Please contact if you have any questions or need additional information.
Faculty Services
The Underwood Law Library provides in-depth research assistance and numerous other services to support faculty. Each faculty member is assigned a specific reference librarian who serves as his or her library liaison. Liaisons coordinate faculty access to library services.
The Law Library Can Assist With
Book and Document Delivery
Contact your library liaison to request library materials. Please indicate if you need the items on a rush basis. We strive to supply such items on the same or following day if owned by an SMU library. Library staff deliver materials to faculty mailboxes Monday through Friday at 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
| Borrowing from the Law Library | |
| Regularly Circulating Materials | Materials circulate for one semester with unlimited automatic renewals. Please return items when you have finished with them or are not currently using them. |
| Non-Circulating Materials | Periodicals circulate to faculty for one semester. Faculty may borrow other non-circulating materials for brief periods. |
| Borrowing from Other SMU Libraries | |
| Access | If you wish to borrow from another SMU library, you may do so in person with your SMU ID card. Alternatively, your research assistant or a library staff member can retrieve the book you need if you designate them as your library proxy. |
| Proxy | To create proxy privileges, contact Winston Tubb, Collection Services Manager (wtubb@smu.edu; ext. 8-1832). |
| Due Dates | Other libraries on campus strictly enforce due dates, so please timely return or renew books checked out from those libraries. You can usually renew those materials . |
Interlibrary Loan
The library has arrangements for obtaining books and other research materials not otherwise available at SMU. We can obtain most items in a week or less. Submit your interlibrary loan requests either to your library liaison or click .
New Books on Display
The library displays some of its new books in the faculty library on the second floor of Storey Hall. Sign the form attached to the books if you wish to receive the books when they are no longer on display.
Purchasing Books from Your Faculty Account
Library staff can order books for you and charge them directly to your faculty account or other SMU account. Send your purchase requests to Shannon Dekat, Acquisitions Manager (sdekat@smu.edu; ext. 8-1826). Please indicate if you need the items on a rush basis.
Recommending Library Purchases
Please direct your recommendations to your liaison or to Tom Kimbrough (thomask@smu.edu; ext.8- 3978). Please indicate if you wish library staff to route those publications to you upon their receipt by the library.
Library Liaisons
Contact your library liaison for assistance with
| Research projects that are not too large in scale (and thus more appropriate for research assistants) |
| Lectures on legal research |
| Literature searches and bibliographies |
| Delivering books and documents |
| Setting up current awareness tools |
| Training and providing research assistance to your research assistant |
Identifying grants
Click the link to access our research guide on .
Library Carrels
Faculty may reserve library carrels for one month to work on research projects. To reserve a carrel, contact Winston Tubb, Collection Services Manager (wtubb@smu.edu; ext.8-1832).
Faculty Research Fellows
Fellows provide short-term research assistance without the time commitment of a traditional student research assistant. Contact your library liaison to request research assistance from a fellow.
New Publications Form
Share your recent activities and scholarship with . Information shared through the form will be circulated to the newpublications@list.smu.edu recipients.
Annual Scholarly Impact Reports
Each spring the library reviews the law faculty’s scholarly impact by compiling downloads and citations in HeinOnline, Google Scholar, SSRN and Westlaw.
ORCID
ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a unique and persistent identifier for researchers. Your ORCID ID is yours throughout your career, no matter where you work or if your name appears in different forms in different places.
For more information and to obtain an ORCID ID, visit the . When registering for an ORCID ID, it is recommended that you notify Marja Pietilainen-Rom, our Scholarly Initiatives Librarian, and add her to your account as a to ensure uninterrupted support.
Perma.cc
The law library is a member of , a platform that helps scholars to create permanent records of the web sources they cite. When linked citations lead to broken or altered pages, that’s called link rot which destroys the integrity of your citations. Perma.cc aims to eliminate link rot through Perma Links which are reliable, unbreakable links to an unaltered record of any page you have cited.
If you'd like to begin using Perma.cc in your scholarship to ensure online sources you cite remain available for readers, including law review editors, please contact Cassie Walker (cassiewalker@smu.edu).
Scholar, SMU's Institutional Repository
is our institutional repository that provides open access to scholarly works of the SMU academic community. The library maintains a collection of published articles, books, and book chapters by law faculty. To notify the library about newly published works that can be added to the repository, simply email your updates to newpublications@list.smu.edu.
SSRN
SSRN is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of research and is composed of a number of specialized research networks including the law scholarship network. Faculty are encouraged to timely add their scholarship to their SSRN profiles. The library can assist with maintaining your SSRN profile by contacting Marja Pietilainen-Rom (mprom@smu.edu).
Scholastica
permits faculty to submit manuscripts to participating law journals. The law school pays $6.50 per submission. To use, contact Greg Ivy (givy@smu.edu).
Lectures on Legal Research
Reference librarians are available, with advance notice, to provide lectures on legal research in most subject areas. Reference librarians currently lecture in a number of edited writing courses and are able to do so in any writing course in which research guidance will be useful.
Canvas Basics for Faculty
Please click here for more information on Canvas.
Course Reserves
To place material on reserve at the library's circulation desk, contact Winston Tubb, Collection Services Manager, (wtubb@smu.edu; ext. 8-1832). Please provide 24 hours advance notice for processing the material.
Complimentary Copies of Textbooks
CALI
is a collection of more than 900 interactive, computer-based lessons covering 33 areas of law. The student password is SOUMETstu194. The faculty password is SOUMETfac194. This password allows faculty greater access to CALI materials than the student password.
Plagiarism Detection
SMU professors have access to Copyleaks. Copyleaks helps you identify potential plagiarism by comparing student submissions against billions of web pages, scholarly articles, and academic papers. Click here for more information on Copyleaks.
Routine Matters (not time-sensitive)
Email OIT's help desk at help@smu.edu. It may take up to 4 hours to receive a response. OIT's desk is open:
| Monday - Thursday | 8am - 8pm |
| Friday | 8am - 6pm |
| Saturday | 9am - 5pm |
| Sunday | 11am - 6pm |
Time-Sensitive Matters
Call the OIT help desk at 214-SMU-HELP during the hours above.
Classroom Equipment Problems
Phone OIT classroom helpline at 214-SMU-8888. OIT will dispatch someone within five minutes.