Borrowing & Collections

Borrowing

The Law Library is chiefly a research and reference library so the core materials - law reports and legislation are not available for loan. The following material is however, available for loan. Login to MyLibrary to view or renew your loans.

Law Books

The book collection is located on the Ground Floor of the Law Library, southern end. Generally material is available for 4 week loan (10 weeks for graduate level students). Some reference-type and loose-leaf material in the Law Books collection is marked 'Not for loan'.

Law Books (Restricted Loan)

Books labelled 'Restricted Loan' are restricted to University of Adelaide staff and students and the borrowing period is 1 week (with a further 1 week renewal period if there are no other requests).

Law Reserve

The Reserve Collection, located at the Law Library Desk, is a small collection of the texts designated as required reading in the Law program. These books are available for 3 hour loan. Overnight loans are also available if more than one copy of a title is held in Reserve.

Books borrowed on overnight loan may be borrowed no earlier than 4:00pm and must be returned by 9:00am the next morning. If the loan is on a Friday then this material is available over the weekend, to returned by 9:00am the following Monday morning

Requests

You can request a book that is on loan to another user, by using the Request function in the Library catalogue, at the top of the screen when you are viewing the catalogue record for your item. Placing a request prompts a recall of the item from the current user.
When a 4-week or 10-week loan book is recalled , the loan period is shortened to become 7 days from the day following the date of the Request. Notice of the changed due date is emailed to the current borrower. You will be notified by email when the book is ready to collect. If a book you have on loan has been recalled, you can't renew the loan.

Overdue books and demerit points

A demerit points system applies on overdue loans from the University of Adelaide Library (including the Law Library).

• Reserve collection items: 5 points per hour overdue
• Recalled items: 10 points per day overdue
• All other items: 2 points per day overdue

If your borrowing account accumulates sixty demerit points, your borrowing privileges are suspended indefinitely until all overdue items are returned. Until those overdue items are returned,demerit points will continue to accrue and you will be suspended for 1 week for each lot of 60 points, when all overdue items have been returned.

After-hours book returns

If the Library is closed, books can be returned through an after-hours return chute in the laneway east of the Ligertood Building. Entrance to the laneway is via gate 23 (the same gate that leads to the underground carpark) on North Terrace.

Collections

Law Reserve

Located at the Desk, the Reserve collection consists mainly of course related material available for 3 hour loan or overnight loan. Recent issues of journals and law reports are also kept in the Reserve Collection.

Law Reference

The Reference collection is housed on the ground floor of the Law Library, on the wall opposite the Public PCs. Reference material is not available for loan.

Law Reports

These are located on the lower ground floor, south of the stair well. The law reports are arranged primarily by jurisdiction, in the following order: Australia, Australian states, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and United States. A collection of other foreign jurisdictions, some non-common law, are housed at the far southern end of the lower ground floor. International law reports are housed on the ground floor in the International Law collection.

Law Statutes

Statutes are located on the eastern side of the lower ground floor, arranged by jurisdiction. If you require recent South Australian statutes please ask at the Desk, as this material is held in the Reserve collection.

Law Journals

The journal collection is located at the northern end of the lower ground floor of the Law Library, apart from international material which is kept with the International Law collection on the ground floor. Journals are arranged alphabetically by title.

Law Books

The main book collection is located on the ground floor arranged by the Moys Classification for Legal Materials.

Rare Books

The Rare Book collection is housed in cabinets on the Lower Ground Floor, adjacent to the stairwell. The collection is arranged alphabetically by author and contains very old, rare or fragile material. A separate collection of publications by law School academic staff is housed in the Moot Courtroom.

To access the Rare Book material please ask at the Desk.

Theses

Honours theses submitted for the University of Adelaide LLB are shelved behind the Law Library Desk. Higher degree theses in Law, University of Adelaide, are housed in the Moot Courtroom. A complete list of those higher degree theses is available here.
For both honours and higher degree theses, ask at the Desk.

Compactus

There are 2 sets of compactus shelving at the southern end of the lower ground floor. The eastern compactus houses the United States Federal Reporter and Federal Supplement, and a United Nations collection. The western compactus holds older editions of books and earlier editions of legal reference material (including earlier editions of Halsbury's Laws, The Digest, and similar works).

Joint Store requests

Some early and little used material has been transferred off-site to a joint library store located on the Flinders University campus. This material can be retrieved for your use.
To request a Joint Store item, use the Requests function in the Library catalogue, at the top of the screen when you are viewing the catalogue record for your item.

If you put your request in before 12.00 noon Monday to Friday, the item will usually be available for collection at the Barr Smith Library loans desk at 3.15pm the same day.