Services for Visitors


The primary purpose of the Thurgood Marshall Law Library is to support the teaching and research functions of the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, and other University System of Maryland researchers who need to use legal materials.  During the workweek, the Library also welcomes visitors who need to use our library collection and databases for legal research purposes.  Librarians are available to assist patrons with finding and using materials in the law library, but cannot give legal advice or answer questions concerning the interpretation of the law. See our general guidelines for visitor services for more information.

Westlaw

Due to license agreements, some databases are restricted to law school students and faculty. Many other databases are available to on-site library visitors. If you are in the library, please feel free to browse the list of databases. Although the full academic subscriptions to LexisNexis and to Westlaw are restricted to current students and faculty, a more limited version of Westlaw is available to on-site library visitors.

Since the library provides this database for visitor use, it not subject to the same rigorous user agreements that Westlaw normally requires; however, there are some content limits placed on Westlaw in order to protect intellectual property rights. The majority of content is available for downloading and emailing, including cases, statutes and most Maryland analytical materials. However, there is a limit of 20 document email or downloads per user session, and a maximum limit of 250 documents per day from our library. A notification will appear when you have reached the limit. To ensure that the next patron does not quickly exceed the session limit, please remember to sign out of Westlaw when you are finished.


Computer Use Policy for Visitors

Computers and computer network facilities are provided to support the education, research and service mission of the campus and its schools.

Visitors may bring a wireless-enabled laptop into the Law Library to access the online catalog and legal databases.  To access the guest wireless, visitors should double click the wireless network icon on the laptop’s system tray (which is usually in the lower or upper right corner, near the clock). A list of wireless networks that are available will be shown. Visitors should select and connect to the "UMB Guest" wireless.  Upon opening a browser, they will be prompted to enter an email address before proceeding.

Work and personal items should not be left unattended at any computer.

Visitor Workstation

The visitor workstation is available exclusively for academic and legal research purposes.

To use the visitor workstation, patrons must show an ID and sign in with their full name, indicating the time. The librarian on duty will be the only one with the password to this computer. After signing in, patrons may use the public computer for 30 minutes when other users are present. When finished, patrons should log out of the computer and return to the circulation desk to sign-out.

Misuse

Misuse of the public computers consists of any violations of the UMB Information Technology Acceptable Use Policy. Violations include, but are not limited to:

  • Computing activity that is not in support of the education, research, and service mission of the campus and its schools.
  • Securing unauthorized access to or unauthorized use of IT resources, or facilitating such use or access by another person.
  • Altering system software or hardware configurations without authorization.
  • Computing activity that is illegal.
  • Computing activity that is wasteful of IT Resources
  • Software theft or piracy, data theft, or any other action that violates the intellectual property rights of others.

Violations

Non-compliance with Law Library policies is considered disruptive behavior and will result in the loss of Library privileges. Additional sanctions, such as notification of the dean of the appropriate school may be imposed depending on affiliation of the individual or the nature of the violation.


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