University Library – history and location

The University Library is situated on the main university campus beside the Hunterian Art Gallery on Hillhead Street. Built on twelve levels in 1968, the Library has over 2 million books and journals, with study spaces for over 2,500 students. The Library is open 361 days of the year from 07.15 – 02.00 and deals with over 80,000 enquiries every year.

The main Law collection is housed in the Main University Library. Most of the Law collection is held on Level 7, although multiple copies of books recommended for essays and projects are held in the Short Loan Collection. The Maps, Official Publications & Statistics (MOPS) Unit is also housed on Level 7 of the Main Library. This is an important resource for law students because it contains the UK and Scottish Parliamentary collections, as well as the European Union Documentation Centre and Council of Europe collection.

A separate Law Workshop is housed in the School of Law (Stair Building). The Workshop is primarily an information resource for undergraduate students. It holds duplicate copies of vital texts and a more limited collection of core law reports and periodicals.

There is one subject librarian responsible for the Law and Official Publications collections, supported by the staff in the MOPS Unit. MOPS Unit staff comprises of three full-time and one part-time (40%) staff. There is one member of full-time staff (semester only) in the Law Workshop.

An effective, formal mechanism for communication and liaison between the Law Librarian, the Head of the Law School and the academic staff of the Law School has been developed. A member of the academic staff in the School of Law has responsibilities for library matters (Library Rep) and she and the law librarian meet on a regular basis to discuss budgets, resource acquisition and collection management issues. The law librarian regularly attends School of Law meetings and is a member of the Faculty of Law, Business and Social Sciences Academic Services Committee, which deals with library and IT matters at Faculty level.

The School of Law

The School of Law is one Scotland's oldest and largest law schools. There are currently 45 full-time members of academic staff, and an internationally diverse body of over 1,000 students.

At undergraduate level, the School of Law offers the traditional four-year full-time LLB. There is also a two year full-time accelerated option for graduate entrants. The School of Law offers an LLB in Law with Languages, an LLB in Law with European Legal Studies and an LLB Joint Honours, which allows students to combine completion of all the professional subjects required by the Law Society of Scotland with study of another subject to honours level.

At postgraduate level, the School of Law offers a taught masters degree under one of three distinct programmes – the Master of Laws (LLM); the Master of Science (MSc) and the Master in Medical Law (MML).

The LLM is obtained by one year's full-time study, or two years' part-time study. There are four LLM programmes in addition to the General LLM: the LLM in International Commercial Law; LLM in Corporate and Financial Law; LLM in International Law; and the LLM in International Competition Law and Policy.

The degree of Master of Science (MSc) is offered as one of several distinct interdisciplinary programmes where the School of Law is partner with one (or more) other university department(s), and provides some portion of the instruction. The programmes on offer are: MSc in Legal and Political Thought (new for 2009: subject to approval); MSc in Human Rights and International Politics and MSc in European Politics and Law.

The Masters in Medical Law focuses on contemporary medico-legal issues. The programme comprises study for two years with distance learning modules and attendance at two residential weekends each year. At the end of this two-year period, students have one further academic year to submit a dissertation.

As well as the taught postgraduate programmes, the School of Law also offers postgraduate research degrees. The LLM by Research; an MRes in Law, which has a strong emphasis on research training, and a PhD, available as a three-year full-time or four-year part-time degree.

The Library collections

The Law collections at Glasgow University are extensive in range and quantity, and contain historical and contemporary legal information, both in print and electronic formats. The collection strengths reflect the primary and secondary legal sources relevant to the School of Law teaching and research objectives.

The collection contains over 30,000 print items, including books, journals and law reports. In addition, the library subscribes to the major legal databases and has extensive e-journal and e-book collections. All items are accessible via the Library's online catalogue: http://eleanor.lib.gla.ac.uk/search~S0/. Duplicate copies of vital texts, and a more limited collection of core law reports and periodicals, are also available in the Law Workshop in the Stair Building.

Glasgow University has signed a blanket photocopying and scanning licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), to enable academic staff to provide online course materials. The licence allows scanning of extracts for teaching purposes to staff and students on a particular course of study for the duration of the course, via a secure network. Access is permitted by a unique course password provided by the library.

The Library also creates online course documentation for many of the courses offered in the School of Law. Direct links to online books, cases and journal literature are embedded into course documentation, so that students simply click on the link to access the full-text. This service is delivered via the Law School Moodle.

Enquiry services

There is a staffed enquiry point on Level 7, Main Library in the Maps and Official Publications Unit. The enquiry point is staffed Monday – Friday, 09.00 – 17.00. The Unit also offers an email and telephone enquiry service. A general enquiry service is available at evenings and weekends. The law librarian is also available to meet staff and students at their convenience, and offers an email and telephone enquiry service. The law librarian also has a presence on the Law School Moodle (VLE) and regularly responds to information enquiries via the online forums. The Law Workshop also has offers an enquiry service, Monday – Friday 8.45 – 17.00 (semester only).

User education

The Library provides extensive help and advice to staff and students on how to access and exploit print and electronic resources. A range of user education techniques are employed to meet the differing needs of users of the law collections.

Traditional classroom or lab-based delivery of information skills training is undertaken by the law librarian as part of the formal coursework at both undergraduate and postgraduate level within the School of Law. For example, two-hour research skills labs are provided to all students on taught and research postgraduate courses, and a lecture is delivered to all students about to embark on their undergraduate dissertation.

The library is also beginning to exploit Web 2.0 technology to deliver information skills. For example, library skills' training for first year undergraduates is now provided electronically via the Law School Moodle (VLE) using the quiz function. A library tour for new law students and a number of database guide podcasts have also been developed, which are available to view or download to a mobile phone or MP3 player from the library website.

Institutional co-operation

The library is a member of the SCONUL access scheme which enables staff, students, and research students to borrow material from other libraries. Reciprocal access arrangements also exist with Strathclyde University and Glasgow Caledonian University. Members of library staff supporting the law collections are members of professional organisations including BIALL, Scottish Law Librarians Group and the Scottish Working Group on Official Publications.

Further information

Library website: www.lib.gla.ac.uk/