Law Library Feedback Blog

Library hours for the semester are listed in an online calendar on our site, and today's hours continue to appear on our home page and several other pages on the library website.  Note that building hours may differ between our two locations, so we now list these separately, including a note on reference availability in each location.

Continuing a practice begun last semester, we now provide access to the entire Williams building for all hours it is open.   In addition, the E.B.Williams library opens an hour early on many days.

Service hours for both circulation desks are currently the same, and they can be found on the library's online calendar . Note that on some days, building access hours extend longer than circulation service.  For these days, you'll want to be sure to plan when you check out books or access reserve materials.

Enjoy the rest of the semester, and let us know if you have any questions.

Photo Source: Time check 2 / Howard Stanbury / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

This entry was posted on January 26, 2012 at 2:38 PM and has received 458 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

During the winter break, the library is completely closed for several days.  On some days,the Wolff Library is closed but E.B.Williams Law Library is open.  Below is a list of the dates we're closed through January 2nd.  We look forward to seeing students and everybody else back on campus in 2012.  If you're in town before then and need to use the library, stop by when we're open.

Here is a list of the dates we'll be closed in one or both library locations:

• Law Library closed (both locations):
  • December 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 31
  • January 1, 2
• Wolff Library closed:
  • December 27, 28, 29

This entry was posted on December 22, 2011 at 12:03 PM and has received 2008 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Yes. Beginning today, November 28 until the end of the exam period, December 17, the entire Williams Library is open for the benefit of Georgetown students studying for exams.  Previously, only the Reading Room was open during the library's extended hours.

During the exam reading period, students from other law schools will not be admitted.

Operating hours for both library locations, including reference availability, is found on the Library Hours Calendar.  Details of the limited access period are available on the Library Hours for Exam Reading Period page.

Photo: Open 24 hours / Marcin Wichary / CC BY 2.0

This entry was posted on November 28, 2011 at 4:28 PM and has received 3266 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Yes. We now have a completely new system for Georgetown Law students to access copies of past exams. Over the summer, the law library worked with the Registrar's Office and developers in the Information Services Technology (IST) department to create a completely new system for accessing past exams.  This includes all prior documents and adds several system improvements.

Access the Law Library Exam Archive to find copies of past exams from 1998 through the present.  This new system includes the more than 8,000 exam documents available through the library's online archive.  All new documents the library receives from the Registrar's Office are added to the new system as we receive them.

In the new system, there's an improved search form, which displays matching professors or course titles as you type. In addition, students will see a personalized list of professors teaching courses for the current term. Fall 2011 data should be active now, so students can log in and quickly see a list of exam documents from your professors. 

An added feature of the system lets you download all documents from a professor/course list in a single zip archive.  For instance, with a single mouse click to 'download all', you can get all twenty documents from Professor Spann's Contracts class or all eighteen documents from Professor Cohen's Property course.

In 2009, 2010 and again in 2011, exam access was the most popular content our students sought on the library's website.  Hopefully the improvements will help make it easier and more efficient for all of our students.

This entry was posted on August 19, 2011 at 11:09 AM and has received 8659 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

An after hours book drop is a great idea but impractical at our location, When it first opened, the E.B.Williams Library building offered a drop off slot that emptied into a bin behind the circulation desk. It became a disposal site for just about everything – not just books. Books were regularly destroyed by the additional items thrown in. The library closed the after-hours book drop to protect the collection and keep out trash.

The idea of an after-hours book drop resurfaced again about 6 or 7 years ago. At that time the library polled other institutions about the topic. Several overwhelmingly negative responses included a report of a raccoon that started a family inside the book drop. Others explained that the boxes were once again used as a place for trash.  The idea of a drop box failed.

At any time of the day, you're always welcome to renew your library books online.

This entry was posted on July 1, 2011 at 10:58 AM and has received 11276 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Thanks to new maps, it's now much easier to find library materials, equipment and destinations.  For instance, the bound international law journals are found on the 4th floor of the John Wolff International and Comparative Law Library, as shown on this map:

Find all of our maps online here:  www.ll.georgetown.edu/maps/

These new maps highlight book locations, group study rooms, bathrooms, scanners, printers and many features of our two library locations.  The same maps are used on four touchscreen systems found in the library, and they should work well on a mobile phone or tablet such as an iPad.  It's also possible for us to provide customized map views, so people can easily find all group study rooms on the Williams 4th floor, Lexis and Westlaw printers in Wolff, and even the canteen.

This entry was posted on June 1, 2011 at 3:25 PM and has received 13698 views. There are currently 2 comments. Print this entry.

To help people troubleshoot database access problems, we've created a page that explains some of the most common causes for access problems. In some cases, it may help you find a solution.

Visit the Database and Electronic Resource Triage to find tips on troubleshooting database access problems.  On this page, you can also find a link to a form to report the problem to us.

Here's a quick summary of our database troubleshooting tips: 

• Lexis and Westlaw: these alsways require passwords. Use the LexisNexis or Westlaw law school pages for access assistance, or contact the library reference desk for help online or on the phone.
• Off campus, be sure to access licensed databases through our online catalog.  By doing this, database providers recognize your use a being authorized.
• If nothing works off campus: then the problem is commonly fixed by adjusting your account information in our online catalog.
• Some problems are browser-specific: Internet web browsers each vary in the way they render web pages and support certain features.  Sometimes a database access problem can be solved by switching from Internet Explorer to Google Chrome (or vice versa).

We try to fix database problems as soon as possible, once reported.  Of course, we want every database to work for everybody, all the time.  Sometimes this doesn't work.

If you have problems accessing an electronic database, online book or other resource from the library, let us know.  The Database and Electronic Resource Triage should get you started in diagnosing problems we're happy to help solve.

This entry was posted on March 25, 2011 at 3:16 PM and has received 18513 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

We always welcome your feedback through our library's comment form or by direct email to the Library Director.

Last week you sent several emails expressing concern about the new food policy.

However, this week we only received emails in support of the food policy.

This entry was posted on December 17, 2010 at 5:35 PM and has received 18703 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

We carefully crafted the current trial in the hope of making your study experience more comfortable, especially as students spend more extended periods in the library preparing for finals.

If you hear foods that are too loud during the trial send us your comments or questions through our suggestion form with additional details (e.g., what types of food and where).

Your input alerts us to actual effects of the policy and allows us to gather information in assessing various food/no-food policy restrictions.

Best of luck with your finals.

This entry was posted on December 9, 2010 at 2:21 PM and has received 18450 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

During the summer the library reorganized much of the collection in order to make it easier for you to find materials.

Our biggest book shift was the change to the Williams "stacks," which comprises the 5th through 3rd floors of Williams.

Current Williams Stack Locations

• Williams 5th floor call numbers: AC1 - KF 1601
• Williams 4th floor call numbers: KF 1602 - KFN 4129
• Williams 3rd floor call numbers: KFN 5000 - Z 9999

To help you find your way around the library we have posted several helpful tools:

The library has posted color maps on every floor of the Williams Library.  Maps of each floor are located by the elevators.

Digital monitors in both the Williams and the Wolff locations display maps of the library. After you use the maps, the library invites you to watch the digital exhibits of the history of the library, and our current services.

This entry was posted on October 25, 2010 at 2:12 PM and has received 18458 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.