OCU LAW's law library has launched a new online repository that allows the public to search and access important scholarly works by the law school's 35 faculty members. The repository may be accessed at: http://www.okcu.edu/law/facultyandadministration/publications/index.php
“It is a vital part of our law school’s mission to contribute to the improvement and development of law and legal institutions,” said OCU LAW dean Lawrence Hellman. “We do this through the careful and creative research and scholarship of our faculty. This new on-line repository will enhance the accessibility and impact of this important body of work.”
"The repository has several unique features that set it apart from other similar online ventures," said Lee Peoples, OCU LAW's associate law library director, who designed the program. "We're offering the majority of articles by our faculty members as free downloads in PDF document form. This means OCU LAW alumni, students, the local legal community, policy makers and scholars around the world, and the general public will have nearly complete access to scholarly articles by our faculty members in the repository. It's an incredible research tool that opens the doors to scholarly cross-pollination in a way that just wasn't possible a few short years ago."
The open-access feature is modeled after Duke Law and Harvard Law School. Both schools recently unveiled open access scholarly repositories.
Publications in the new repository may be viewed by author, date and type. Titles may be searched by keyword. Links to the faculty’s works in progress and forthcoming works are provided at the repository’s homepage.
Items not available for free download are still accessible through links to Westlaw or LexisNexis. Links are provided for books and book chapters that are accessible on LexisNexis or Westlaw. Other books and book chapters are made accessible using links to WorldCat, a catalog that provides access to the collections of thousands of libraries.
Simply by entering a zip code WorldCat will link users to a nearby library, including the OCU Law Library, that holds the book or book chapter. Links to books and book chapters available through the Google Book Project and Amazon.com are also provided.
Peoples credited law School webmaster David Lodge and administrative assistant Lorraine Morrison for their invaluable assistance in creating the new online offering. Peoples said W.S. Hein & Company generously provided the full text images of many articles included in the database.
