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Law Library Student Services

Information for UW Law students about the services we offer.

Spring Quarter Course Reserve Textbooks

West Academic Early eBook Access

West Academic (not Westlaw), provides temporary, early eBook access beginning the week before classes start and through the first two weeks of the quarter. This is for required textbooks published by West Academic that have been assigned by your professor. If you cannot find the title on the West Academic platform, it is not available.

About

The law library collects copies of most required textbooks for law school courses.

  • Course Reserve is located on the lower shelves in the Reference Area. 
  • Books are arranged in call number order.
  • Use the self-checkout kiosks to check-out/return course reserve items for up to 4 hours.

Ways to locate the item:

  • Use the library catalog to find your course textbook by typing the title or author's name.
  • Once you've located the item in the catalog you can see if it's checked out and when it's expected to be due back.
  • The Course Reserves collection includes textbooks from the past three years. This means we commonly have the current edition, as well as a previous edition available. If only the older edition is on the shelf, the current edition is likely in use. 
  • It might be an eBook!
  • If you still cannot locate the item, please see the staff at the Circulation Desk or contact us at lawref@uw.edu.
  • A 1 user license e-book is equal to 1 print copy; it limits the number of people that can use the book at one time. 
    • If a 1 user license e-book is in use, anyone else trying to access it will get cut off after 5 mins.
  • We purchase multi-user licenses or multiple e-books when possible, but often multi-user licenses are not available and/or it's cost prohibitive. 
  • If the record in the library catalog shows two links that means we've purchased two, 1 user licenses.
    • Try clicking the second link to see if it's available, otherwise check back later to see if it's no longer in use. See this record in the catalog as an example of two, 1 user licenses.
  • Sometimes we have one link to an e-book title with more than 1 copy of the e-book available.
    • Be sure to look at the "available copies" on the e-book platform to see if we have more than 1 copy. See this record in the catalog as an example of one link in the catalog with 3 available e-books.
  • With e-books it's possible to download up to 20% of the book to print or read offline, which really helps when there are limited licenses/copies. 

For questions about textbooks at the University Bookstore, please email the Office of Law Student Life lawstudentlife@uw.edu.

Policies

  • Gates Hall BUILDING USE ONLY

  • 4 Hour Checkout  - This applies to evenings and weekends, too.

  • Use self check-out machines to check out and return items.

  • Cannot renew or place holds

  • Must wait 15 minutes before checking out the same textbook to ensure access to item for other students.

  • Re-shelve the textbook at Course Reserve where you found it

  • Course Reserves is for current enrolled UW Law Students only

  • Missing or stolen course reserve texts will not be replaced. The law library is not able to replace stolen course reserves. If a book is stolen, no one in that class will have access to that book for the remainder of the year.

  • The law library purchases at least one copy of all required course books, with the exception of statutory supplements and professor compiled course packets.

  • Whenever possible the law library purchases e-books instead of print, some textbooks are not available for the law library to license as e-books.

  • Course Reserves is a library service that provides temporary access to textbooks for students awaiting delivery or who forget to bring their books to campus. It is not a replacement for purchasing course materials.

Checking Out & Returning

Checking-Out
  • Use the self-checkout kiosks near course reserve shelves or at the Circulation Desk to check out the item.
Checking-In / Returns
  • When you are finished with the item, check it back in to make sure you do not get fined.
  • Re-shelve the item on the Course Reserve shelves where you found it.

Fines

Pay fees and fines through UW Library Account Services online. 

Failure to pay your fines will result in your library account being blocked.

OVERDUE                                     FEE
1-10 hours                                      $2.50 per hour
11+ hours                                       $205.00 - $355.00*

 

*$55.00 non-refundable fine plus $150.00 - $300.00 item replacement fee. Item replacement fee is refundable if item is returned.