ZiefBrief

Westlaw's Summer and Post-Grad Access Policies

Unlike Lexis Advance and Bloomberg Law, Westlaw continues to impose restrictions on students' use of academic accounts for legal research associated with intern/externships, summer associate positions, and clerking. Westlaw restricts access for those law students who do not register for summer access.

If you are a 1L or 2L, you may register for unlimited summer access to Westlaw ONLY if you are engaged in the following activities:  

1) working as a research assistant for a faculty member;

2) taking a summer law school class or participating in a study abroad program;

3) participating in law review or moot court activities, including write-on competitions;

4) working in an unpaid externship or internship.  

If you're graduating in May 2014, you can register for extended access to Westlaw. According to Westlaw, graduates who register for access can use Westlaw for six months following graduation.  Graduating students will receive a Westlaw email with details on post-grad access this week.

Unrestricted Summer Access to Lexis Advance (Including Post-Grad Access)

Lexis just announced that 1L and 2L law students will be able to use Lexis Advance for any purpose this summer for an unlimited amount of time.  You may use your Lexis Advance academic account for work research projects regardless of the type of organization in which you work.  

If you are graduating in May 2014, please note that you must register if you wish to have continued calendar year access to Lexis Advance after graduation.  You must register for post-bar access before your Lexis Advance ID expires on July 31, 2014. It's worthwhile to register for this access because you can use Lexis Advance through December 31, 2014 to assist with your job search.  

Changes Coming to Lexis Advance February 17

Lexis will be introducing some upgrades to Lexis Advance, which should be available to all USF Law patrons on the morning of Monday, February 10.  UPDATE:  Lexis now indicates that the enhancements will be available on Monday, February 17.

Here is a description of the changes that are being made to improve Lexis Advance:

Access to Law360 Content:  Law school customers will have access to Law360 materials beginning the week of February 24.

Source Selection Upgrades:

• Instead of forcing users to navigate to the separate "Browse Sources" web page to find an individual source to search, you can enter the name of the source in the search box on the home page, and Lexis Advance will allow you to select that source from the home page.  For example, if you want to search the Matthew Bender practice guide, California Criminal Defense Practice, you can enter this title in the home page search box, and it should pop up as a source.  

Search Upgrades:

• Natural Language Changes: enhancements to search algorithm and default to top results.
• Boolean Language Changes: no difference between upper and lower case search connectors.
• No More Persistent Pre-Search Filters: the pre-search filters that you can select on the home page (Content Type, Jurisdiction, and Practice Areas) will default to the “All”  setting after each logout once the upgrade is completed.
• Segment Searching in News: available segments will now include cite, company, hlead, headline, term, title, publication, section, and publication-type
• Additional Dockets Filters: including Litigation Area, Litigants, Cause, Case Status, and Case Type.
• Filter by Practice Area in Browse Sources

If you have questions about any of these changes, contact a research librarian.

Accessing Lexis Advance and Lexis.com

At the end of June, Lexis deactivated all USF Law Lexis.com usernames and passwords and now requires all academic users to sign in with a Lexis Advance ID and password.  If you have questions about how to access Lexis materials following this transition, Lexis has furnished this YouTube video to guide you through the new process.  The video also explains which lexis.com content is no longer available.  You can always contact the USF Law Lexis representative to troubleshoot any Lexis access problems:  Alicia Luchetti, at alicia.luchetti@lexisnexis.com

NEW: Extended Westlaw Access for May 2013 Grads

Our Westlaw representative, Mark Cygnet, just announced that Westlaw has decided to extend access to Westlaw for graduating students through November 2013.  May 2013 graduates must extend their passwords on the Westlaw law school home page by May 30 -- if you don't extend by this date, you will not receive access through November.  Here are more details:

Graduates who extend their password will receive access to WestlawNext and Westlaw Classic through November 2013 instead of just through July.  The exact number of monthly access hours is not available, but is at least 40 hours per month.

Graduating students who have already extended their access don’t have to do anything further to get the extension through November.  There’s a link to the extension site in an  e-mail sent to graduating students.  Students may also click the “Need Westlaw this Summer?” ad on lawschool.westlaw.com. 

Summer Job Research Survival Guide from Westlaw

Westlaw has created a website specifically for summer associates.  Although some of the material is designed exclusively for students working at firms, the website content will be useful to law students working in a variety of settings. Law students will find lots of research guides and tutorials covering both WestlawNext and Classic Westlaw.  One of the guides even covers cost-effective research.

Free Westlaw Printing Ends on June 30

We've been sending out periodic reminders about the demise of free Westlaw printing at law schools across the United States, and we're just two months away from the end of free Westlaw printing on our campus.  Free Westlaw printing for USF Law students, faculty, and staff will end on June 30.  You can still print documents from Classic Westlaw and WestlawNext, but you will now have to print those documents using your own printer or a printer at the school.  Here are a few tips on using Westlaw's folders and your search history to make this transition a little easier:

Unlimited Online Folders

There’s no limit to how many documents you can store in WestlawNext folders. Unlike printed documents, foldered documents are continually updated. In a WestlawNext folder, you’ll be able to see instantly if a yellow-flagged case has turned red. You can also share your WestlawNext folders with your USF colleagues and professors, reducing the need to email large files.

One-Year History

Remember that every search you’ve run and every full-text document you’ve viewed over the previous 12 months is automatically recorded on WestlawNext. That means even material you did not permanently store in a folder can be easily re-accessed for a year.

 

 

 

Westlaw Summer Use Restrictions

As in previous years, Westlaw is limiting law students' summer access to Westlaw and WestlawNext.  In a few weeks, Westlaw's home page, lawschool.westlaw.com, will display a link allowing students to register for summer access. You must register yourself for summer access.  Westlaw only allows summer access registration for students who fit the following categories:

Westlaw offers extensions of your educational password for summer classes, journal work, projects for faculty, moot court, unpaid/non-profit public interest internships or externships, or a pro bono project that is required for graduation. There is no password extension for any paid work (including work paid by stipend) or for work in the courts or for the government (even if unpaid). Students in paid positions (or who work for the government) should consult their employers about obtaining Westlaw access. Recent graduates can also extend their passwords to obtain additional hours of research time for bar exam study. If you qualify for a summer extension of your Westlaw password, log into http://lawschool.westlaw.com and look for the link to extend on the welcome screen. 

 

Lexis Advance Available Without Restriction Over Summer

Lexis announced last week that Lexis Advance will be available to all law students without any restrictions this summer.  In the past, Lexis and Westlaw have restricted summer access to students taking classes, working for a journal or for a professor, or working in an externship for course credit.  These restrictions do not apply to Lexis Advance during Summer 2013.  If you are a USF Law student and have not yet registered for Lexis Advance, please contact our representative, Alicia Luchetti, at alicia.luchetti@lexisnexis.com, for assistance with registration.  

WestlawNext Tip: Folder Descriptions

WestlawNext now allows users to add descriptions to folders -- from the latest newsletter:

You can now add descriptions—up to 250 characters each—to folders, subfolders, and saved documents in WestlawNext. While viewing your folders, hover your mouse over the folder or document name, click the Add Description icon that is displayed, type a description (e.g., leading cases—cite in Johnson brief!) in the text box, and click Save.