Source Collection Information for Research Assistants

A manual to assist a Faculty Research Assistant in collecting citations.

Contents

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  • Georgetown only
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Law Library Carrels & Research Shelves

How to Use
When to Use
  • If you prefer to consolidate all Law Library (only) books in one location.
Advantage
  • No daily late fines, recall fines, replacement fines.
  • Books are checked out to the carrels and shelves till end of semester..
But
  • Books cannot leave library. Books cannot be taken to another library carrel or an office within the library.
  • Recalled books will be pulled off the shelf by a library staff after notifying you.
  • Cannot be used to house books from other libraries for which you are still financially liable.

Law Library Hold for Pickup Service

How to Use
  • Submit a Place hold for pickup request for an “available” Stacks book found through the Law Library catalog.
  • Contact the Circulation Desk, at lawcirc@georgetown.edu or 202-662-9131, for more information. Emailed requests are not accepted however.
When to Use
  • When a circulating book has an "available" status in the Law Library catalog.
Advantage
  • A convenient service should you not have time to pull books off the shelves yourself.
  • Paged or pulled Law Library books are held at the Circulation Desk, for about seven days, and can also be checked out to a faculty proxy account, instead of you, upon request at the desk.
But
  • Place hold for pickup service cannot accommodate urgent retrieval requests.
  • Does not include any type of scanning service.

Local Academic Library Loan Service (including Loans from Hilltop Campus)

How to Use
  • Submit a Request from a local academic library request for an “available” book found through the Law Library search box for Georgetown U. + Local Academic Libraries.
  • Contact the Circulation Desk, at lawcirc@georgetown.edu or 202-662-9131, for more information. Emailed requests are not accepted however.
When to Use
  • When a book is available at main campus, Off-Campus Shelving or other local academic (non-law) libraries (e.g. American U., Geo. Wash. U., Catholic U., etc.) and if you intend to use the book exclusively. If not, use Interlibrary Loan.
  • For chapter copying service, if you have an unambiguous citation (i.e. known start & end pages), or copying order is straightforward and uncomplicated. If copying citation is complicated or requires some verification, then use Interlibrary Loan.
Advantages
  • Books routed to the Law Library from other campuses.
  • For more immediate needs, you may visit GU Hilltop Campus and other local, non-law academic libraries to check out a book on-site. Note: Local academic special libraries, like law and medical libraries, are excluded from this service.
But
  • No faculty proxy accounts.
  • Non-Georgetown licensed ebooks cannot be borrowed via local academic loan services (nor ILL).
  • Microfilm lending and scanning are not included in service. Use Interlibrary Loan service instead.
  • Daily late fines, recall fines, etc. apply to you. Fines may have to be paid at the owning institution.
  • Some problems (e.g., incorrect volume routed) and fines can only be resolved with the owning institution’s circulation desk. Law Library's Circulation or ILL Services cannot resolve such matters.
  • Your request will only be sent to local general academic libraries. It will not be sent to libraries outside the local loan service group. Local law and medical libraries are not members of the local loan service group. Use Interlibrary Loan instead.
  • No guaranteed rush delivery options.

Law Library Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Service

How to Use
When to Use
  • For any book, report, microfilm, etc. that is not owned by or physically available in the Law Library. Though this excludes titles that are held in Reference or Reserves (e.g. Reading Room and Course Reserves), it does include items whose statuses are checked out, missing or lost.
  • For a copy of (1) an article from a journal, magazine, or newspaper that is not available in print or microform at the Law Library or accessible electronically through a subscription or (2) pages, section(s) or chapter(s) within a book, reporter, encyclopedia, dictionary etc. that is not available at or accessible through the Law Library, including those titles that are checked out, lost, missing, etc.
  • This is the default service to use if the faculty will have exclusive use of the borrowed item. Ask you faculty to email the citation to Library Research Services, at lawlibraryresearch@georgetown.edu. Research Services will then take steps to submit the ILL request for the faculty.
  • But you may use your own ILLiad account when requesting a scan of pages if even to be used by the faculty.
Advantages
  • No daily late fines, but invoices for replacement or damages will be charged to your Student Account.
  • Citation verification part of ILL processing so service can accommodate requests with poor or scant citations.
  • Local academic law libraries will lend books and provide scans through Interlibrary Loan while they will not via Local Academic Loan service.
But
  • Loan period may be shorter than borrowing from a local academic library.
  • One renewal only, if even allowed by lending library. Renewal period can be shorter than initial loan period.
  • ILL requests are not sent to the local academic library loan service group, i.e., Hilltop Campus Lauinger Library and general academic libraries of American University, George Washington University, Catholic University, etc. Use Local Academic Library Loan Service first.
  • Ebooks cannot be borrowed in their entirety through ILL. Only physical books will be loaned by ILL libraries.
  • No guaranteed rush delivery options.

Group Trainings & Individual Research Consultations

Faculty RA trainings are typically offered at the beginning of each semester and summer. Training schedule announcements are made through the Georgetown University Law Center's weekly email updates. Past training materials may be found on the Research Assistants guide.

Schedule a research consultation with a reference librarian if you would like help with a subject-specific research strategy.

Data & Web Preservation

The Law Library offers Perma.cc, a web page archival service that can generate permanent links and cache a web's content, and Georgetown Dataverse, a digital dataset repository project that provides permanent access and formal citation to saved data.

For questions about these services, check What is Perma.CC? Library FAQ.

Georgetown University Lauinger Library Guides