Welcome back law students...or if this is your first day of law school, just plain welcome! The UW Law Library is here to support your learning, help with research and provide study space in the safest possible environment. 

The Law Library staff has been hard at work over the past several months to create a welcoming and safe space where you can get your work done and get your questions answered. One big part of our fall semester plan is our new Seat Reservation system, where law students can reserve seats ahead of time. Check it out here: https://library.law.wisc.edu/seat-reservation/

We hope it's pretty straight-forward, but here are some tips and tricks to help you quickly get to your seat and get to work.

1. There are two types of seats available.  For that 'classic' Law Library quiet study space, find a seat on 5th, 4th, 3rd or 2nd floors. If you need some space to participate in a remote class with headphones, check out the study labs on the 2nd floor or anywhere on the 1st floor. 

2. Be sure to check in within 15 minutes of your reservation. Once you have made your reservation, you have to check-in - you can do this right at your seat...no need to check-in at the Circulation Desk! Once at your seat, you can check in by either scanning the QR code at your seat and entering the code you received in your confirmation email, or click on the link in the email and enter the code.

If you don't check in within 15 minutes, the system will automatically cancel your reservation so others can use the seat and you'd lose the seat. This is especially important since any cancelled reservations still count against your quota - a tic in the system that we are working with the system vendor to fix.

3. There are some limits on how many hours per week you can reserve a seat. In order to ensure that all law students have an opportunity to reserve a seat, we have placed some limits on the amount of time that each student can reserve. For each day, students can make two reservations EACH for both the quiet study space and remote class participation. Those reservations can be for up to two hours each. Students can reserve a total of 12 hours of quiet study space per week and 10 hours of remote class partcipation.

4. What if you have problems making a reservation or finding your seat? We are always happy to help! You can either ask us for help at the Circulation Desk or email us at AskUWLaw@law.wisc.edu for help. Specifically, each seat is marked with a sign showing you where your spot is. And if you are locked out from making a reservation, we may have to opt you into the system. Just ask!

5. What if somebody is sitting in my seat when I arrive? Each reservation has 15 minutes of ‘padding’ before and after to allow for transition time between students. If there is still someone in the seat at the start of your reservation period, inform them (from a distance of six feet) that you have the seat reserved at this time. If they don’t vacate, contact a library staff member using the Ask a Librarian Chat service or at the Circulation Desk. We're hopeful that this won't happen too often, but if so, we are always happy to help.

Have more questions? First, check out our Seat Reservations FAQ...if that doesn't cover it, just let us know! This is a whole new system for us too, so thanks for your patience as we work out any kinks.

We look forward to working with you, be it in-person or remotely. Have a great semester!

Submitted by Kristopher Turner on September 2, 2020

This article appears in the categories: Law Library