Monday, April 6, 2020

Summer Access to Library Resources

Whether you're continuing at Duke Law next year or graduating this May, your access to legal research services like Westlaw, Lexis Advance, and Bloomberg Law will change.
All Students
Many of the temporary resources for textbooks and eBooks listed on the Library's Working Remotely site will expire at different times this summer.

Continuing Students
For rising 2Ls and 3Ls, your Law School research access generally continues uninterrupted over the summer. Lexis Advance and Bloomberg Law both allow student usage over the summer for educational as well as for commercial purposes. (However, check with your employer before using your Law School accounts for paid work – many employers prefer that summer associates avoid using their school accounts for researching firm matters.)

Westlaw restricts continuing students' summer access to non-commercial/educational research purposes only. The eligible categories for summer access include:
  • Summer coursework
  • Research assistant assignments
  • Law Review or Journal research
  • Moot Court research
  • Non-Profit work
  • Clinical work
  • Externship sponsored by the school

2020 Graduates
Before leaving Duke Law, check out the library's information page on Library Services for Law Alumni, which contains helpful details about accessing legal research services, borrowing library materials, and extending building access for bar study.

For graduating 3Ls and LLMs, Bloomberg Law automatically extends educational accounts for 6 months.

Lexis offers a Graduate Program that provides recent law school graduates extended access to Lexis Advance; a customized version of the Law School Home Page with graduate specific content; and a choice of a graduation gift from LexisNexis. Spring graduates have access to Lexis Advance via their law school IDs through December 31, 2020. This ID also grants them access to the Graduate Home Page.By July 8, 2020, spring graduates' view of the Law School Home Page will switch to the graduate view.

Under Westlaw's "Grad Elite" program, access continues for 6 months after graduation. Duke Law graduates are allowed 60 hours of usage per month for services like Westlaw and Practical Law for educational purposes. Graduating students will need to register for extended access this spring.

For help with your summer access to these or other Duke resources, be sure to Ask a Librarian. The library's summer hours, which take effect at the end of final exams, are Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.