Ocean and Coastal Law Center Collection

General Information

Founded in 1968 as part of the law school's Ocean and Coastal Law Center, this professionally managed library collection is one of the premier collections of marine legal affairs publications in the country. The collection benefited greatly from over thirty years of financial support from Oregon Sea Grant and continues now as a joint project of the Ocean and Coastal Law Center and the John E. Jaqua Law Library. It is a valuable information resource not only for faculty and students of the University of Oregon (UO) and other academic institutions, but also for government agencies, Sea Grant affiliates, nongovernmental organizations, and attorneys.

Location and Hours

The collection is on the third floor of the Jaqua Law Library, located at 15th and Agate Streets. It is open during the same hours as the law library.

Scope and Content

The collection has nearly 3,000 cataloged books, reports, and government documents. It currently receives about 50 journals and newsletters. Holdings emphasize marine resources (fisheries, marine mammals, oil and gas, and seabed minerals), coastal zone management, ocean policy, marine environmental protection, maritime boundaries, the international law of the sea, and related works on environmental and socioeconomic aspects of governing the oceans. Geographic scope is worldwide, with particular focus on U.S. policy at the federal and state level and on maritime issues of global concern. The collection contains some materials not held by other academic libraries of the Pacific Northwest.

On-Line Library Catalog

The collection's holdings are entered in the UO Libraries' on-line public access catalog. Any item with the location code LAW OCEAN appearing at the head of the call number is shelved in this collection.

Users Policy

The collection is open to the public for on-site use. Eligible borrowers are current students, faculty, and staff of the UO and other Oregon University System and Orbis Cascade Alliance institutions. Borrowing privileges extend to Oregon residents who have registered with the UO Libraries' Oregon Card Program. If you are not eligible for UO or Orbis Cascade borrowing, please ask your local library staff about borrowing materials from this collection through interlibrary loan. The loan period varies, depending on patron category and type of material.

Requesting Books from Other Libraries

Through Summit (the Orbis Cascade Alliance catalog), UO students, faculty, and staff can borrow books not owned by UO Libraries. For books not in Summit, UO users may make interlibrary loan requests via WorldCat, linked from the UO Libraries' home page.

Services

The ocean and coastal law librarian provides reference service to anyone needing information. In-depth literature searching and bibliographies are done in response to specific requests from law school faculty. The librarian assists with on-line searching in the LexisNexis and Westlaw databases (available to UO law students and law faculty only) as well as the many databases that are open to all patrons. LegalTrac, a web-accessible index to legal periodicals and newspapers, is available only at law library public terminals. Public terminals are located near the law library reference desk.

Publications

The ocean and coastal law librarian compiles two current awareness publications for e-mail distribution and posting to the collection's web site:

• Recent Acquisitions List
  Announces new additions to the collection; issued 2 to 4 times per year.

• Recent Articles in Marine Legal Affairs
  Issued quarterly to alert researchers to recently published journal articles.

Also available is the collection's Periodicals Holdings List, an annually updated list of the journals and newsletters shelved in this collection.

Mailing List Requests

We would be pleased to add any interested person or organization to the e-mail distribution list for the Recent Acquisitions List, Recent Articles in Marine Legal Affairs bibliographies, and Periodicals Holdings List, all available free of charge. Send your request to librarian Andrea Coffman, and be sure to specify which publication(s) you wish to receive.

Research Guides and Bibliographies

• Coastal Law and Policy Research Guide
  Updated for the law school's fall 2007 coastal law course.

• Law of the Sea Research Guide
  Originally prepared for the law school's 2002 law of the sea course, this guide was updated in 2005.

• Library Resources for Researching Ocean and Coastal Law and Policy
  Prepared for a 1999 Marine Resource Management (MRM) Orientation Seminar.

• Marine Protected Areas Working Bibliographies
  Seven bibliographies prepared for Professor Richard G. Hildreth, Director, Ocean and Coastal Law Center; last updated in April 2008.
  

• Ocean Law and Policy Research Guide
  Prepared for the law school's spring 2008 ocean law course.

Contact Information