Faculty Research Assistant Guide

Research guides are valuable tools for identifying and locating resources available in a particular subject or area. The Law Library and the main university library system (USC Libraries) have research guides covering a wide variety of subjects. The Law Library’s “Research Guides” can be accessed at lawlibguides.usc.edu/ and the USC Libraries’ research guides are located at libguides.usc.edu/. Other libraries also have research guides that can be quite helpful, although they may refer you to resources that are not available at USC. A good way to find research guides is to add the phrase “research guide” to a web search of your topic (e.g., property law research guide). 

The library catalogs listed below can be found through the Law Library’s Search Library Catalogs page. 

ADVOCAT is the Law Library’s online catalog, accessible at gould.usc.edu/library/search/. It contains records for all of the Law Library’s print and online materials (including sources on Lexis, Westlaw, and other databases) and provides their library locations or online access links. 

The USC Libraries Catalog, accessible at www.usc.edu/libraries, catalogs both print and online materials acquired by all other USC libraries. Libraries at USC with collections of interest to our faculty include Doheny Library and the Library for International & Public Affairs (LIPA). The Doheny Library is the main university library and houses the largest and most diverse collection of all USC libraries. The Library for International & Public Affairs collection is focused on political science, international relations, public affairs, and urban planning materials. 

Research Assistant Library Account: 

Before checking out an item for a professor, ask the Service Counter to create a Research Assistant library account for you. This account will be listed under your professor’s name, so you will need to inform the Service Counter of the name of the professor you are working for. Once you are listed as a research assistant, you may check out anything in the Law Library under that account.

IMPORTANT: If there is a chance you will give an item to your professor, check out the item to your Research Assistant account rather than to your personal account. 

Library Carrel: 

While working as a Research Assistant, you may reserve a carrel in the Law Library (see the Service Counter staff to do so). Materials like bound journals and regular books may be checked out to your carrel, but not reserve items, case reporters, unbound journals or codes. All materials left in the carrel must be checked out to the carrel or they will be reshelved. 

Law Library staff can check out materials from other campus libraries in your professor’s name. To do so, either ask for help at the Service Counter or email the citation to circ@law.usc.edu and indicate whether you will pick up the item at the Service Counter or you would like it delivered to your professor’s office.  

An interactive map showing the locations of the various other USC University Park Campus libraries can be accessed at web-app.usc.edu/maps/ (select “Libraries” on the left side of the screen). 

IMPORTANT: While you can use your USC ID card to check out books from any of the other USC libraries to your personal account, if the item is lost or becomes overdue, you will be held responsible for all fines incurred. Therefore, you should make sure that any item you give to your professor from another USC library has been checked out to the professor’s account rather than to your personal one. 

If an item you need is not available at the USC University Park Campus, the Law Library can submit an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) request to a library that does own the item. The success rate is very high—we find about 98% of the items sought. ILL requests can be for a copy of a journal article or book chapter, or for the loan of a book. Please keep in mind that this process usually takes 1 to 5 days for an article or book chapter and 5 to 14 days for a book. Rare items may take considerably longer. Books are lent for varying periods (from 3 days to 5 weeks), depending on the policy of the lending library. 

ILL email requests should be sent to ill@law.usc.edu. Indicate which professor you are working for and provide the complete citation for each needed item, including (where appropriate) the full title of the book or article, name(s) of the author(s) or editor(s), periodical/journal name, volume number, page number range for an article or chapter, publication year, and edition. If you are requesting just one or two chapters from a book (rather than the entire book), provide both the title and author(s)/editor(s) of the book itself as well as the title(s) and author(s) of the specific chapter(s) you are requesting. 

If you have questions about our ILL procedures or policies, go to lawlibguides.usc.edu/library/ILL to see the Law Library’s Interlibrary Loan Policies, or email ill@law.usc.edu.