Dissertation prep: resources for writing dissertations

Posted on February 16, 2024 by lawlibrarian

Did you know the library has a list of resources that can help you get started with big research projects such as dissertations? You may feel a bit overwhelmed about how to begin, but the library team have helpfully compiled a Resource List of books, guidance and articles that we think will ensure you feel more confident:

Law Dissertation (UG)

Law Dissertation (PG)

Resource Lists are clickable pages of bookmarks that link directly to items in our library catalogue, many of which you can access online. Most courses will have prescribed Resource Lists that indicate the reading for your modules, and students tell us they find them helpful and easy to use. PG Students will also find this list linked in the Learn pages for PG dissertation students.

If this is your first time conducting a large research project, you may find the session we run each semester for PhD students in Law to be of interest. You can watch a recording of this session on our Media Hopper channel here:

Finally if you’re struggling to get to grips with literature searching then you can arrange a one-to-one appointment with us, your Law Librarian team. Visit the MyEd Events Booking system and look for ‘literature search clinic’ and select the option relating to Law. We offer appointments most weeks, and if you can’t see a bookable slot that suits you please email us on law.librarian@ed.ac.uk.

Academic writing help: Royal Literary Fund Fellow

Posted on January 26, 2024 by lawlibrarian

Photo by @Aspen on nappy.co

Are you a student who is struggling with academic writing? Are you a staff member who knows of a student who isn’t quite getting the hang of writing at University level?

Perhaps you need to book an appointment with our Royal Literary Fund Fellow. Mary Paulson-Ellis is a well-respected expert in the field of writing, and has been a writing mentor, workshop leader, tutor and writer-in-residence for many organisations including the National Centre for Writing, the National Galleries of Scotland and the Edinburgh International Festival. She is also a committee member for the Society of Authors in Scotland, and student feedback from her first semester working at Edinburgh has been enthusiastically positive. She specialises in helping students in any discipline hone their writing skills and she does this by arranging one-to-one appointments with students in the Main Library.

The service is free, confidential and individual to each student’s needs. To find out more about the service you can visit our RLFF page, or to book an appointment please email Mary directly.

Library Tours for Staff 2024

Posted on January 19, 2024 by lawlibrarian

Are you a new or existing staff member who would like to find out more about the University’s libraries?

Join an Academic Support Librarian on a 20 to 30-minute in-person tour of one of our ten Library sites. Find out about key library services including EdHelp, borrowing, printing, and study spaces. Discover the general print collections at the Library and explore the subjects covered. These tours are suitable for staff in all roles across the university and staff can visit as many of our libraries as they wish.

The currently scheduled dates are listed below. To book a tour, visit Event Booking.

Schedule of library tours:

Main Library

22 January @ 09:30, 6 February @ 10:30, 6 March @ 14:00, 2 April @ 10:30, 8 May @ 14:00, 12 June @ 14:00 (additional tours to be confirmed)

Art and Architecture Library

5 March @ 09:15

Edinburgh College of Art Library

6 February @ 09:15, 9 April @ 09:15, 7 May @ 09:15, 11 June @ 09:15

Law Library

12 February @ 10:00, 21 March @ 11:00 (additional tours to be confirmed, or email law.librarian@ed.ac.uk for more info).

Moray House Library

25 Jan @ 11:00, 22 Feb @ 11:00, 21 Mar @ 11:00, 25 Apr @ 11:00, 23 May @ 11:00, 20 June @ 11:00

Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library

14 Feb @ 15:00 (additional tours to be confirmed)

New College Library

30 Jan @ 16:00, 27 Feb @ 16:00, 26 Mar @ 16:00 (additional tours to be confirmed)

Royal Infirmary Library

26 Jan @ 10:00, 7 Feb @ 10:00, 26 March @ 09:30 (additional tours to be confirmed)

The Lady Smith of Kelvin Veterinary Library

24 Jan @ 14:00 (additional tours to be confirmed)

Western General Hospital Library

25 Jan @ 10:00, 19 Mar @ 12:30, 22 May @ 13:00

Welcome to Week One!

Posted on September 20, 2023 by lawlibrarian

Hello, and if you’re a new student joining us for the 2023/24 academic year we look forward to meeting you in the Law Library soon!

We are Anna Richards and SarahLouise McDonald, and we are your Law Librarians. Anna works the first half of the week, SarahLouise the second, and you can reach us both by email on law.librarian@ed.ac.uk at any time.

Photos of Anna and SarahLouise (L-R). The background is formed of a white space with black and blue geometric shapes behind the photos.

You may have already met us at one of the several induction sessions we’ve been running over the past week or two. If you missed them you can find recordings on the Law Librarian Media Hopper Channel:

The slides for each session are added as ‘attachments’ to the videos above. Please note that captions are automatically generated and we’ll endeavour to get them corrected over the coming month.

One session which wasn’t recorded was the Diploma Welcome to the Library session which was delivered face-to-face. If you’re a Diploma student you should already have access to the slides via your Learn pages, but if not you can find them here: Law – Diploma induction 2023.

If you’re looking for information on using the physical library, we recommend you check out the Law Library webpages and take a look at our Virtual Orientation Guide (Microsoft Sway document – other formats are available by request). We hope that you’ll get in touch with either ourselves or our colleagues on the library helpdesk by contacting EdHelp if you have any queries. See you in the library!

Dissertation Support: Referencing for Law

Posted on March 10, 2023 by lawlibrarian

We’ve set up another date for our popular ‘Referencing for Law’ session, which is always well attended by UG and PG students alike. If you are not familiar with referencing law materials, this is the session for you! We’ll cover:

Why we reference and the definition of plagiarism
How to use reference systems in assessed work
What to include in a reference list for OSCOLA
An assessment of how reference manager software works with OSCOLA
Hints and tips to make referencing easier

The all-important date for this is Wednesday 5th April, 10am-11am.

The session will be held online using Blackboard Collaborate, with a link to the session provided on the event page and also in reminder emails. The seminar will last just under an hour with time for questions built in. It will be recorded and uploaded to the Law Librarian Resources Media Hopper Channel for access asynchronously afterwards; slides and a link to the recording will be sent out after the event. Please book a place via the MyEd Events Booking system.

Two highlighters are placed in the centre of an open book. A pair of glasses are also resting on one of the pages.

We understand this is a little late for UG students whose dissertations are due in the next few weeks, but don’t despair! If this is you, we recommend you take a look at the materials you can access at any time here:

Referencing for Law – April 2023 – UPDATED! Recording of session from 5th April, replacing the previous video from October 2021.
Referencing playlist on Law Librarian Media Hopper Channel – includes demo videos of using Endnote to insert references.
Law Subject Guide: Page on referencing and plagiarism – includes links to loads of useful resources to help with referencing
OSCOLA guide – the official 61 page guide to the current 4th edition of the OSCOLA referencing system. Many students’ questions can be answered by careful perusing of this guide, or alternatively checking the Cite Them Right database.

If you’ve read and watched all of the above but are still struggling, just get in touch by email: law.librarian@ed.ac.uk.

Finding key resources: Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia

Posted on January 5, 2023 by lawlibrarian

For those rejoining us in January for Semester Two, welcome back! For those who are new to the Law School or just this blog, welcome! This is where we report news, updates and offer tips for training in library resources. The blog is currently written by SarahLouise, the Law Librarian who works Wednesdays to Fridays, as we have a vacancy for the other half of the post. We hope to have a new Law Librarian joining the team over the next few months and will introduce them when they start!

We’ve received quite a few queries about locating some key resources for research and study over the last few months so we wanted to clarify how best to access these. First up, the Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia. This is a resource which is core for our undergraduate students as they get to grips with Scots Law. We do have instructions listed on the Law Databases Help & Training page under ‘Resources for Scottish Legal System’, but we wanted to add some screenshots here for the visual learners.

To log in to Lexis+, you will need to select ‘academic log in’. You may then be presented with a dropdown box to select ‘UK Access Federation’. Select ‘University of Edinburgh’ from the list, and you will be logged in. Alternatively you may have the option to select ‘University of Edinburgh from the front page – do this if available!

Screengrab of login page for LexisLibrary/Lexis+. The words 'use academic sign in' and 'university of edinburgh' have been highlighted in yellow to indicate areas to click on.

You may be asked to log in with your UUN at this stage if you’re not on-campus. Use your usual student ID and password.
In the middle panel in the centre of the page, select ‘content’ from the navigation menu.

Screengrab of main panel when logged in to Lexis+. In the central pane there are a number of links across a navigational bar, and in this image the link to 'content' is highlighted in yellow.

The resource will be one of the first items listed as ‘Halsburys Laws and Stair’. Click this.
Then you will see a link to Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia. Click the title, and use the plus and minus boxes to navigate through to find the section you need.
If you want to, use the pushpin icon near the title to add this to your pinned sources. This bookmarking tool means that a shortcut will appear under ‘My Sources’ on the main panel when you log in to Lexis in future, which will save you a few steps.

Screengrab of the contents page of the Stair ebook is shown. There is a pushpin icon in the top right of the image which has been highlighted in yellow.

Screengrab of main panel of Lexis+ again, this time with 'My Sources' selected. Below the navigational bar the direct link to the Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia is highlighted in yellow.

We hope this is helpful. If you have a resource you’d like a little more advice on accessing, please let us know by email (law.librarian@ed.ac.uk) or by commenting on this post.

Meet your LexisNexis Student Associate for 2022/23!

Posted on December 16, 2022 by lawlibrarian

You may have seen that we’ve featured LexisNexis quite a lot on the blog this semester, due to the launch of their new platform, Lexis+. We’ve provided a fair bit of information about how to access items and how to get further training, but one person we have yet to mention is your Student Associate, Olivia Riddell. Lexis employ Olivia to provide peer support for students at the University of Edinburgh who want to work with Lexis and use it for their studies or research. We had a quick word with her to ask her more about what her role entails:

Tell us a little bit about yourself! Who are you and what do you study at Edinburgh?

My name is Olivia, and I am a fourth-year law student at Edinburgh. I am from the North of England but wanted to study at Edinburgh as a bid to broaden my horizons. It has been nice to experience the quieter life and scenery that Scotland offers before accessing work opportunities in the City.

Why did you apply to be the student representative for LexisNexis?

I wanted to have experience related to law. My previous experience working in retail taught me soft skills and resilience, but this role has truly developed other areas needed in a professional capacity such as marketing strategies, proactiveness and negotiations. This is especially necessary if students want to harness their skills in preparation for a role requiring good capacity of leadership and business relations. It also challenges me personally. For example, it has improved my confidence (in reaching out to students, and teaching sessions) and stretched my ability to form professional networks with students in the law school, and with faculty staff.

What do you think is the best feature that Lexis offers for students in the Law School?

The ability to type in key words and find related journal articles and added references for essays. It enables you to find related sources that have an affinity with your argument or essay title meaning your assignment will be much stronger based on accuracy and relevancy.

When students book a training session with you, what can they expect to get from the meeting?

There are different types of sessions. I will be organising certification sessions (Foundation and Advanced) which will enhance your professional profile and experience. These downloadable and professional certificates will make you stand out, and you can showcase these on LinkedIn. In addition, I will be running assignment training in December 2022 and Easter 2023 to ensure you know how to use LexisNexis to help in your upcoming assignments. In semester two, I will also be conducting commercial awareness sessions in 2023 to help with future internship and vacation scheme placement applications, and how you can access such material on the LexisNexis site.

You can reach Olivia by email with any queries or training requests: s1925406@ed.ac.uk.

If you need help with any other databases or would like to discuss other available training please let the law librarian team know by email: law.librarian@ed.ac.uk.

BOO-lean operators

Posted on November 10, 2022 by lawlibrarian

We know Hallowe’en was last week, but saw this on Twitter and it’s too good not to share! If you’ve ever wondered what library staff (and mathematicians and engineers and many other professions) talk about when they mention Boolean operators or logic gates, this handy infographic from @38mo1 may help!

Traditionally search engines and databases used Boolean operators along with keywords to help you search more constructively. Some (like Google) now accept natural language searching, but many academic or technical databases still require you to search in this format.

For example, if you search on DiscoverEd:

“Property Law” OR Servitudes: 70,745 results.
“Property Law” NOT Servitudes: 57,500 results.
“Property Law” AND Servitudes: 154 results.

Those little connecting words can make all the difference!

For more help with searching, watch this short video (9 minutes) about Search Techniques on our Law Librarian Media Hopper Channel. Unfortunately pumpkins not included.

Lexis+ database training: LexisNexis Certification

Posted on October 21, 2022 by lawlibrarian

You may remember last week we posted a reminder about the Lexis+ training we had scheduled. That training took place yesterday and those that attended found it very helpful, so we’re putting the recording and information about how to get certified with LexisNexis up here too.

LexisNexis offers four levels of certification for students in the UK – Foundation level for England and Wales, Foundation level for Scotland, Advanced level for England and Wales, Advanced level for Scotland. Our students can pick whichever is the most relevant for them, or complete all of them if they want to collect the set!

First, you’ll need to watch the Foundation level training video (recorded yesterday by Claire Black of Lexis UK). You can find that on our Media Hopper Channel or by clicking the image below.

Next you will need to log in to Lexis+. The best way to do this is using the link on the Law databases page; it currently says ‘LexisLibrary’ but I’m in the process of getting that updated to Lexis+. If when you’re logged in you arrive at the screen that says ‘Nexis’ at the top of the page, click the nine dots in a square next to the Lexis logo, and you should be able to click ‘Lexis+ UK’ instead.

Then Claire has provided the following instructions:

Make sure you are logged in to Lexis+ through the University – you will need to use the site to answer the questions.
In a new tab or window, access the LexisNexis Student Hub: https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/law-students/overview.html
Register your details – your choice whether to choose university or personal email. It gives you access thereafter if you need to retake the test or want to do other certifications. Course end date is the date you intend to graduate.
Once registered, scroll down the page to where it says ‘Get Certified’ and choose Lexis+ UK Legal Research Certification (there is the option for the Practical Guidance one, but given access to practice areas can vary, it’s probably safer to stick to research)
You will then see a page which lists 6 steps to being certified. Scroll past this to the bottom and there are 4 options: Foundation and Advanced Certifications for either England and Wales, or Scotland.
You will then enter your email address (which allows you to come back later and will allow you to retake the test if necessary)
15 multiple choice questions which are completely randomised. 13/15 correct to pass. You must use Lexis+ to answer the questions.
You can take the test as many times as you need to pass.
Certificate will be emailed to you upon passing within 24 hours.

Our thanks to Claire and all at Lexis for making sure our students are well trained and well prepared for legal research! Good luck to anyone choosing to take one of the Certification tests. If you encounter any issues please let us know on law.librarian@ed.ac.uk.

Information skills throughout the year

Posted on October 7, 2022 by lawlibrarian

If you read our last post, you’ll have heard all about the top information we like our students to have early in the semester; about inductions and key resources we want to make sure you can access. Now we’re a few weeks in we’ve had some more questions about what we have coming up next.

We have made up two documents here (one for undergraduate students, one for postgraduate students) which outlines the key training events we’ll be offering during 2022/23. This includes some law specific materials and some training that is open to all UoE students. Click on the documents below to download the PDF you need:

Information Skills sessions for Law (UG)

Information Skills sessions for Law (PG)

We’ll write more about specific training sessions nearer each event but in the mean time we hope this is useful. If you want to get in touch to discuss any library or research related questions, you can always reach us via law.librarian@ed.ac.uk.

Hardback books which are open and stacked on top of each other.

Image from Moritz320 via Pixabay

Law Librarian

Academic Support Librarians for staff & students in the School of Law blogging on Library resources, services and skills.

Tag Archives: library training