WestlawNext Canada drop-in sessions

A representative of WestlawNext Canada will present two training sessions today, Wednesday Oct 22, in the law library:

  • 12 noon to 1:00 pm
  • 3:30 to 4:30 pm

All UVic Law users of WestlawNext Canada are welcome to attend. Please drop in to the law library computer lab at either session, no RSVP required.

As WestlawNext Canada features a completely different structure, interface, and search mechanism this year, upper year students in particular are encouraged to attend to receive an overview of the new platform.

Study space in the law library

The Law Library recognizes the need for available group study rooms in the Law Library specific to the needs of law students. In our efforts to ensure that the group rooms are accessible to all students while also meeting your specific needs, we will be implementing the following strategy:

  • The 4 group study rooms on the second floor will be taken off the online booking system and reserved for law students only. Bookings will now be made with the front desk staff at the Law Library. Law students will be able to book these rooms 7 days in advance and will be required to show ID at the time of placing a booking. Bookings can be made in 2-hour blocks, and consecutive bookings can be made (by individual or group), subject to room availability. Please be considerate of others’ needs when making consecutive bookings. As always, we encourage students to make advance bookings, whenever possible, to ensure their needs are met.
  • We are adding a 5th room to the number of group study rooms accessible to law students on the second floor. Room 252 will now become a group study room.
  • Additionally, we recognize that law students may have immediate, day-of needs for a group room. To assist with these immediate needs, we are now adding room 184 (the Collaboration Room). Please note the Collaboration Room, as in the past, will sometimes be booked in advance for other users who specifically need to use the collaboration equipment in this room. Thus this may occasionally impact last-minute availability for law students.
  • Room 172 will be a bookable group study room for law students. This room will also be reserved for day-of bookings only. There will be no advance bookings for this room for group work. Access to 172 will be limited to this term only as this will become the new Adaptive Technology Room as of January 2015.
  • The remaining 3 group study rooms on the main floor will be open to all students on campus and available via the online booking system. Law students are free to book these rooms whenever available.

These changes will take effect October 14th in order to honor existing bookings. Also, as mentioned in previous communications, access to the group rooms will be available only to law students during the exam periods in December and April.

The Law Library is also working with law faculty and staff to produce a quick and easy system to determine available space in the Fraser Building for groups to meet. We hope to provide more information on this shortly.

Please note that study space is at a premium across campus for all students regardless of discipline. This current space allocation plan will be monitored in terms of usage statistics and assessed over the course of the year and adjusted as necessary.