Doing a journal cite check when one is several hundred miles away from one's law library can be challenging. Oh sure, we've got remote access to UVA's library databases and to Hein Online (which makes me about as happy as JSTOR did back in undergrad...and perhaps I'm flying the nerd flag a little too high, there...), but what do you do when the source so desperately in need of verification is a book, one that the local public library--not the city branch, but the entire county--has never seen?
Enter the good folks at Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, who have not only a nice law library, but liberal use policies. I've been twice now, and it's as easy as showing my UVA card and giving them my phone number. Add to that their bookstore's used Nutshell collection, and I'm a Cumberland fan.
Get this: I popped by tonight to do a cite check and was met by a sweet lady at the desk. After explaining why I was there, she not only filled out my paperwork with a smile, but insisted on looking up the book for me, pointing out the staircase and elevator, and giving me a rough approximation of where the book should be, and told me to come straight back down to the desk if I couldn't find it. She finished with, "Welcome to the law library!" and handed me a printout of the call information, just to be safe.
So nice. The only way it could have been better is if I could have accessed their Wi-Fi, but hey, that's what Blackberries are for, right?
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