Law
Library Services for CSU Graduate and Undergraduate Students
This
Frequently Asked Questions guide highlights services available for Cleveland
State University graduate and undergraduate students at/from your Cleveland-Marshall
College of Law Library, the University's Law Library.
For an introduction to various
title resources for your law-related research, please check the following
Resource Guide:
University Law-Related Courses
-- Legal Research Resources Are Available For You.
http://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary/UnivLawRelatedCoursesMRSMC.htm
[From the Law Library Home Page
http://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary/, you can also
click on "Law Library Publications"
http://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary/lawpubs/index.html
to get to this Resource Guide and many others.]
Please
contact a Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Research Services librarian
during their regularly scheduled
hours, or via email to research.services@law.csuohio.edu
for help in locating these
or other resources to meet your needs.
Where
is the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library?
I'm
not a Law student - can I use the Law Library?
When
are you open?
Can
I take out books from the Law Library?
How
do I know where to find a book in the Law Library?
Can I
pick up OhioLINK books at the Law Library?
Are there
PCs I can use in the Law Library?
Can I
use my wireless laptop in the Law Library?
Do you
have a copy of the Cleveland City Ordinances?
What if
I need legal advice? Is there a law student who can help me?
Do you
have a photocopy machine I can use?
What
is LexisNexis Academic and how do I get to it?
What's
the url for the Law Library's web site?
What
about all of those abbreviations you see in citations?
Where
do I find definitions for unfamiliar legal terms?
I need
to develop a research strategy for an extensive law-related project, but
need to know what resources are available at the Law Library. How can
I do that?
What style
manual is used for legal writing?
Can I
use Westlaw?
Where
is the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Library?
On the Cleveland State University
campus, at
1801 Euclid Ave. - Cleveland,
Ohio - On the east side of E. 18th St. -
Up a level from the E. 18th St.
building entrance; down a level from the Campus Connector,
or Turn right if you come in
at the Law Building's Euclid Ave. entrance.
I'm
not a Law student - can I use the Law Library?
Yes - our Law Library is open
to the community for their legal research, and certainly for our Cleveland
State University Community members. We strive to be the center for legal
research for our University Community.
When
are you open?
Law Library Hours
Regular Semester (Fall &
Spring) Law Library Hours:
Monday – Thursday, 8:00 am – 11:00 pm; Friday, 8:00 am – 8:00 pm
Saturday, 9:00 – 8:00 pm; Sunday, 12:00 noon – 11:00 pm
Holidays, Summer & Semester Break Hours may vary; check our web site
at Hours for an updated
listing, or call the Information Services Desk at (216) 687-2250.
If the University is closed
for a snow day or other situation, the Law Library is closed also. Television
announcements are made; the main University phone number 216 687-2000
has official information.
Can
I take out books from the Law Library?
If you are a currently enrolled
Cleveland State University student, you can bring your CSU ID (VikingCard)
and check out circulating titles. In a law library, there are many titles
that are part of multivolume sets, or are supplemented or other subscription
titles, and these will not circulate. Titles listed as Reserve Room are
checked out with your CSU ID/VikingCard for 2-hour use within the Law
Library.
How
do I know where to find a book in the Law Library?
Law Library titles are included
in SCHOLAR, the CSU University
and Law Libraries' combined catalog. When you write down a call number,
also note the location and availability. If "Stacks" is indicated,
Call numbers A -- KE are on the Base Level, KF 1 -- 150 are on the 2nd
Level, and call numbers KF 151 -- Z (other than KFO 1-599 -- Ohio titles)
are on the Atrium Level. Ohio titles are generally on the 1st Level -
Reference Area, Reserve Room, or Ohio Room.
To check the location for many
of our large sets of legal titles, check the red Range Guide at the Information
Services Desk.
As you enter the Law Library,
you are on the 1st Level. Above it is the 2nd Level. The bottom level
is the Base Level, or B on the elevator; the Atrium Level, A on the elevator,
is between 1st and B. Use the stairway or elevators inside the Law Library
to access the various levels.
If any questions, ask us.
Can
I pick up OhioLINK books at the Law Library?
Yes, at the Information Services
Desk with your CSU ID (VikingCard) if you had selected that location when
you requested the title.
Are
there PCs I can use in the Law Library?
Only current C.S.U. Law
students have password access to the Law Library's PC Lab, although two
Legal Research Workstations are available on a first-come-first-served
basis across from the Information Services Desk on the 1st Level of the
Law Library. These Workstations provide access to LexisNexis Academic
and other electronic resources for your legal research. They do not have
word processing software or email or other Internet searching availability
(Google, etc.) Printouts are 10 cents per page, coins or $1 bills.
The Thomson/West Publishing
Company's Premise CD Rom Workstation, also located in the Reference Area,
provides electronic searching of Ohio court decisions. Copies of cases
are 10 cents per page, coins or $1 bills.
For other Campus PC Lab locations,
see http://www.csuohio.edu/ats/campuslabs/
Can
I use my wireless laptop in the Law Library?
Yes - if you are a CSU student,
faculty, or staff member and your laptop is equipped for accessing CSU's
wireless network. The entire Law Library is included in the CSU wireless
network. For more information, see the IS&T
Web Site.
Do
you have a copy of the Cleveland City Ordinances?
Yes we do have a copy of the
Codified Ordinances, City of Cleveland, Ohio in our Reference Area
and Reserve Room, call number KFX
1291 .A6 2003
It is also available electronically
at the Cleveland City Council's
web site.
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/clevelandcodes/
What
if I need legal advice? Is there a law student who can help me?
The Law Library is a collection
of a vast body of complex information. Law librarians may be able to assist
you in locating legal information and can help you learn how to use law
books, but we cannot do your research for you. Quite often, a good deal
of effort must be used to locate answers to questions about the law. Law
librarians cannot give legal advice. Interpretations of the law and
application of the law to any given
set of circumstances is best performed by someone trained to do so. When
confronted with a legal problem, you should consult an attorney. Law Students
may not provide legal advice outside of working under the suprevision
of an attorney, according to Ohio Rules, so please do not consider interfering
with their concentration on their work.
The Law Library has prepared a Guide:
Where
to Go For Legal Advice in the Cleveland Area which may be helpful.
Print copies are also available in the Law Library.
Do
you have a photocopy machine I can use?
Yes - once you come into the
Law Library, turn right when you get to the Information Services Desk,
and the room with photopiers is right past the elevators. Copies are 10
cents each, and the copiers take nickles, dimes, quarters, and dollars.
We do not have change at the Desk, so we are not able to break a 10 or
20 dollar bill. Please do not use CSU VikingCards or credit cards
in the Law Library copiers -- they do not work.
What
is LexisNexis Academic and how do I get to it?
LexisNexis is a research database
with access via OhioLINK for the students, faculty, and staff of Cleveland
State University. It provides full-text searching of many important resources,
including federal and state laws and court decisions, law review/journal
articles, an extensive collection of current national, state, and world
news, as well as numerous business resources. If a journal is available
on LexisNexis, it will be indicated on Journal Finder and also usually
in Scholar. Off-campus access may require authentication (your name, your
CSU ID number, and the PIN you created on SCHOLAR.) Please note: this
is a different product than law school or law firm LexisNexis (more like
a subset of those products) which require password access. Get to it from
the University Library's homepage, click on Research Databases, then the
alphabetical list, and LexisNexis Academic. LexisNexis Academic has a
new look from August, 2007, with more drop-down menus, and choices on
the right side of the screen.
What's
the url for the Law Library's web site?
http://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary/
What
about all of those abbreviations you see in citations?
There is a standardized citation
format that you will encounter for many types of legal sources. For court
cases, the citation includes the names of the parties, followed by the
places where that case can be found. The format begins with the volume
number, followed by the abbreviation for the set of reports, followed
by the page number on which the case begins, and the date of the decision.
Example: Miranda v.
Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602 (1966).
The case called Miranda v.
Arizona was printed in volume 384 of the set of court reports called
the United States Reports (the official set published by the United
States Government), beginning on page 436. It was also published in volume
86 of the set published by the West Publishing Company (now Thomson West)
called Supreme Court Reports, beginning on page 1602. The
decision was issued in 1966. In the print set now published by LexisNexis,
you would find the case at 16 L.Ed. 2d 694. This set is U. S.
Supreme Court Reports, Lawyers Edition.
For information on deciphering
citations see the Cleveland-Marshall Law Library guide:
How
to Read a Legal Citation .
For further information on citations
see:
The Bluebook:
A Uniform System of Citation (Columbia Law Review Ass'n et al. eds.,
18th ed. 2005), available at
the Law Library Information Services Desk KF245
.B58
Many legal abbreviations are
included in Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., Law Library Reference
Area KF
156 .B53.
Mary Miles Prince, Bieber's
Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations, KF246
.P74 2001 (Prince's 5th ed. 2001) available at Reference
is very useful for unfamiliar abbreviations.
Where
do I find definitions for unfamiliar legal terms?
Black's Law Dictionary,
8th ed., Law Library Reference Area KF
156 .B53 is the standard current law dictionary. When you are researching
specific sections of the Ohio Revised Code or the United States Code,
however, there may be very specific definitions included in the code for
words used in particular sections of the code. So, you may need to do
more extensive research perhaps including how court decisions have interpreted
the law, rather than just being able to rely on a dictionary definition.
I
need to develop a research strategy for an extensive law-related project,
but need to know what resources are available at the Law Library. How
can I do that?
Many resources are listed in
SCHOLAR, the combined catalog of the University Library and the Law Library.
In addition, we have available a number of other print, microform, and
electronic resources. Your Research Services Librarians at the Cleveland-Marshall
College of Law Library may be able to suggest research strategies for
you. Stop in or call during the regularly
scheduled Research Services
hours, or contact via email to research.services@law.csuohio.edu
.
If
you would like to make an appointment to discuss your project and potential
resources, we will try to accommodate you.
What
style manual is used for legal writing?
The Bluebook:
A Uniform System of Citation (Columbia Law Review Ass'n et al. eds.,
18th ed. 2005), available at
the Law Library Information Services Desk KF
245 .B58
Can
I use Westlaw?
Our law school contract with
Westlaw only provides passwords for students and faculty of the College
of Law. LexisNexis Academic, available to all Cleveland State University
students, faculty, and staff, does include a substantial amount of caselaw,
annotated codes for all states, a very comprehensive resource of full-text
law review articles, and similar, easy to use, search software. We would
be glad to show you how to use it.
For Ohio case law research,
the Law Library has a Research Workstation with Premise, a Thomson West
CD-ROM product, which anyone may use. Search for Ohio cases in the same
manner as on Westlaw. Copies of cases are 10 cents per page (coins or
$1 bills.)
The Law Library also has many
print titles from Thomson West, such as Baldwin's Ohio Revised Code Annotated,
and the Ohio Handbook series, and from LexisNexis and other publishers.
See your Law Library Research Services librarians to find out your research
options.
Access this page from the Law
Library homepage, under Law Library Information and Services,
http://www.law.csuohio.edu/lawlibrary/LawLibraryServicesforCSUGradUnderGradStudents.htm
Marie
Rehmar, Head of Reference Services and
Schuyler
Cook, Government Information/Reference Librarian
rev.
6/29/2007; rev 9/9/07mr
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