Jury Notes

No Course Reserves at UNH Law Library for Fall 2020 & publisher discounts (updated)

I hope you are all doing well and staying safe!

The UNH Law Library has an important message for you regarding Course Reserves

UNH LAW LIBRARY WILL NOT HAVE COURSE RESERVES THIS FALL 2020 SEMESTER

As UNH Law Library faculty and staff prepare for the Fall 2020 Semester, we need to urgently share with you that due to safety concerns around COVID-19 developments, UNH Law Library will NOT offer physical course reserves services – including casebooks – for the Fall 2020 semester.  We are also not able to offer digital/electronic access to traditional casebooks. While the stacks will not be closed, we will encourage you to use the hold/pick up feature in the UNH Library’s search.  Instructions for using this new system will be forthcoming.

It is VITALLY IMPORTANT that you purchase your own casebooks and other required readings this year.  We have been working with our vendors to provide discounts to students.

• West Academic – West Academic has a school discount code for students of 15% discount off all titles (print and ebook format) on the web store at https://www.westacademic.com
  • use the discount code, shared with you in the July 23rd email to all students, at checkout.  All ebooks are currently discounted 25% off the print price.  The 15% discount would be an additional discount on top of that.
• 1L students - Wolters Kluwer/Aspen – “Book In A Box” for 1L students through the UNH Bookstore in Durham – 35% discount.  CasebookConnect.com access will still be included at no additional cost when available.  1L students must order their books from the http://law.unh.bncollege.com website and can have it shipped to which ever address they would like. Students should not travel to Durham to the bookstore. Due to the social distancing measures there may be long lines to enter the store. The bookstore is offering Free Standard shipping with the discounted price. 
• NEW! Upper level students - Wolters Kluwer/Aspen -  Wolters Kluwer/Aspen is offering 40% off ebook titles on their website (www.wklegaledu.com) for Casebook Connect ebooks. Please note that not all of their titles, and especially Upper Level books, are found within CasebookConnect (our ebook platform).  If there isn't an option for CasebookConnect then there is no discount.  
• NEW! Carolina Academic Press – Offers a 10% discount and free shipping from the CAP website - https://cap-press.com/  - this includes Lexis Publishing books as well. 

We have also been working with our wonderful law faculty to adopt, where possible, books that UNH Law already has wide access to via online subscription (PLI Discover/ELangdell books by CALI), or to use casebooks that can be purchased used or rented or using non-traditional but lower cost materials.  In the alternative your faculty member may have also included the case name/citation of cases in your syllabus so you can access the case from Westlaw or Lexis. 

Financial Need

If you are in a financial bind and need some help in purchasing your books please note that you can work with our Financial Aid office to expand your budget to cover expenses relating to buying books and other expenses.  There is also a fund you can apply to for assistance with academic costs including expenses relating to buying required books.

• Student Emergency Fund (contact Dan Cwyner for more information).

We will also be working to identify and purchase electronic copies of required, non-casebook materials that have an unlimited license or are DRM free.  

In the past we have purchased one copy of each required book for the library’s Course Reserve Collection and circulated it at 3 hour intervals.  The scientific advice is to quarantine materials.  The virus is reported to be active on paper materials (including print books) between 24 hours and 3 days (depending on the virus mutation).  The Law Library intends to quarantine materials for 3 days prior to reshelving.

For the bulk of the circulating collection we have developed a quarantine process for all returned or recently accessed physical materials returned to the circulation desk or put on a book truck.  These processes align with the latest Covid-19 related best practices and the latest data in the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) field, which make short-term (hourly, daily) loans for print materials prohibitive.  (ReALM, 2020).

Due to the speed of Course Reserves and the length of the quarantine we cannot safely provide traditional access to print course materials this Fall 2020 Semester.

Thank you for your understanding.