Library Services for HLS Alumni

Welcome HLS Alumni! 

Here you will find ways that you can continue to engage with the Harvard Library and our resources.

Congratulations new graduates! Your Westlaw, Lexis and Bloomberglaw access will continue for a period after graduation. Details are linked below.

Were you involved in a student organization during your time at HLS? Did you keep a diary about law school life or take great notes in class? Learn about donating material to enrich our collection of student-created material, as well as tips for preserving student organization records and doing research in our guide.

HLS Alumni can gain access to the library by obtaining a Harvard University Library access card.  This card will provide access to the law library and all other libraries on campus.  Please see the Harvard Library Visitor Access page for more details.  

Questions? Contact access@law.harvard.edu.

Miss Cambridge? Take a virtual tour of the Law Library and explore our online exhibits!

As an alum, you have access to a number of databases via the Harvard Library, including the HeinOnline Law Journal Library, JStor, ABI/Inform, the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary, AMA Journals and Project Muse. 

Bookmark these pages for your alumni access:

Access to alumni resources is via the Harvard Key system. Claim your Harvard Key:

HeinOnline's Law Journal Library contains more than 1,800 law and law-related periodicals.

• Coverage is from the first issue published for all periodicals and goes through the most-currently published issues allowed based on contracts with publishers.
• Search by article title, author, subject, state or country published, full text, and narrow by date.

On-site, you will be able to use to most of the databases that are available to the Harvard Law School community.  We also have a Westlaw terminal and a Bloomberg terminal in the reference room on the 3rd floor of the Library. 

Harvard Law School Library and Harvard Library Libguides give you selected lists of links on a wide variety of subjects. Use these guides to jump-start your research!

Search these databases to identify books and articles. To get access to the materials you find, visit us on campus to use our resources in person, or use your alumni database access or ILL from your local library if you're off-site. 

These resources can be a great way to get started with your research when you don't have access to paid databases or if you want to get an overview of a topic before getting started with potentially expensive searches. 

This guide links to several selected free online for state and federal primary law, treaties, foreign & international law, legal secondary sources and data sources.

In addition to Bloomberg, LexisNexis, and Westlaw, there are several other legal databases and resources that you can use in your research.  This guide explores the content, features and subscriptions of several including Casemaker, Casetext, Fastcase, LoisLaw, PLC, National Law Library, Ravel and VersusLaw.

Did you use a citation management tool like Zotero, EndNote, or Mendeley to manage your research? You may be able to keep or transfer your citations for use after graduation. 

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Email: research@law.harvard.edu

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