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Now that everyone is settling in to the new semester, we wanted to remind all students and staff that there is lots of material to help you use library resources for study and research.
In Week One we held live online sessions for PGT and PGR students, recordings of which can be found on the Law Librarian Media Hopper Channel:
If you missed them please feel free to use the videos to catch up, or download the slide decks attached to each video.
Last week we also ran an in-person on campus session for UG students. Although we didn’t record the session, you can find the slides for each part of the session below, or you can watch the PG session above for a similar introduction to library services.
If you require these documents in a different format please contact us by email: law.librarian@ed.ac.uk.
You can also contact us to book an individual appointment for a 30 minute one-to-one session where we can help with finding resources for research and study, referencing and making the most of library resources. Booking is available via the MyEd events booking system, or you can use the following links to find available time in our diaries.
So, what do you do when your university card is lost, damaged or stolen?
Well, usually you will visit our EdHelp Service Desk in the Main Library or any Card Help Desks and get a replacement card. But, you will need to pay the £10 fee; and the fee applies to all card holders (staff, students and visitors)
But for the next few weeks, between April 21 – May 23 you can get your university card replaced for free!!!
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This is a one time, single offer for the duration specified above, so if your card is lost, damaged or stolen, head to one of our card help desks and the super friendly library staff there will be able to help you.
So, how have you been searching for databases for your studies so far?
Have you been using the link from myEd?
Or perhaps going straight to the Databases A-Z list or by subject?
Well, now there is another way that is user friendly and hopefully can increase your engagement with using databases. A Library Databases search went live a few weeks ago. Its aim is to improve the way you search for databases; you can either search by name (if you already know the name of the database you want to access) or by subject. Using either way, will limit the results in DiscoverEd to the ones that are most relevant.
Here are two examples:
a) if you want to search for Westlaw, you type the name of the database and click on the search button. As soon as you do that, you will be directed to the Westlaw link in DiscoverEd
b) if you don’t know which database you want to access but instead search by subject, then you will get a list of databases that are relevant to the subject term you inserted. In this example, I used ‘law’.
In both cases, please remember to sign in before you go any further so that you can access all the material we are subscribed to.
The usage of this new featured will be monitored over the next few months (in comparison to the Databases A-Z for example) and if you find it useful, any feedback will be welcomed.
Till then, happy searching and be in touch with any comments!
Did you know the library has a list of resources that can help you get started with big research projects such as dissertations? You may feel a bit overwhelmed about how to begin, but the library team have helpfully compiled a Resource List of books, guidance and articles that we think will ensure you feel more confident:
Resource Listsare clickable pages of bookmarks that link directly to items in our library catalogue, many of which you can access online. Most courses will have prescribed Resource Lists that indicate the reading for your modules, and students tell us they find them helpful and easy to use. PG Students will also find this list linked in the Learn pages for PG dissertation students.
If this is your first time conducting a large research project, you may find the session we run each semester for PhD students in Law to be of interest. You can watch a recording of this session on our Media Hopper channel here:
Finally if you’re struggling to get to grips with literature searching then you can arrange a one-to-one appointment with us, your Law Librarian team. Visit the MyEd Events Booking system and look for ‘literature search clinic’ and select the option relating to Law. We offer appointments most weeks, and if you can’t see a bookable slot that suits you please email us on law.librarian@ed.ac.uk.
Are you a student who is struggling with academic writing? Are you a staff member who knows of a student who isn’t quite getting the hang of writing at University level?
Perhaps you need to book an appointment with our Royal Literary Fund Fellow. Mary Paulson-Ellis is a well-respected expert in the field of writing, and has been a writing mentor, workshop leader, tutor and writer-in-residence for many organisations including the National Centre for Writing, the National Galleries of Scotland and the Edinburgh International Festival. She is also a committee member for the Society of Authors in Scotland, and student feedback from her first semester working at Edinburgh has been enthusiastically positive. She specialises in helping students in any discipline hone their writing skills and she does this by arranging one-to-one appointments with students in the Main Library.
The service is free, confidential and individual to each student’s needs. To find out more about the service you can visit our RLFF page, or to book an appointment please email Mary directly.
Hello, and if you’re a new student joining us for the 2023/24 academic year we look forward to meeting you in the Law Library soon!
We are Anna Richards and SarahLouise McDonald, and we are your Law Librarians. Anna works the first half of the week, SarahLouise the second, and you can reach us both by email on law.librarian@ed.ac.ukat any time.
You may have already met us at one of the several induction sessions we’ve been running over the past week or two. If you missed them you can find recordings on the Law Librarian Media Hopper Channel:
The slides for each session are added as ‘attachments’ to the videos above. Please note that captions are automatically generated and we’ll endeavour to get them corrected over the coming month.
One session which wasn’t recorded was the Diploma Welcome to the Library session which was delivered face-to-face. If you’re a Diploma student you should already have access to the slides via your Learn pages, but if not you can find them here: Law – Diploma induction 2023.
If you’re looking for information on using the physical library, we recommend you check out the Law Library webpages and take a look at our Virtual Orientation Guide (Microsoft Sway document – other formats are available by request). We hope that you’ll get in touch with either ourselves or our colleagues on the library helpdesk by contacting EdHelp if you have any queries. See you in the library!
We want to alert students to a change we’re dealing with regarding Bloomsbury Professional ebooks which were formerly offered on the LexisLibrary platform.. Unfortunately going forward these will no longer be available on this database, and we’re working on access to them via Bloomsbury’s own platform instead.
The courses affected are mainly Property, Evidence, Criminal, Employment, and Contract Law, and the book titles are as follows:
Walker & Walker: The Law of Evidence in Scotland
A fingertip guide to Scots Criminal law
Commercial Leases
McDonald’s Conveyancing Manual
Conveyancing Practice in Scotland
Property Trusts and Succession
Mental Health, Incapacity and the Law in Scotland
Scottish Law of Leases
Scots Criminal Law
Employment Law in Scotland
Contract Law in Scotland
Missives
Scottish Planning Law
Scottish Older Client Law Service
Drafting Wills in Scotland
International Sucession Laws
Thomson’s Delictual Liability
Tolley’s Estate Planning
Tolley’s Inheritance Tax
Tolley’s Company Law Handbook
Style Writs in the Sheriff Court
While negotiations are ongoing with Bloomsbury (and until the end of May 2023) we’ll be able to access all of these titles using a trial they’ve given us to their own platform, providing students from 2022/23 access through the end of Semester Two exams. The procedure for finding these books is as follows:
Click on ‘Bloomsbury Professional Scots Law Titles’
You will be prompted to log in with your usual username and password.
You’ll arrive at a page that will give you the username and password to use on the Bloomsbury site
Click the link to Bloomsbury (it helps to do this in a new tab or window so you can copy the log in details), then enter the username and password to log in.
Use the navigation on the left hand side to access the title of the book you need.
This information has been added to the DiscoverEd records for these books, and I will also be circulating it via newsletters, blogs and other communication channels. Please do share this information with your classmates to assist them with their study or research if they require access to these books.
We’ve set up another date for our popular ‘Referencing for Law’ session, which is always well attended by UG and PG students alike. If you are not familiar with referencing law materials, this is the session for you! We’ll cover:
Why we reference and the definition of plagiarism
How to use reference systems in assessed work
What to include in a reference list for OSCOLA
An assessment of how reference manager software works with OSCOLA
Hints and tips to make referencing easier
The all-important date for this is Wednesday 5th April, 10am-11am.
The session will be held online using Blackboard Collaborate, with a link to the session provided on the event page and also in reminder emails. The seminar will last just under an hour with time for questions built in. It will be recorded and uploaded to the Law Librarian Resources Media Hopper Channel for access asynchronously afterwards; slides and a link to the recording will be sent out after the event. Please book a place viathe MyEd Events Booking system.
We understand this is a little late for UG students whose dissertations are due in the next few weeks, but don’t despair! If this is you, we recommend you take a look at the materials you can access at any time here:
Referencing for Law – April 2023 – UPDATED! Recording of session from 5th April, replacing the previous video from October 2021.
OSCOLA guide – the official 61 page guide to the current 4th edition of the OSCOLA referencing system. Many students’ questions can be answered by careful perusing of this guide, or alternatively checking the Cite Them Right database.
If you’ve read and watched all of the above but are still struggling, just get in touch by email: law.librarian@ed.ac.uk.
Do you need help with your research? Have you got yourself into a muddle using legal resources online? Do you just need to know what you need to know?
Book a one-to-one meeting with our Law Librarian team to discuss your research issues or library problems. In previous one-to-ones we’ve helped students with:
search strategies
using our subscription databases
finding international case law
finding historical Scots material online (specifically the Institutional Writers)
referencing (specifically using OSCOLA)
setting up news alerts for cases or legislation
We arrange appointments once a fortnight using the MyEd booking system. Search for “Literature search clinic” and select the Law specific event, or search for “Law” and select provider group “IS Library and University Collections” to find all our Law related training. Future dates include:
19th January
9th February
23rd February
1st March
15th March
30th March
13th April
4th May
Please note: due to our current staffing situation these appointments are all on Wednesdays and Thursdays. If you require a different day please get in touch.
We release appointments approximately three weeks before each scheduled date. This semester we’re trialling a combination of online and in-person appointments so when you book feel free to contact us to discuss how you would prefer to meet. If you cannot see an available meeting slot that suits you please email law.librarian@ed.ac.uk and we will find a suitable time.
You may have seen that we’ve featured LexisNexis quite a lot on the blog this semester, due to the launch of their new platform, Lexis+. We’ve provided a fair bit of information about how to access items and how to get further training, but one person we have yet to mention is your Student Associate, Olivia Riddell. Lexis employ Olivia to provide peer support for students at the University of Edinburgh who want to work with Lexis and use it for their studies or research. We had a quick word with her to ask her more about what her role entails:
Tell us a little bit about yourself! Who are you and what do you study at Edinburgh?
My name is Olivia, and I am a fourth-year law student at Edinburgh. I am from the North of England but wanted to study at Edinburgh as a bid to broaden my horizons. It has been nice to experience the quieter life and scenery that Scotland offers before accessing work opportunities in the City.
Why did you apply to be the student representative for LexisNexis?
I wanted to have experience related to law. My previous experience working in retail taught me soft skills and resilience, but this role has truly developed other areas needed in a professional capacity such as marketing strategies, proactiveness and negotiations. This is especially necessary if students want to harness their skills in preparation for a role requiring good capacity of leadership and business relations. It also challenges me personally. For example, it has improved my confidence (in reaching out to students, and teaching sessions) and stretched my ability to form professional networks with students in the law school, and with faculty staff.
What do you think is the best feature that Lexis offers for students in the Law School?
The ability to type in key words and find related journal articles and added references for essays. It enables you to find related sources that have an affinity with your argument or essay title meaning your assignment will be much stronger based on accuracy and relevancy.
When students book a training session with you, what can they expect to get from the meeting?
There are different types of sessions. I will be organising certification sessions (Foundation and Advanced) which will enhance your professional profile and experience. These downloadable and professional certificates will make you stand out, and you can showcase these on LinkedIn. In addition, I will be running assignment training in December 2022 and Easter 2023 to ensure you know how to use LexisNexis to help in your upcoming assignments. In semester two, I will also be conducting commercial awareness sessions in 2023 to help with future internship and vacation scheme placement applications, and how you can access such material on the LexisNexis site.
You can reach Olivia by email with any queries or training requests: s1925406@ed.ac.uk.
If you need help with any other databases or would like to discuss other available training please let the law librarian team know by email: law.librarian@ed.ac.uk.
