The Law Library webpage is a good starting point to access resources found in The CAT and other student research avenues.
To fulfill your research needs, it is simple to locate materials through The CAT, which is the conventional library catalog used by all University Libraries. You will see print, non-print resources, maps, e-books, and links available to you as a Penn State student. After finding the title or subject in The CAT, this entry shows the holdings of our library under Dickinson School of Law – Carlisle.
If there is a relevant title listed in The CAT that Dickinson Law does not own, it is simple to put a hold or reserve on that title and have it sent to our law library. Go to the “I want it button” in the entry, click it and choose Dickinson Law-Carlisle as your pick-up location. For example:
A Hold Will Be Placed For You
Title: To kill a mockingbird / Harper Lee. Author: Lee, Harper.
- (e.g. MM/DD/YYYY) The date you enter is the date that the system will stop trying to obtain the item for you. It is not a guaranteed delivery date.
Another Penn State library will receive this notification and send the book to our library. You will receive an email when it arrives to be checked out.
For materials unavailable in the University Libraries system, please use Inter-library loan for your request, whether it is a book or a document which can be delivered to your email. You must have an Inter-library loan account to request print loans and documents.
While searching The CAT and not finding the resource you want, click Worldcat on the right side of the list of titles. Choose the title you are interested in seeing; at the bottom of that record choose “request the item through Inter-library loan“. This link will go to an online form and will automatically populate the form with the information necessary to request your book. Expect your ILL loan request to take several days to be processed because the lending library is not part of Penn State University Libraries. For documents such as articles, book chapters, etc., assume delivery via email will take several days. You will receive an email when your Inter-library loan book is waiting to be picked up.
If you have questions, our Law Library Faculty as well as Access Services staff are available to assist you in the library.