Chickasaw Nation Law Library at Oklahoma City University School of Law: Faculty Services

Chickasaw Nation Law Library serves the research and academic needs of the faculty. Each faculty member has a librarian liaison who can assist by

• Reviewing your response to the faculty survey to learn about your areas of interest and ensure the library has the basic resources you will require this semester,
• Becoming familiar with research resources in your areas of interest and develop current awareness strategies to help keep you informed of the latest developments in your fields,
• Reviewing advertisements for new books and materials in your interest areas and seek your input on purchase decisions,
• Preparing bibliographies, research guides and presenting on library resources at your request,
• Performing research and training your research assistants.

Your liaison is your primary contact with the library for all services, and they will contact you shortly after the semester begins. If you are interested in working with a different liaison, please contact Timothy Gatton by email at [email protected] or by phone at 405-208-5344 or Lee Peoples at 405-208-6030 or [email protected].

Faculty Liaison List



Below is a form to be used as an addendum to your publication agreement. We recommend the use of this addendum so you may retain any rights under copyright retained by you in your Publication Agreement, but in addition (i) the rights to reproduce, to distribute, to publicly perform, and to publicly display the article in any medium for noncommercial purposes; (ii) the right to prepare derivative works from the article; and (iii) the right to authorize others to make any non-commercial use of the article so long as you receive credit as author and the journal in which the article has been published is cited as the source of first publication of the article. This form is provided by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).

The Law Library provides several services to assist individual faculty members with research that would require work performed by a student research assistant (RA).

When a faculty member hires their own RA, upon request, a Reference Librarian will provide training and guidance on legal (and other types) of research to the student RA. This training will be catered to meet the research needs of the individual faculty member's scholarship. 

When a faculty member needs the services of an RA but they do not wish to hire their own, they can use one or more from the Law Library's pool of student RAs. The law library maintains a staff of “on call” law student reference assistants. The pool of students the library hires for the RA positions have demonstrated a competency and interest in research through their successful participation for-credit research courses. Additionally, the library requires them to complete a one-on-one advanced legal research training period with the reference librarians prior to being assigned to work on faculty research projects. At all times, Librarians supervise and monitor the quality of the students' work.  

Faculty members who want to take advantage of either of these services should contact their assigned library liaison.

You have several options to make course reserve materials available:

1. Individual Law Faculty, Faculty Support Services, or the Law Library Staff post electronic copies of materials or links to such materials on virtual course management products such as The West Education Network (TWEN) or LexisNexis Web Courses.
2. If the materials are in a text or other book, you may place the book on course reserve.
3. Print copies of materials may be placed on course reserve.
4. Copies may be provided via a coursepack.

Irrespective of the format, copyright law must be complied with when providing access to materials. The OCU Copyright Policy is available at https://www.okcu.edu/faculty-staff/human-resources/university-policies/general-university-policies/copyright-policy. Additional information regarding copyright is available from a number of sources listed as references to the policy. 

If, pursuant to the OCU Copyright Policy and Copyright Guidelines, permission must be obtained prior to posting or copying the information to be placed on reserve or on D2L, the Law Librarians are available to assist faculty in obtaining permission from the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) or via direct contact with the copyright holder. Please note that expenses associated with copyright permissions should be considered in determining the method through which materials will be made available.

Student Access

OCU Law Students already have access to some materials on West Academic Digital Study Aids. West Academic Digital Study Aids provides access to the Nutshell, Hornbook, Gilbert Law Summaries, Exam Pro, and Law School Legends series.

Obtaining Copyright Permission 

A request to obtain copyright permission may be submitted to your library liaison.

Placing Items on D2L

Additional tutorials for using D2L can be found on the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning's YouTube Channel.

Placing Books on Course Reserve 

Before the start of the semester, circulation staff will use booklists from the OCU Bookstore and syllabi posted on D2L or supplied by you to pull materials owned by the Law Library and place them on course reserve. Reference materials, such as the Restatements and Vernon’s Oklahoma Forms, and study aids will not routinely be placed on course reserve unless such a specific request is made by faculty. If you would like additional books from the Law Library collection, or your personal collection to be added to course reserve please provide them to any of the law library circulation staff personnel or your library liaison. Books or other materials obtained via interlibrary loan (ILL) may not be placed on course reserve without specific permission from the lending library.

Obtaining copyright permission is not required to place a book on course reserve; however, as indicated below, if multiple copies of material from a book are to be placed on course reserve, permission from the copyright holder may be required. 

Although the library is accessible 24 hours a day, access to materials on course reserve is limited to hours when the circulation desk is open. 

Placing Copies of Materials on Course Reserve

If you would like copies of material to be added to course reserve, please provide them to any law library circulation staff personnel or your library liaison. 

If copyright permission is required, once the permission has been granted by the rights owner, copies can be placed on reserve.  In most cases, copyright permissions are not granted beyond one semester. Placing copied materials on reserve for more than one semester may require an additional request for copyright permission.  Some publishers are reluctant to grant permission, without cost, for materials that will be placed on course reserve. 

Copies of materials obtained via interlibrary loan (ILL) may not be placed on reserve without specific permission from the lending library. Access to and copying of these materials for course reserve may be accomplished through other means.  You may contact your library liaison for assistance with this procedure. 

Although the library is accessible 24 hours a day, access to materials on course reserve is limited to hours when the circulation desk is open.

Creating a Coursepack 

Coursepacks may be created with the assistance of Faculty Support Services and sold in the OCU Bookstore. 

Often copyright permission is required for all materials in coursepacks. Some publishers are reluctant to grant permission, without cost, for materials placed on course reserve, but cost associated with obtaining copyright permission may be recouped by including the cost in the charge for the coursepack.

Copies of materials obtained via interlibrary loan (ILL) may not be placed in coursepacks. Access to and copying of these materials for coursepacks must be accomplished through other means. You may contact your library liaison for assistance with this procedure.

The Open Textbook Adoption Program provides assistance to faculty who wish to implement low- or no-cost materials in law school courses.

For more information or to schedule a consultation, visit the Legal Open Education Resources guide.