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Library Services for Osgoode Faculty

Library Liaisons

Each Osgoode faculty member – both full-time and adjunct – is assigned a reference librarian as a library liaison to provide personalized assistance with research queries and accessing specialized library services. Library liaisons are professional librarians specialized in both legal and interdisciplinary research using the full resources of the Osgoode Law Library and other York University libraries. Library services offered or facilitated by the library liaisons include:

  • Compiling topical bibliographies
  • Training student Research Assistants (RAs)
  • Demonstrating and assisting with Lexis (Quicklaw), Westlaw and other electronic resources
  • Preparing and providing topical research/bibliographic instruction sessions for your classes or seminars
  • Assisting you with collecting and compiling materials for your course website (Quickr)
  • Assisting you with accessing our current awareness services for faculty

Though you are welcome to deal directly with any of the library staff, we encourage you to contact your library liaison with any questions or recommendations.

Placing Materials on Reserve

Faculty may request that books and photocopied articles assigned as required reading for their courses be placed in the Library’s Reserve Collection to facilitate access to and use of the materials by their students. The Reserve Collection is shelved behind the Library’s Circulation Desk, and Reserve materials are loaned to students on a short-term basis (3 hours) or overnight only.

When submitting titles for the Reserve Collection, please submit only titles that are “required” reading for your courses. Please do not ask us to put extended “suggested reading” titles on Reserve, as the quantity of work of can be overwhelming.

To have materials placed on Reserve, email a list the materials you’d like placed on Reserve (including author, title, edition, publisher and place/year of publication) to the library’s Circulation Desk. You may also complete the this form and submit it to the library Circulation Desk by email at lawcirc@osgoode.yorku.ca or by fax at 416-736-5298.

Research Assistants

To help them better serve the faculty for whom they are working, Research Assistants (RAs) are issued special borrowing privileges in the Osgoode library. To obtain these privileges, they must first register with the library: the registration form can be downloaded here; the RA’s faculty supervisor must first complete the upper portion of the application.

Before these special privileges can be issued to your RA, any library accounts issued to your previous Research Assistant(s) must be clear of all charges, fines or penalties. Additionally, the RA’s personal library account must also be free of any outstanding fines before the library card will be issued.

Mooting Teams

Special, extended borrowing privileges are granted to all moot team members at Osgoode. The Mooting Director must notify the library of the team members, after which each team member will be issued with a special borrower’s card. The loan period associated with these cards is 100 days or the date of expiry of the card, whichever comes first. This loan period does not apply to reserve materials, for which the normal reserve loan period remains in effect. Each team member is responsible for any library materials signed out to him/her and for ensuring that they are returned on time.

Current Awareness Services

There are many ways for faculty to stay current with new articles and research published in their areas of expertise. Please do not hesitate to consult with your assigned Liaison Librarian (link to list) to develop a current awareness profile. Among useful services are the following:

Recommendations for Purchase & Rush Orders

If you become aware of or need to consult any book – whether a new title or an existing title – that is not available in the Osgoode Library or other library at York University and you believe it would be appropriate for our collection, please do not hesitate to submit a request for its purchase. Requests can be submitted to at the Reference Desk. If you specify that you need the book quickly for a course, we can put a rush on the order an make sure it is delivered to you as soon as it is received.