Research Assistants

This guide is meant to provide some guidance and some useful links for individuals who are working as research assistants for professors or centers in the law school. 

Some Basic Housekeeping:

If you want to check out a book for the faculty member under which you are working, we recommend that you contact Faculty Document Delivery at fdd@law.upenn.edu. Please provide the book title and faculty information. 

Request a Research Consultation

Biddle Librarians are happy to meet with you to discuss your projects and help develop your research strategy. Use the form linked above to request a consultation and we will get back to you within 24 hours to schedule the appointment. Research consultations typically run between 30 and 60 minutes and are intended to help you strategize and troubleshoot your research projects.

Most subscription websites keep their content locked, only allowing subscribers access. When visiting these sites on a campus computer, the site provider recognizes the computer's IP address and Penn affiliation and unlocks the content.

On a personal device, the site gatekeeper does not recognize your IP address, so you are asked to pay for access. The solution is to connect through a library's proxy server. The proxy server's IP address is recognized by site gatekeepers as affiliated with the University.

Tip: Start at the Library Website

Start your research on the Biddle Law Library's website or the Penn Libraries website. Law students should already have accounts with both libraries. If you do not, you can drop by the circulation departments of both libraries to request access to be able to check out books or use library-provided e-resources.

All the e-resource links on the library sites contain the libraries' proxy information that routes users to the Pennkey login page.

There are many other options to access e-resources off campus described in our Using E-Resources guide.

Adding the Proxy Prefix

You can add the proxy information to any subscription resource URL that uses IP authentication. Paste the information in front of the publisher's URL. You'll then be prompted to enter your PennKey and password.

Penn Law Proxy Prepend

https://pennlaw.idm.oclc.org/login?url=

Example

https://pennlaw.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.law360.com

Penn Libraries Proxy Prepend

https://proxy.library.upenn.edu/login?url=

Example

https://proxy.library.upenn.edu/login?url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/Welcome