LEXIS & WESTLAW REPRESENTATIVE

GUIDELINES FOR WORKING AT THE

CREIGHTON LAW LIBRARY

By Ana Marie Hinman

Last revised 5/3/00

*Feel free to copy this document for your own use as long as credit is given to the author.

These guidelines are designed to help the Lexis and Westlaw Representatives work in the most effective way possible with the Creighton Law Library. Questions about these guidelines may be directed to the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian.

Within the first two weeks of the start of a law school term, please provide the Reference/Automation Librarian with a copy of the company Representative(s) lab schedule. A Law School Calendar is available on the web at http://www.creighton.edu/CULAW/ A copy of the Representative’s work schedule should also be placed in the Law Library Computer Labs, so that lab users will know when a Representative is available for help. It is best if student Representatives can be scheduled to work at least for a short time on Monday mornings, since the Lexis and Westlaw printers get quite a bit of unsupervised use over the weekend. (It is especially appreciated if Representatives can check the printers over the weekend.)

It is expected that the Representatives show up, and be present in the lab, during their posted schedules. However, if for some reason the representative cannot come to the scheduled shift, please contact the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian before the work shift in question. If the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian is not available, please contact the Circulation Desk Supervisor, or the Evening Circulation Desk Supervisor.

Also, please keep the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian appraised of whether the Representative will show up for scheduled work shifts during Law School holidays and breaks.

The law library has timeclock software loaded on a computer near the library cash register. Company Representatives may request that their student Representatives be given a login code on the timeclock computer.

Once the code is given to the student Representative, the student should clock in at the beginning of the shift and clock out when the shift has ended.

This software is very useful in keeping track of work hours, and the Law Library encourages Lexis and Westlaw’s use of this software for their student Representatives.

Reports of the students’ work shifts will be given to the company Representative supervisors upon request and the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian will monitor the timeclock reports to determine if the Representatives have worked their hours as scheduled.

If the Lexis, or Westlaw Representatives wish to have training sessions, those sessions should be scheduled with the Reference/Electronic Services librarian. Sign-ups and flyers regarding these training sessions must also be coordinated with the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian before they are posted and/or distributed.

Law students are required to attend mandatory Lexis and Westlaw training for Legal Research and Legal Writing. In addition, the labs are often used for other training classes and seminars. It is important to coordinate the scheduling and promotion of these training classes with the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian. This helps to avoid scheduling conflicts and confusion about which classes are mandatory and which are optional or which sign-up sheets students should use.

Also, Representatives who are not Creighton Law Students will need to be set up with a special training network login so that they can conduct training sessions using the Internet and Law School Network.

If you wish to set up a table in the downstairs law school hallway to distribute materials, you need to first make arrangements with the law school administration and SBA office. Please notify the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian beforehand regarding what materials you intend to distribute.

Maintaining Lexis and Westlaw printers is a very important concern to the Law Library since the printers are used quite frequently. Please check both the faculty and student printers at least once during your scheduled work shifts.

The faculty Lexis printer is located by the faculty mailbox area. The faculty Westlaw printer is located by the faculty offices in Room #253.

Experience has shown that the Lexis and Westlaw printers are best maintained when each have a back-up supply of at least 10 reams of paper unpacked, and located next to the printers. Please check to make sure that the printers have enough paper by them during your scheduled shifts. During peak usage periods Representatives may need to place a larger back-up paper supply by the printers.

Also, during each scheduled shift, please organize the print-outs that have not yet been picked up by students. Print-outs over 4 days old may be recycled. Please do not recycle print-outs that are less than 4 days old.

Lexis and Westlaw printer paper and toner cartridges are kept in the Computer Supply Room #144. Keys for this supply room and for the downstairs Kutak Computer Lab cupboards are kept at the Law Library Circulation desk. The keys may be checked out at the Circulation Desk. (Be sure to turn in your library books on-time. If your library card is blocked due to overdue books, you will not be able to check out the keys and handle the necessary supplies.)

Please monitor the printer supplies and make sure to order additional supplies when they are getting low. It is helpful if you notify the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian when you have ordered additional supplies, so that duplicate orders are not placed.

When you change a toner cartridge, you should sign-out for it according to the procedures posted in the Computer Supply Room. By using the sign-out sheet, you will be helping our Library keep track of supply statistics.

Print-outs that are over 4 days old should be placed in the recycling bins. Do not recycle print-outs that are less than 4 days old.

Please check during each work shift to see if there are Lexis and/or Westlaw cartridges in the Computer Supply Room on the marked "recycling" shelf. Please seal the boxes and place them in the library mail area for pick-up.

The main Computer Supply Room is Room #144. Shelves for Lexis and Westlaw materials are marked. Please use only the areas marked to store Lexis and Westlaw supplies.

There are some specially marked shelves for new Lexis and Westlaw shipments. Please check these shelves on each of your work shifts to see if there are any new shipments. Lexis and Westlaw literature and software should be unpacked and placed in the Kutak Computer Lab cupboards. Normally, there should be no need to lock the cupboards. But, if there are special promotional items, such as mugs, T-shirts, or pens, etc. representatives should probably lock those up in the cupboards to ensure that lab users do not "help themselves" to them.

It is important to unpack literature and software when these items are moved to the cupboards because approximately 20 different library staff persons will need to access those cupboards and locate the needed literature and/or software. It is much easier to identify the appropriate items when they are unpacked.

It is expected that during a Representative’s scheduled shifts, the Representative will be in the appropriate computer lab.

The Lexis Representative(s) should be in Room 205.

The Westlaw Representative(s) should be in Room 204.

Both of the upstairs labs have a small black file cabinet. The Lexis Representatives may store materials in the small black cabinet in Room 205, and the Westlaw Representatives may store materials in the small black file cabinet in Room 204.

If the Representative needs to leave the designated lab during a scheduled shift, please notify the Circulation Deskworker. This way, if students come looking for the Representative the library will have an explanation as to the Representative’s whereabouts.

Passwords and software are distributed to the first year students in their required Legal Research class. Please do not distribute software or passwords to first year students before this process takes place in Legal Research class.

Typically, the first year students pick up any Lexis/Westlaw software or literature that they want and their passwords at the Reference Desk from the Reference Librarians. During this distribution period it would be very helpful if as soon as new database lists and/or directories of online services are received, notice is given to the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian. All of the Reference Librarians and the Reference Desk itself should receive a new copy. Additional copies of these new materials should be placed in the labs. It is helpful to mark the room numbers on these guides.

Please do not leave Lexis or Westlaw materials in the labs without first checking with the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian.

Do not distribute materials to students, faculty, library staff, or law school staff via e-mail, print, flyers, mailboxes, or any other method without first clearing the distribution with the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian.

Rooms 204 and 205 have specially designated bulletin boards for each company. Please post information ONLY on those bulletin boards.

It is helpful if information posted on those bulletin boards is more education-oriented rather than marketing-oriented.

The Reference/Electronic Services Librarian reserves the right to remove information from all of the lab bulletin boards.

Creighton Law School has a printing quota program. Students are allowed 300 free print-outs per regular school term.

Since law student Representatives are likely to need to make print-outs for Lexis and Westlaw flyers and other documents, arrangements should be made with Lexis and Westlaw to reimburse the student Representatives.

If representatives are asked by Library staff members to print documents, such as work schedules to post in the labs, the student Representative should see the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian to have his or her account credited. All other Lexis and Westlaw work-related printing must be reimbursed through Lexis or Westlaw. Print-outs may be purchased from a library staff member at the Circulation Desk. Please check with the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian for scheduled times when print-outs are available for purchase.

Please do not send out e-mails regarding Lexis or Westlaw to all of the law students and/or law faculty without first checking with the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian.

From time to time, a law student prints out an excessive number of Lexis or Westlaw documents. If you encounter this problem, please temporarily store the print-out in the Computer Supply Room and notify the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian. The Reference/Electronic Services Librarian will contact the student in question. Representatives may also contact students about excessive printing issues, but experience has unfortunately shown that students are more likely to heed the warnings of a full-time law school staff-person rather than a fellow student.

No food and no drinks, no matter what the container, are allowed in the computer labs. If a library student employee is caught with food or drink in any of the labs, on or off duty, it is considered grounds for that employee’s immediate dismissal.

Even though the Representatives are not library employees, violations of the food and drink policy by Representatives will be taken very seriously.

Usually Lexis and Westlaw send huge shipments of software and documentation to the Law Library late in the summer just before Fall semester starts.

While it is understandable that Lexis and Westlaw wish to send updates regarding their products before the new school year begins, the shipments come at a very inconvenient time for the law library. Usually at this time there are very few student workers or lab monitors available to help move the boxes around. Often, student Representatives are not around to help with these large shipments either.

These large shipments result in piles of boxes being stacked by delivery personnel in front of library staff members work areas, and usually need to be moved right away.

To the extent it is possible to schedule student Representatives to help unpack and move these large shipments to their appropriate locations in the supply rooms and cupboards, it is greatly appreciated. Also, it is helpful to have advance warning as to when the shipments will arrive and what sorts of things the shipments will contain.

Usually these shipments contain new software and documentation with which the librarians must become familiar before the Fall semester begins, and which must be distributed to all of the incoming first year students within a few weeks. As a result, it is also very helpful if Representatives can count how many items of each type have been received, so that the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian can determine whether there are enough of each sort of item to distribute to the incoming first year students.

Sometimes students will ask not only Lexis and Westlaw questions, but they will ask other computing questions about things like e-mail, CALI exercises, and word processing. When this happens, Representatives should refer lab users to a Lab Monitor, or the Reference/Automation Librarian, or the Law School Network Administrator for assistance.

If these individuals are not available, tell the student to send a detailed description of the problem to support@culaw.creighton.edu As soon as computing support staff person is available, he or she will work on the problem

At certain points in the school year there can be high usage periods for Lexis and Westlaw. For example, when Legal Writing and Legal Research projects are due, the labs are quite busy and more paper should be stocked in the labs. Also, Moot Court competitions create a high usage period. Sometimes, professors use products like Twen, and students will need more help using that product.

If students forget their password(s), copies of Lexis and Westlaw password lists are kept at the Reference Desk.

In the middle to late Spring Semester it is a good idea to notify students of how to extend their passwords for summer usage. Please coordinate your efforts to notify students of this process with the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian.

Sometimes a handy way to communicate with Library Staff members is by using the Library Staff mailboxes. These mailboxes are located by the Library Staff photocopier.

However, e-mail is typically the quickest method to send a message to a Library Staff member.

When hiring student Representatives, please feel free to ask for the Library Staff’s input. We are familiar with many of the students, and can help with the hiring process.

Occasionally inclement weather forces Creighton University to close. In order to determine if Creighton University, and hence the Law Library, is closed, call the University Weather Hotline (XXX-XXX-XXXX).

If the University is open, the Law Library will expect the Representatives to show up for scheduled shifts and/or training. So, if the weather will prohibit a Representative from showing up, and the University is open according to the hotline recording, please contact the Reference/Electronic Services Librarian.

Creighton Law Library

2500 California Plaza

Omaha, NE 68178

402-280-2242

402-280-2244

402-280-5800

402-280-XXXX

(e-mail address)

402-280-XXXX

(e-mail address)

402-280-XXXX

(e-mail address)

402-280-XXXX

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402-280-XXXX

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Prof. Kay Andrus

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