Faculty Services

Borrowing Privileges

Law faculty may check out books from the main collection for a year (renewed annually by Circulation staff). Serials and journals check out for 30 days, and Reference and Reserve items are checked out for one week unless a special request is made for an extended period. Materials from other William & Mary campus libraries generally check out to faculty for one year.

Display Cases

The Law Library maintains permanent display cases in the law school lobby to showcase recent scholarship by current full-time faculty. We purchase faculty-authored books for the display collection. Please send a copy of article reprints to lawscholarship@wm.edu, or you may leave reprints in the Law Library's mailbox in the Law School mailroom.

Faculty Materials Stipend

Law Faculty receive an annual $500 materials stipend from the Law Library's budget. You can use that stipend to have the Law Library purchase research materials for your own use. Although the items reside in your office, they remain the property of the Law Library. We also heartily welcome your suggestions for purchases for the general collection.

Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery

We offer Interlibrary Loan services to William & Mary Law faculty, enabling you to borrow books and other materials from non-W&M institutions. All such services are pursuant to the stipulations specified within the Interlibrary Loan Code of the American Library Association.

You and your Research Assistants can order items using the online ILL request forms. Requests should be filled in as completely as possible. Allow 2-10 days for the receipt of books from Virginia libraries. Books requested from out-of-state locations may take longer. Upon receipt, interlibrary loans will be delivered to your office or mail box, or we can notify your RA for pickup in the Library. Most books are loaned for 3-4 weeks, with renewals at the discretion of the lending institution. If we must replace a lost interlibrary loan book, the cost will be charged to the faculty member. (Faculty materials stipends are not available for item replacement.)

Where possible, we request scans of items such as articles and book chapters. These typically arrive very quickly and can cut your wait time down dramatically.

Contact [[lawill]] for questions about Interlibrary Loan and document delivery.  

Library Access

Law faculty have 24-hour W&M ID card access to the law school and library. Card readers are located outside the main front doors to the building, at the back patio door, on the Experiential Learning Center's external doors, and on the library front door. An additional card reader allows passage for faculty and staff between the law school faculty offices and the library on the second floor. Please report ID access problems to [[mnumberger, Michael Umberger]] at 757-221-3253. 

Photocopies/Scans

Photocopies and scans of materials at the Law Library or other William & Mary libraries are provided free of charge to law faculty. Staff will make copies for faculty, or a billing code can be provided for use at the library copiers. For large numbers of copies (such as for a class), contact Faculty and Academic Support.

Requests for Items from Other W&M Libraries

You can request items from other libraries on campus directly from the online catalog (log in with your W&M username and password to place a request) or by using the ILL forms. Requested material will be checked out to you and delivered to your office or mailbox. Delivery is completed within one business day of the request.

Research and Instructional Services

A team of research librarians provide information services to support faculty research. The needs of law school faculty take priority over all other requests for services, and we're available to aid you in locating any information needed to meet your teaching and publication needs. In addition, each faculty member is assigned a research librarian liaison who serves as an initial contact to fill any library-related need and resolve any library issues you may encounter.

Please see or contact Chris Byrne, at 757-221-1736 or [[cdbyrn]], for more information about the law library's Research and Instructional services.

Reserve Collection

Heavily used material is kept behind the Circulation Desk in the Reserve Room. These materials include popular study aids and current Virginia treatises. See Steve Blaiklock, the Circulation Supervisor, for questions about the reserve collection. Steve can be reached by phone at 757-221-3258, or by e-mail at [[snblai]].

Reserve Materials for Class

Although the Law Library does not purchase textbooks as a general practice, we place whatever required textbooks we happen to own a copy of on reserve each semester. (We also welcome donations of current textbooks to add to reserve.) Please let us know of any additional or recommended titles that should be included for your courses. We can also add personal copies of items that you would like to place on reserve on a temporary basis. We return these personal materials to faculty members at the end of each semester.

Students can locate reserve items in the library's online catalog under the course name or the name of their professor.

Textbook Support

To order a review copy of a textbook, see Requesting Review Copies of Books, a comprehensive guide from the Alexander Campbell King Law Library (UGA) that provides links and instructions for obtaining works from many of the major legal publishers.

To adopt and order textbooks for upcoming classes, faculty can use the W&M Bookstore's Adoptions & Insights Portal. For assistance with this process, please contact the Law School Office of Faculty Support Services (FSS).