Services

Borrowing privileges:

• Any student, staff or faculty member affiliated with the University of Victoria may borrow materials from the Law Library.
• If you are not affiliated with UVic you can borrow materials after getting a library card.
• Canadian law students and students affiliated with the library consortia may also borrow materials.

Circulation, course reserve & interlibrary loan services:

• These services are provided from the circulation desk. Your UVic ID card entitles you to Law and UVic library privileges.

Services for students with special needs:

• Services, such as a pick-up for books, are available for students with special needs. For more information please ask at the circulation desk at 250-721-8565.

Interlibrary loan is a free service that allows Law Faculty and students to request materials not held at the Law Library.  Borrowing materials from libraries off campus through the Law Library is available to law students only.

To request an interlibrary loan please use our interlibrary loan form.

We welcome any suggestions for purchasing books, journals and films to improve our collection.  All suggestion will be reviewed and evaluated on cost, availability, relevance and curricular needs.

Before you suggest a purchase please search our catalogue to make sure we do not already have the title.

Suggest a purchase by using our suggest-a-book form and selecting law from the subject area drop-down menu.

Reference and research

• Our librarians will help you research legal topics, assist you with bibliographic tools and explain library services. 
• The Reference Desk, on the main floor, provides on-site help and can be reached by phone at 250-472-5023 or by email at lawref@uvic.ca.

Circulation & reserve

• All library materials found on the main floor are available to UVic students and staff.
• Specialized materials housed in Reserve include:
  • Law course reserve materials (short-term loan)
  • Current legislative materials
  • Current court decisions (BCCA, BCSC, SCC, FCA FCT)
  • CDs and videos on legal and law related topics (viewing equipment also available)

Interlibrary loan (ILL)

• ILL services are available only to Law faculty, students and MADR students.
• Requests can be made at the Circulation Desk or online.
• Law Libraries wishing to contact the Priestly Law Library can send email requests to lawill@uvic.ca call 250-472-5081.

Collection

Major jurisdictions represented in the collection include Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. International materials include treaties and reports of cases. The collection also includes a selection of legal material from the European Union and the Asia-Pacific region.

Our collection includes:

• 170,000 books and over 250,000 microform items.
• Federal, provincial parliamentary and legislative materials.
• Access to online database services.
• Typescripts of reasons of the British Columbia Court of Appeal (from 1974), the Supreme Court of British Columbia (from 1971) and the County Court (from 1977-1990) are housed in the library.