. Please contact your liaison for further information.

The Law Library also maintains a repository of Faculty Scholarship and assists with updating publications in faculty's Activity Insight account. Published something recently? Please send it to Michael Pratt for inclusion in the repository and Activity Insight.

 

 

Scholarship Support Services

Librarians are available for research and consultation Monday - Friday during the school year and summer. Contact your liaison or reference@law.villanova.edu to set up an appointment.

 

A Library Orientation is offered to all new faculty and staff. To schedule an orientation, please contact John Cannan.

New faculty will receive account access information for Bloomberg Law, Lexis, and Westlaw via email automatically. Staff who would like accounts for these services should contact reference@law.villanova.edu

RA Pool

The library has a pool of RAs to assist faculty with short-term research projects, usually requiring less than 8-10 hours. For these projects, the RA reports directly to the professor and may consult with a professional librarian. To inquire about the availability of a library RA, please contact John Cannan.

Faculty are encouraged to inform John Cannan when a new RA is hired. We provide new RAs with information on library services and review the work habits of a successful RA. A group RA orientation is held at the beginning of the summer and individual sessions are provided in the fall and spring semesters. The orientation includes materials in these readings:

Law faculty have access to a number of databases through individual accounts or links on our law databases page. In addition, we have access to all the databases provided through the Villanova University Falvey Library.

Liaison Librarians can recommend databases that may be useful for a particular research project AND offer individual training on particular databases.

The Villanova Law Library Scanning Service is available to Villanova Law faculty and staff.  Scanned items are delivered electronically in PDF format within two business days of the request.  Please contact Mary Jo Heacock with your request at heacock@law.villanova.edu.  The following limitations apply:

Copyright

  • 1 article per issue
  • 1 chapter per book or 10% of a publication -whichever has fewer pages

Articles are provided for academic purposes, including private study or research. Permission of the copyright owner may be required for other use. It is the responsibility of the requestor to comply with all applicable copyright laws.

Other:

The Villanova Law Library is unable to provide archival quality scans.

The Villanova Law Library reserves the right to decline to scan an item from our collection that is fragile or brittle.

To request photocopies or printouts of statutes, cases, articles or other materials available in the Law Library or the University’s Falvey Library, contact your liaison. Note that for large requests, the liaison will assist administrative support staff in locating the materials and will review options for self-printing or use of the Copy and Distribution Center. Large requests typically take a few days to complete.

 

Teaching Support Services

Teaching Materials Guide

We've compiled a guide on Teaching Materials: Required Text, Assignments, Affordable options and more! Our guide offers ideas, information and links to more information on affordable materials to consider using in your courses. 


Textbook Exam Copies

Please see our Textbook and Law School Publisher Information for Faculty guide for our current list of account reps by publisher.
 

Course Packets

We can assist in seeking permission for copyrighted materials. See the Villanova University copyright policy. Contact Amy Spare for assistance and more information.
 

Course Reserves

Books in our collection may be placed on Reserve for short-term check out, in-library use only. Please let your liaison know your reserve requests for the upcoming semester and confirm availability of any Reserve titles currently mentioned in your syllabus.


Past Exams

Faculty may make old exams available to current Villanova Law students electronically. Contact the Richard Wack to add an exam to the exam database

Many courses have paper requirements or drafting exercises. Librarians are available to guest lecture to introduce students to class subject-specific resources. Topics we have presented on include:

  • administrative law
  • bioethics
  • business ethics
  • fact investigations
  • family law
  • immigration law
  • insurance law
  • intellectual property
  • international arbitration
  • international law
  • medical malpractice
  • statutes and legislative history
  • tax law

Law librarians can create web research guides or handouts that recommend and describe resources related to class assignments. For example, see this guide for the Advanced Insurance Law class. Liaisons can provide further information.

Database Name Link Creator
Westlaw Look for the "copy page URL to cliplboard" chain link icon at the top of the page or document that you wish to link to. A dialogue box will appear, click on the blue "copy link" button and then paste as usual.
Lexis Look for the "Link to this page" icon
HeinOnline
Use the "permanent link to this page" button and select "Off-Campus/Remote Access" link.
PLI Plus 
(on law databases page)
Use the "permalink" icon to link to that specific version of a coursebook/treatise or use the "Ever Current" link to link to the hompage for that coursebook to ensure access to the most recent edition each time it is updated.
Falvey Library Databses
Create permalink using Falvey's Proxy Link Builder

For assistance obtaining permission to use print or electronic materials in course packets or on Blackboard, contact reference@law.villanova.edu. Resources that may be helpful in doing a ‘fair use” analysis include:

 

The Law Library has access to recorded streams of Pennsylvania Court oral arguments through the Pennsylvania Cable Network. Many oral argument proceedings from the PA Commonwealth, Superior, and Supreme Courts are available for viewing a few days after they occur. Using this resource, faculty can expose their students to actual appellate proceedings as a part of class, or organize a group viewing of a specific argument during a lunch break. If you are interested in exploring how we can set up a stream viewing for you, please contact your library liaison.

 

Research Quick Links

Reference Hours:

Academic Year:
Mon - Fri: 9 AM - 5 PM

For evening and weekend assistance, email reference@law.villanova.edu

These hours are subject to change due to government orders or changes in university and law school policies.