Network Services
The Thormodsgard Law Library technical support staff manages all the School of Law network services and maintains numerous microcomputers for student use. The individual computers are connected to a local area network, providing access to hard-disk data storage, multi-launch applications, and laser printing including a color option. Every computer is also part of the Internet, with complete connections to the web, international electronic mail, ftp, usenet, and computer-assisted legal research on Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw. The lab also serves as a training facility for students. 275 high speed ethernet ports have been installed throughout at the library's study tables and carrels. In addition, seamless wireless networking covers all floors. Students thus have two network options to connect their own laptop computers at any study location.
All faculty, administrative, library, student offices and classrooms are connected to a 10/100BaseT ethernet. The entire building is blanketed by an 11Mb Lucent (Airport-compatible) wireless netowork with multiple base stations, enabling Internet connections from any location inside and immediately adjacent areas outside the building. The law school network services supports a bulletin board system, a web server, an e-mail server, and a list server. These servers can be accessed via modem or through the Internet. In addition to providing access to the enormous legal resources available through the Internet, the School of Law's servers provide access to growing public databases of North Dakota materials and other databases of local interest, such as Career Service files. The law school network permits extensive interaction among and between faculty, staff, and students via electronic mail. Furthermore, innovative utilization of these systems has allowed a rapid exchange of drafts for review and editing within various clusters such as Legal Aid, Central Legal Research, and faculty offices. The Law Review not only uses this system for review and editing purposes, but has also developed an in-house desktop publishing system.
