The D’Angelo Law Library welcomes students

The D’Angelo Law Library would like to take this opportunity to welcome the JD class of 2027 and the LLM class of 2025, along with all of our returning 2Ls, 3Ls, and JSDs!  We hope that all of you will take advantage of our vast resources and knowledgeable staff. Please remember that if you ever have any questions about the Library, please ask us!

You can always consult the D'Angelo Law Library website for comprehensive information about our offerings at The D'Angelo Law Library, but we want to highlight our Top 5 services and resources here:

1. Reference librarians are here to help.

Our reference staff is knowledgeable, helpful, and accessible in person, via email, and via live chat seven days a week through our Ask a Law Librarian service. Each Bigelow section also has a Reference Librarian assigned to teach legal research sessions over the course of the year. You can consider that librarian as your point of contact in the library, although all of our librarians are available to help you.

2. Start with the Law Library website.

The Library website can direct you to services and tools to help you find what you need to study law and conduct legal research. Use our website to get research help, find databases, learn library policies, and keep up with the latest library and legal research news.

3. Consult our custom portals for resources to support your course work.

The Law Library has created a 1L Success Portal that gathers together tools, such as study supplements and past exams, for each of the required courses students will take during their 1L year. These tools should aid students in their understanding of the challenging concepts that will form the bedrock of their legal education. This year, we have also created an Upper Level Success Portal that gathers together these resources for the most commonly taken upper level Law School courses.

4. Access information using our primary discovery tools.

Library Catalog: You can search the Library Catalog for books, electronic materials, and more. The University of Chicago Library has over 7 million books and access to hundreds of thousands of electronic resources, so if you are looking for something, you should start with the catalog, and chances are we have what you are looking for.

Databases: The Library offers access to hundreds of databases covering various subjects. To locate a database to use for your research, use Database Finder, a tool that enables you to search for a particular database by name or browse by subject to identify relevant databases. The Law Library also provides a list of the main databases used for legal research.

Access to Bloomberg Law, Lexis, and Westlaw is restricted to Law School students, and each law student will be supplied with an individual password. You will get this password during your library orientation. If you have any questions about these resources, please do not hesitate to Ask a Law Librarian.

Research Guides: The reference librarians have created research guides on a variety of legal topics. These guides give you starting points for doing research in particular areas of law.

5. We offer a number of on demand services.

Scan & Deliver is an electronic document delivery service that enables members of the University of Chicago community to obtain scanned portions of books or journal articles from the Library’s collections. Requests should be made online, directly from the Library Catalog. Requested documents will be scanned and delivered within four business days. We will scan chapters from books or single articles from journals, provided that the chapter(s) or article does not exceed 20% of the entire book or journal issue.

We also offer a paging service for Law School students for books from our collections, as well as in the stacks of other libraries on campus. This service is currently available to Law School students, faculty, and staff only. Materials will generally be collected within two business days and made available for contactless pick up in the Law Library in front of the service desk. You will receive an email when your item is available for pick-up.