To get started, bookmark the law library home page, law.sc.edu/library.
You can search for a specific title or author if you like.
Or you can search for a subject, such as torts.
After you hit Enter or click the Search button, you will see a list of results.
If you're only interested in online materials, you can select Available Online under Availability on the left.
Or, if you're only interested in physical books at the law library, you can filter your search results by Library on the left.
Below each title in the results list is a link showing where that title is available.
Click on Available Online to read an ebook or online journal article using your UofSC login.
Ask at the Reference desk how to find a physical book using a call number.
Click on a title in the results list to see details about that book.
Sign in with your UofSC login to see additional options for how to request a book. For example, you can place a hold on a checked-out book. We share a catalog system with other libraries at UofSC, and you can borrow physical books from those other libraries if needed.
You can pick up and drop off borrowed books at the law library's Circulation desk. The Circulation desk is also where you can borrow study aids that may help with reviewing for exams in your other classes. Study aids include audio CDs, flashcards, and books that contain different types of outlines and sample questions.
Your Carolina Card (law student ID) is your library card. Loan periods vary according to the materials being checked out.
Westlaw and Lexis are two platforms that many practicing lawyers use to do online legal research. They are competitors, and they have other competitors as well.
The law library pays for your subscription to both platforms, so you can become accustomed to both interfaces.
You will be using both Westlaw and Lexis to do online legal research throughout the Fall semester in LRAW.
In the Spring semester, we will continue using both Westlaw and Lexis, and we will expand our focus to include other platforms at that time.
The idea is to prepare you so that no matter which platform a future employer uses, or switches to down the road, you will be ready to research!
After setting up your accounts, bookmark these two pages in your browser so you can easily get to Westlaw and Lexis.
Westlaw and Lexis are also linked from the law library homepage, law.sc.edu/library, just in case.
If you encounter problems with your passwords, contact our dedicated account managers at Westlaw or Lexis.
Blackboard and TWEN (The West Education Network) are learning platforms.
UofSC Law professors may choose Blackboard, or TWEN, or both, or neither, to organize their class materials.
You will need to find out from your LRAW professor—and from each of your professors for your other classes—which learning platform(s) they have chosen.
CALI provides online lessons you can do on your own to supplement your learning for any of your classes. Ask your LRAW professor for Research or any librarian for the UofSC Law CALI registration code to set up your own CALI username and password.
To add a TWEN course, you must first have registered for a Westlaw account. (Registering your Westlaw account.)
Once you receive your Westlaw password, sign in to Westlaw at lawschool.thomsonreuters.com.
After signing in, select TWEN from the bar at the top of the page. Select TWEN from the drop-down menu.
To add a TWEN course, click the triangle by the Manage Courses button, and choose Add Course from the drop-down menu.
Find your course in the list, and select the correct section. Then, click the blue +Add button.
When you close the list of UofSC courses and return to your TWEN home page, the course you added should be in My Courses.
Now you can click the name of the course to find the course materials your professor provides on TWEN.
Transcript
I’m Seth Stoughton, and I am here to talk to you about the importance of LRAW, which is weird, because I don’t teach LRAW. I teach Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, classes like that. But I need you to know that the skills you are learning in LRAW are the skills that I need you to be able to apply in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure and in any of your doctrinal classes. What you’re learning in LRAW is how to do legal analysis. And what I need you to be able to do, and what your other doctrinal professors need you to be able to do, is legal analysis. So if you’re wondering, how do I figure out this complicated issue of mens rea? Or, how do I approach this Fourth Amendment question, or this contracts question or this health law question? The answer is: do good legal analysis.
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00:10 |
Please describe typical research projects you might assign to law clerks or first-year associates.
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06:00 |
How can law clerks or first-year associates present the results of their research in a way that is most helpful to you?
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11:10 |
What research resources do you use, or do you expect law clerks to use?
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13:20 |
What are some typical research pitfalls, and how can law clerks avoid them?
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16:18 |
Any comments on professionalism?
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