Finding Books
When seeking a book, first search the Vanderbilt Library Catalog to determine whether VU Libraries hold the item.
Though the law library home pages offers a simple search box that you may use to search for items by title, your search will often retrieve more precise results if you utilize the additional fields and pre-search filters provided in the Advanced Search form. To launch the Advanced Search form, select the link beneath the simple search box.
When searching for books, considering searching both the Title and Author/Creator field, and filtering by Material Type to Books (to exclude items such as book reviews published in periodicals).
A few notes about searching the catalog:
- Not "Google-like": The catalog search tool is not "Google-like," in that it will not typically suggest alternatives to your search terms when a term is misspelled or terms are rearranged. As such, if your search returns no results, or returns irrelevant results, check the citation information you have against the title and author information provided by the publisher (or a book retailer on the web) to ensure accuracy.
- Foreign Language Titles: Books published in languages other than English may be cataloged using the foreign title, the English language title, or both. If a search using the the title in one language returns no results, try another known iteration.
Vanderbilt holds many titles in electronic format, and as patrons increasingly access resources remotely, the university continues to expand its e-book collection.
To access e-books, select the link with the catalog record for the item provided under "View Online" "Full-text availability." This link will launch the e-book in a separate tab, and prompt users to enter their VUNetID and password to gain access.
When sharing e-book resource information with colleagues (ex. when another staff member will be using the title as a later date for cite-checking), considering providing the permalink to the catalog record (circled in the screenshot above), rather than the URL in your browser from an open e-book or the permalink to the title provided by the publisher. The latter URLs may not include Vanderbilt proxy information, whereas the library catalog record is a stable VU resource from which users should always be prompted to authenticate their VU affiliation.
E-book access restrictions: Restrictions on e-book utilization are imposed by the vendors/publishers, not by Vanderbilt. Vendors may limit the number of users who can access an e-book at a given time, or restrict whether and/or how much content users may download for offline use.
Students at Vanderbilt Law School may charge circulating items from all campus libraries (not just the law library) and the university annex. See the Library Hours page for a list of current hours for all campus libraries. When a student identifies a print book held at a campus library they may visit that library, pull the item from the stacks, and charge the item to the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law account (rather than their personal student account). (If a library staff member at another campus library has difficulty locating the journal account, students may charge the item to their personal account, and the law library circulation staff can later transfer the item to the journal account.) Place print books on the VJTL shelf on the law library mezzanine level near the stairs leading to the Tarkington Suite:
- Law students may also request, via the catalog record, print books for loan from the law library (though it will oftentimes be faster for students to pull the items themselves during the academic term, particularly on evenings and weekends). During the summer the library offers scanning services for pages and chapters of titles available in the law collection, but does not offer scanning of pages or chapters in books held in the law library when classes are in session.
- Law students can also request, via the catalog record, books from other campus libraries and/or scanning services for chapters or pages from items at other campus libraries. Print items requested from other campus libraries can be routed for patrons to the law library via campus mail, but this typically takes 3-5 days, and it likewise may take several days for staff to process scanning requests. As such, during the academic terms students may retrieve items more quickly by visiting those campus libraries to pull the material.
Requesting items via the catalog:
Log in to the catalog by selecting option to sign in > Non-VUNETID > enter VJTL credentials > select request link from item record.
- Username: Trans-Law
- Password: ILLVJTL2023
If you are unable to locate a print or electronic copy of a book in Vanderbilt's collections, you may wish, before placing an ILL request, to determine whether there is a free electronic version of the book available online. Some older works or government publications are in the public domain (i.e. no longer protected by copyright) and have been digitized and posted on the web. A simple Google search for a title may lead the researcher to a reputable open-access source. For more targeted searches, consider the follow sources:
- Google Books
- HathiTrust: Many research libraries contribute digitized content to the HathiTrust, and the collection includes thousands of full-text books. Access the platform via our Databases A-Z list.
- Library of Congress: The Library of Congress has digitized a number of its collections, including certain U.S. historical legal material, and some foreign gazettes.
- Publisher webpages: Authors, particularly of academic works, will occasionally decide to make electronic versions of their books available for free on the publisher's webpage. It is likewise not unusual to find publications produced by intergovernmental or nongovernmental organizations available for download on their websites.
For books that are not available at Vanderbilt, or via open access resources on the web, utilize Interlibrary Loan. Note that if you request via ILL an item that is, in fact, available at Vanderbilt, your request will be canceled. You may use ILL to request an entire book, or a chapter/page range. Lending periods for books borrowed via ILL are determined by the lending institution and are typically shorter than the lending periods available for VU items.
