User Guides

The goal of the Whittier Law Library Collection is to support the instructional and research activities of the faculty and students of the Law School.

The Law Library contains more than 350,000 volumes in various formats. Central to the Collection are comprehensive holdings of the published case decisions and statutes of the fifty states, the United States, and other common law jurisdictions. The Collection also includes a substantial number of legal treatises and legal and law-related periodical literature.

The Library maintains an open-stack policy for the major portion of the Collection. This arrangement promotes the utmost freedom in the use of Library resources consistent with efficient and equitable service to all patrons.

The General Collection flows from front to back, beginning with the western rank of shelves (Rank A) and continuing with Ranks B, C, and D.For our patron's convenience, the California law collection has been pulled out of this sequence and moved to the front of Rank A, in the southwestern corner of the stacks, near the Rear Photocopy Alcove. Finding tools ("Reference" items), heavily used tools ("Reserve" items) and rare books ("Special" items) require careful circulation and are housed as separate collections behind the circulation counter.

Items which are in heavy demand are kept in the Reserve collection. These include hornbooks, nutshells, treatises and practice books which may be used to supplement casebooks. Commercial outlines are not available in the Library, but the major bar review companies have loaned us a set of their outlines for use in the Library. The Library keeps copies of past exams on Reserve. These can be checked out and may be photocopied. Course Reserve items may be checked out from the circulation counter. Other items which professors have placed on Course Reserve, such as cases, articles, statutes, and assignments on computer disks, may also be checked out from the counter.

Government documents are located throughout the Collection. Our Library is a Selective Federal Government Depository, which means that our collection of U.S. government documents is tailored to the law school curriculum. It is a sizeable collection and grows daily. In addition, the Library is a California State Depository.

Since the 1990s, more and more government documents have been made available on the World Wide Web, and such documents can often be found most readily by accessing the appropriate Web site. A high-speed computer station (housing the "Gov Docs PC") has been set up for this purpose and located in the Media Center.

Lesser used works will often be found in microform format. The Microforms collection is housed in and around the microform cabinets standing in the Media Center. The Microforms collection contains, among other documents, Congressional Committee publications, U.S. and California Supreme Court Records and Briefs, state session laws, and very early state court decisions. The locations of the Library's microform holdings are outlined in the "Guide to the Microforms Collection" and copies of the Guide have been placed on the microform cabinets. Reader-printers are located next to the cabinets and copies are 25 cents each. The equipment can be a little confusing if you have never used it before so, the first time you need to use this collection, please ask a Library staff member to help you.

The Serials collection is a large part of the Law Library's holdings. Serials appear in a number of forms, including loose-leafs which can be easily updated to reflect the constant changes in the law. Periodicals form a substantial part of the Serials collection and include both law reviews shelved alphabetically under the call number KF1 and subject journals shelved along with books dealing with the subjects to which they pertain. Periodical titles along with their call numbers can be accessed through the Library catalog. Specific periodical articles can be identified and located using the Library's print-based and CD-ROM-based periodical indexes. Since current unbound issues of journals are housed behind the counter and completed volumes of unbound journals are sent to the bindery every month, please ask the staff at the circulation counter to check the "Bindery List" if a recent journal issue cannot be found in the open stacks or behind the circulation counter. Please note that selected articles from legal journals are available through LEXIS-NEXIS and WESTLAW.

The Collection is cataloged according to current cataloging standards and is classified (i.e., shelved) according to the Library of Congress Classification System. The online catalog, "WOLLFPAC" (Whittier Online Law Library Facility Public Access Catalog), provides access to titles in the Library Collection. WOLLFPAC is a "web-based" catalog that can be accessed, at any time, from any location over the World Wide Web at the following URL: http://wollfpac.law.whittier.edu/search

GENERAL RULES AND REGULATIONS

The Library requires that patrons observe the following rules and regulations. Additional rules and regulations are posted in the Library or may be instituted at any time by the staff. Patrons should also comply with traditional standards of behavior common to all libraries. The following list is not an exhaustive compilation of the rules and regulations which govern all aspects of Library operations. Patrons who fail to comply with these rules or any others pertaining to the use of the Library and its services may have their Library privileges curtailed or terminated. WLS students may also face other disciplinary action under the Code of Student Conduct. Questions relating to these rules should be addressed to the Head of Public Services. Student Library Assistants do not have authority to allow exceptions to these rules.

1. COMPLIANCE WITH REQUESTS AND DIRECTIONS OF LIBRARY STAFF MEMBERS made in the course of the performance of their duties is required of all Library patrons.

2. NO FOOD or DRINKS (except water in spill-proof containers) are allowed in any area of the Library, including the conference rooms and computer facilities. SMOKING is also prohibited throughout the building.

3. CONVERSATION is allowed only in the Library conference rooms and for conducting Library business at the circulation counter.

4. MUTILATION AND THEFT OF LIBRARY MATERIALS is an extremely serious offense. Any student suspected of defacing, damaging, or stealing Library materials or equipment will face, at the minimum, serious disciplinary action. In addition, any student suspected of altering or damaging any Library computer hardware or software configuration or programming will face disciplinary action. Any user found to have damaged or stolen any Library property will be subject to a wide array of sanctions, including legal action. All briefcases, backpacks, and other containers are subject to search upon a person's exiting the Library.

5. ACCESS TO THE "STUDENT COMPUTER LAB" IS RESTRICTED to the faculty, staff, and currently enrolled students of Whittier Law School. Identification is required for use of this facility.

6. ACCESS TO THE "LEXIS CENTER" OR "WESTLAW CENTER" IS RESTRICTED to individuals who are currently using those online resources and who have authorized password access to those online services. Identification is required for use of these facilities.

7. ELECTRONIC DEVICES (such as laptop computers and cassette recorders with earphones) may be used in the Library in designated areas when they do not interfere with other patrons' use of the Library.

8. COMMUNICATION DEVICES (such as cordless telephones and pagers) may not be used at any time, in any part of the Library.