1998-1999_Law School Catalog.pdf - The Texas Tech University ...

6The Law School7The Law School at Texas Tech was establishedlargely through the efforts of attorney Alvin R.Allison, a former member of the Texas TechUniversity Board of Regents, who saw a need for astate--supported law school in the West Texas area.The Board appointed the Law School's first dean in1966, and in 1%7 the first class of 72 enteringstudents enrolled. In the fall of 1997totaJ enrollmentwas 637.The Law School was approved by the AmericanBar Association in August 1970 and is fully accreditedby the Supreme Court of Texas (1968) and by.the Association of American Law Schools 1%9).The objective of the faculty is to train men andwomen for the practice of law anywhere in theUnited States, whether as advocate, counselor,judge, or law teacher, in accordance with thehighest traditions of professional responsibility. Atthe same time, the use of law as a stepping-stone toa career in government, politics, or business isrecognized. The curriculum and the instructionmethods are designed to develop in the studentstheir highest potential, whatever their reasons forstudying the law.In addition to classrooms and seminar rooms,the Law School building has an expansive Jawlibrary, courtroom, computer laboratory, office ofcareer services, lounge area, snack area, lockerroom, student organization offices, and faculty andadministrative offices.The law library features a 13,000 square footunderground addition and a number of studentcarrels fitted for computer terminals.The Law L1....ryLaw libraries figure prominently in legaleducation, and the facilities of the Texas Tech LawLibrary provide students wide-ranging access tolegal information resources both print and on-line.The substantial addition to the Law Library gaveTexas Tech students access to computer equipmentand facilities unparalleled in the nation. Traditionalstudy carrels were transformed into computer-basedworkstations, enabling students toperfono computer-assisted legal research, wordprocessing, and a number of other functionsin an office-like setting.The Law Library subscribes to both the LEXISand WFSTLAW computer-assisted legal researchdatabases, providing students access to legalinformation far beyond the limits of the printcollection. These services feature access to primarysource materials, such as cases, statutes, andadministrative agency regulations and decisions.The databases also include a significant amount ofsecondary source material-such as legal periodicalarticles, treatises, and newsletters-and citators andindex.......uch as Shepard's Citations, the LegalResource Index, the Index to Legal Periodioals, andthe Current Index to Legal Periodicals. Training inthe use of computer-assisted legal research systemsis an essential part of the first-year curriculum.These superior computer facilities complementthe substantial collection of print materials availablein the Law Library. The collection contains over2OO,1XXl bibliographic items, including boundvolumes, microforms, government documents, andCD-ROMs. The collection includes the reportedcases of the Federal and state courts, the statutes ofCongress and all state legislatures, and the rulesand decisions of Federal and Texas state administrativeagencies. The Law Library is also designated asa selective U.S. Government Documents Depositoryand collects a wide array of government documentsrelating to the law. Easy access to the RegionalDocuments Depository collection al the Texas TechUniversity Library means that the substantial informationresources published by the U.s. GovernmentPrinting Office are readily available to law students.The collection of the Law Library contains over3,000 legal serial titles and a number of extensiveresearch aids such as digests, indices, and loose-leafservices. The catalog of the library collection is kepton-line, rather than in a card catalog, permittingmany different access points to the collection inaddition to the traditional means of author, title,and subject. The staff of the Law Library can locateresources in other library collections through theuse of a national network of libraries sharingbibliographic information used for cataloging andinterlibrary loan.The Law Library staff is comprised of knowledgeableand experienced librarians and paraprofessionalswho understand the importance ofproviding quality service to students and faculty.The staff includes six members with professionallibrary education; the director and associate directoralso have law degrees.In addition to the computer facilities, the LawLibrary physical plant includes a classroom usedboth for bibliographic insbuction and for studentmeetings, conference rooms for student studygroups, and a computer lab.Law School ComputingThe Law School computer network is designedto meet the specific needs of the students, faculty,and staff of the Law School. The network consistsof nearly 300 computers. The students have accessto 220 computers located in student study carrelsand 12 computers located in the school computerlab. These are augmented. to two six-station com·puter labs dedicated to legal research (LEXIS andWFSTLAW).Two compute", equipped with high-speed CD­ROM drives are located in the main section of theLaw School Library. These computers allowstudents to quickly search the school's collection ofcompact disks (CDs) on a variety of subjects.The network computers are configured toprovide each student with the tools needed tocomplete course requirements and become familiarwith the standard software used in the legal profession.All networked computers are configured withWindows 95, WordPerfect 7.0, e-mail access,Internet browsers, and have direct access to LEXISand WESTLAW legal research sites. TechPAC (theon-line library catalog system) and cOimection tothe campus main computer system are also availablefrom any computer on the school network.The low computer-to-student ratio assures thateach student can access the resources neededwithout scheduling or time restriction problems.This also allows freedom to the students in configuringtheir carrel computers to meet their individualneeds.The computer lab is equipped for full multi-mediaviewing and production. These Pentium classcompute", are equipped with CD ROMs, soundcards, and presentation software. Two of thecomputers have View Cams for visual communicationsover the Internet. There is also a specialcomputer set up with a full-page scanner andoptical character recognition software, as well as aread-write CD ROM for mastering individual CDs.The capability to convert video tape to digitizedvideo files is also available, and a digital cameramay be checked out by students.There are nvo high-speed, high-eapacity laserprinters located in the computer lab. These laserprinters can be accessed from any computer on thenetwork, providing reliable, high-