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Legal Research Texts for Law Students
- Robert C. Berring & Elizabeth A. Edinger, Legal Research Survival Manual (2002). Order from West Group (800) 313-West or Foundation Press (877) 888-1330 for $18.00. This is a short "cliff note" style approach to legal research from some of the most widely-respected legal research instructors and librarians in the field. It is specifically designed to help law students transition into practice and summer clerkship.
- Christina L. Kunz, et al., The Process of Legal Research Order at Amazon.com. This is well-respected and widely used process-oriented approach. It is quite thorough in its approach. Many students use this in their legal research and writing course.
- Amy E. Sloan, Basic Legal Research: Tools and Strategies (2000). Another excellent, yet more thorough approach. Lots of excellent "screen shots" of both print and online tools, which make it easy for readers to understand how the tools are used. Available at Amazon.com.
- Christopher G. Wren & Jill Robinson Wren, The Legal Research Manual: A Game Plan for Legal Research and Analysis (2nd ed. 1986). Order at Amazon.com. Although its focus is on print sources (it predates wide spread use of Lexis and Westlaw), this is an excellent and systematic approach to legal research. It is written from the perspective of a practicing attorney (an assistant attorney general for the State of Wisconsin) and is adept at helping to fill in the gaps that students may have with respect to their understanding of legal research education.
Legal Research Guides(On the Web)
- Lexis/Nexis 2002 Summer Associates Tool Kit. At www.lexis-nexis.com/infopro/events/SummerAssociates/sa2002.shtml.
- UIUC Law Library, Research Aids. Available at www.law.uiuc.edu/library/home/libguide/refserv/refserv.htm#researchaids.
- University of Miami Law Library, Quick Guide to Legal Research. At http://library.law.miami.edu/associate.html.
- University of Southern California Law School, Gabriel and Matilda Barnett Information Technology Center and the Asa V. Call Law Library, A Research Guide for Law Students and Beginning Attorneys 2000. Available at lawweb.usc.edu/library/services/researchguide/summassoc01.u2.pdf (click "Summer Associate Research Guide"). USC has prepared an excellent guide organized by subject for its students, which is downloadable in PDF or MS Word.
- Washington University School of Law Research Guides. At law.wustl.edu/Infores/Library/Guides/index.html.
- Perer Hooks, Federal Legislative History: Tutorial and Pathfinder. At www.law.uiuc.edu/library/home/libguide/refserv/Legislative_History_(Federal)/legis.htm.
- Illinois Legislative History (a bit dated). At http://library.law.uiuc.edu/leghistory.htm.
- Phill Johnson's Illinois Legilative History. At http://leep.lis.uiuc.edu/seworkspace/pwjohnso/1leg5.html.
Online Legal Research(LEXIS and Westlaw)
- Peter Hook, Online Legal Research First Year Presentation--2000 (Session I). Available at www.law.uiuc.edu/callistr/OnlineTraining/1st_Sess_Pres_Notes.pdf Professor Hook's handout for the first session of online training.
- Peter Hook, Online Legal Research First Year Presentation--2000 (Session 2). Available at www.law.uiuc.edu/callistr/OnlineTraining/2nd_Sess_Pres_Notes.pdf Professor Hook's handout for the second session of online training.
- UIUC Law School: Online Searching 2001-2002. Available at library.law.uiuc.edu/ot/. This is your Lexis and Westlaw training tutorial for 2001-2002. Note that half of the materials are located under Fall and the other half under the Winter session. Click on the "Winter" link to see the rest of the materials.
- Lexis.com, Law School Reference 2000. Available at www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool/reference/. Web site where you can download official guides to using LEXIS products and services. Online tutorials are available at www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool/tutorials/. Information about Lexis pricing is available at www.lexisnexis.com/legalonline/pricing.shtml.
- Westlaw.com, Documentation and Reference Materials for Westlaw.com. Available at www.westgroup.com/store/advsearch.asp?ProductType=refmat/. (Use drop down menu to search for free reference materials). Web site where you can download official guides to using Westlaw.com. Online tours are available at www.westlaw.com/Tours/. Information about Westlaw.com pricing policies is located at www.westlaw.com/MoreInfo/westlaw/pricing.pdf. Other information for Westlaw pricing policies is located at www.westlaw.com/SubOptions/.
Legal Research on the Web
- UIUC Law Library Home Page (under Primary Law & Government Web Resources). Available at www.library.uiuc.edu/lax/. Jane Williams, our Foreign and International Law Librarian, has prepared excellent links for foreign and international law at www.law.uiuc.edu/library/home/netsourc/intl.htm.
- Paul D. Callister, Legal Research Tools on the Web. Available at www.law.uiuc.edu/callistr/legalr/websources.htm. Professor Callister's favorites. The site is organized around "search types."
- Cornell Legal Information Institute. Available at www.law.cornell.edu/index.html.
- Findlaw. Available at www.findlaw.com/.
- LexisOne. Available at www.lexisone.com/. LEXIS' site for free legal materials.
- How to Find What You Want on the World Wide Web. Available at ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/search/searchint.html. An excellent guide to search engines on the Web. For an explanation of how to best use search engines, see www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/ataglance.html and www.searchenginewatch.com/.
- Google. At www.google.com/. Favorite search engine for librarians. A special search engine focussing on government documents and information is available at www.google.com/unclesam.
Phone:
816/235-1650