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Montague Library

Faculty Services

Request Books for Purchase

We have a subscription to Hein's Electronic Green Slips Service, a list of bibliographic information for new legal and law-related publications arranged by subject. Faculty will get this periodically via email, along with a request for your review and recommendations. We try to buy materials recommended by faculty (subject to review of alternative formats, cost, and overall collection fit). 

If you have any questions about this service, please contact us at DickinsonLawLib@psu.edu.

Office Copies

In addition to your personal library account, you also have a Faculty Office Account for law library materials. Office checkouts do not have a due date, but are periodically inventoried.  Your Faculty Office Account means you can use materials owned by the law library on an ongoing basis without renewing the materials or having the materials recalled for use by other library patrons.

You can request items for purchase that may then be placed on office checkout. 

This only applies to law library resources. University Libraries-owned materials may only be checked out to a personal account.

Proxy Lending for Faculty

​Proxy lending is a way for faculty members to authorize their research assistants to check out or place holds on materials on their behalf. Materials are charged directly to the faculty member’s library account.

1. Fill out this form. Both the faculty member and the research assistant must sign it.

 

Proxy Lending Authorization Form


2. The research assistant should arrange to bring the signed form and their Penn State ID to the circulation desk supervisor listed below under Contacts. They will create the Proxy Card.

Contacts

Carlise: Megan Braught, 717.240.5267
University Park: Alison Ruckert
The research assistant brings the Proxy Card and their own Penn State ID to the circulation desk. The item will be checked out to the faculty member.

The faculty member placed the hold:  The research assistant brings the Proxy Card and their own Penn State ID to the circulation desk. The item will be checked out to the faculty member.

The research assistant placed the hold:  The research assistant brings the Proxy Card and their own Penn State ID to the circulation desk and asks that the item be checked out to the faculty member. The item will be transferred from the research assistant's account to the faculty member's account. This can only be done by the circulation desk supervisor, so please check with the individual listed below under Contacts to ensure they will be available.


Contacts

Carlisle: Megan Braught, 717.240.5267
University Park: Alison Ruckert

We cannot transfer interlibrary loan items from a research assistant's account to the faculty member's account. Therefore, faculty members should submit interlibrary loan requests using their own ILLiad account.f

In the alternative, the research assistant can come to the circulation desk when the circulation supervisor listed below under Contacts is available and ask that the interlibrary loan be submitted on behalf of the faculty member.


Contacts

Carlisle: Megan Braught, 717.240.5267
University Park: Alison Ruckert

Periodicals Routing

We still have subscriptions to certain print periodicals. If you would like to review a library-owned journal regularly, please contact us at DickinsonLawLib@psu.edu. You will be added to the routing list of the publication that will be sent to your office via interoffice mail.

When you are finished reading the material, check off your name and place the item in the interoffice mail to be delivered to the next person on the list. After all names have been checked off, the item will be returned to the library via interoffice mail.

Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg Law

All full-time faculty members will receive information to register for access to Lexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg Law. Certain restrictions apply to faculty who are not full-time, and we can only provide such access to faculty directly affiliated with the law school.

Please email us at DickinsonLawLib@psu.edu for more information.

CALI

CALI stands for the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction. Almost all law schools in the country belong to CALI, a non-profit organization that offers interactive online lessons and other learning resources.  


Types of Resources  

  • CALI Lessons—These are interactive tutorials that introduce legal concepts and then immediately test students' knowledge of those concepts. The lessons are written by law faculty and librarians and are regularly reviewed and revised. There are over 1,000 lessons covering 32 legal education subject areas. CALI Lessons are designed to augment traditional law school instruction and can be assigned as supplemental study material or integrated with other course materials.
  • eLangdell Casebooks—A collection of free, Creative Commons-licensed casebooks that you can adapt for your course. Most items come in Word, PDF, Kindle, and non-Kindle formats. Teachers' Manuals are also often provided.
  • Law School Success Lessons—CALI includes a terrific collection of tutorials on law school success and legal concepts and skills. 
  • Podcasts—Most CALI materials are interactive lessons. However, they do have a selection of podcasts on contracts, payment systems, secured transactions, law school success, and bar preparation.  

Access 

To use CALI, you must register for an individual account with a faculty registration code. Please contact us at DickinsonLawLib@psu.edu for more information.  

 Tips

  • You can edit CALI Lessons to make them better match your teaching. You can also create your own lessons.
  • Using Lesson Links, you can receive student scores on lessons delivered to a spreadsheet. Unfortunately, there is no direct integration between CALI Lessons and Canvas.