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Legal Research & Writing LAW-215

Legal Research & Writing LAW-215. E-Research: Legal Research Using the Internet. E-Research: Legal Research Using the Internet. In this unit, we will learn: The definition of Internet-related terms. Tips and strategies for conducting legal research on the Internet.

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Legal Research & Writing LAW-215

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  1. Legal Research & WritingLAW-215 E-Research: Legal Research Using the Internet

  2. E-Research: Legal Research Using the Internet • In this unit, we will learn: • The definition of Internet-related terms. • Tips and strategies for conducting legal research on the Internet. • The ethical concerns regarding the use of the Internet • The “best of the best” sites for various legal research tasks as well as some sites for non-legal research. • How to use the Internet for legal research.

  3. Ways Legal Professionals Use the Internet • Communication • Court Filings • Marketing • Commerce • Research

  4. Start Pages • Cornell University Law School Legal Information System (LII) ««««www.law.cornell.edu • Washburn University School of Law ««««www.washlaw.edu • FindLaw (West) ««««www.findlaw.com • MegaLaw ««««www.megalaw.com • CataLaw ««««www.catalaw.com • Nolo’s Online Law Center ««««www.nolo.com

  5. Home Page for Cornell University Law School

  6. Home Page for Washburn University School of Law

  7. Home Page for FindLaw

  8. Home Page for MegaLaw

  9. Home Page for CataLaw

  10. Home Page for Nolo Online Law Center

  11. Strategies and Tips for Internet Legal Research • Take notes • Use the history lists • Use bookmarks • Do not spend too much time reading the screen • Be aware of gaps in the information available on the Internet • Never completely rely on the Internet • Subscribe to a listserv • Consider disclaimers • Use RSS to obtain updates

  12. Search Engines • Google www.google.com • AltaVista www.altavista.com • Ask www.ask.com • Lycos www.lycos.com • Yahoo! www.yahoo.com

  13. Google Scholar • Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. • Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research. • URL: http://scholar.google.com/schhp?hl=en&tab=ws

  14. Google Advanced ScholarSearch Page

  15. AltaVista Advanced Web Search Page

  16. Ask.com Search Page

  17. Lycos Home Page

  18. Yahoo! Home Page

  19. Using Boolean Logic and Other Techniques to Enhance Search Statements • Because the Internet is so huge, searches will often provide too many results. When creating search statements you should take advantage of additional techniques to refine your search results.

  20. Boolean Logic • Boolean logic, particularly the use of the Boolean operatorAND, is the most important technique for limiting results in any database or search engine.

  21. Boolean Operators Use Examples AND + To get fewer search results cake AND chocolate OR To get more search results adolescents OR teenagers NOT - To get fewer search results media NOT radio The Principal Boolean Operators

  22. AND Retrieves only records that contain both words - Combine your key concepts using AND

  23. NOT Eliminates material you don’t want- Be careful not to get rid of stuff you might actually need

  24. ORRetrieves matches for either term, so you get more records. Use with terms that have about the same meaning in your search

  25. Nesting • Combine AND and OR in a single search. This technique divides your terms into units like an equation, by using parentheses. • Examples: • fruit AND(apple OR orange) • (fruit AND juice)AND apple • fruit AND(apple OR orange)AND juice • (fruit AND juice)AND(apple OR orange) • ((fruit AND juice)AND(apple OR orange)) AND NOT banana

  26. media AND politics OR election retrieves records that match "media that also match politics" OR retrieves records that match "election."media AND (politics OR election) retrieves records that match media that also match either politics OR election.

  27. Truncation and Wildcard • Truncation is a technique that enables a searcher to look for a word and any of its possible endings. This is sometimes called using a "wildcard" as it usually enables the searcher to insert a symbol as a wild card at the end of a word. • This symbol instructs the computer to look for the root of the word and all alternate word endings or variations of a word and expands your search results.

  28. Truncation and Wildcard • Use a symbol (like an asterisk * , !, or ?) at the end of a word to replace any number of letters (truncation). Example: teen*will find results containing any of the following terms: teen, teens, teenager, teenagers, teenaged • Use one or more symbols within a word to replace one or more letters (wildcard)Example: wom?n will find results containing any of the following terms: woman, women

  29. Use enough of a root word not to confuse the computer. Using opera* to search for operations retrieves opera, operant, operable, etc.

  30. Phrase Searching • In most search engines, and in many databases, it is possible to search for a phrase, or two or more words appearing next to each other. The most common method for doing this is to surround the phrase with quotation marks.

  31. For example: • A search for "acid rain" will look for those words in the database only when they appear next to each other. • Other examples: • “May the force be with you” • “Hillary Clinton” • “presidential election 2008”

  32. Use 6 to 8 key words in your query • More keywords chosen at the appropriate “level” will give you a smaller and more focused list of hits, greatly reducing the possible documents returned. • Examples: new, planet, planets, discover, solar, system.

  33. Limiting and expanding a database search • Many databases will offer additional methods for limiting and refining search results. Some of these limiters may include: • full text • you can search only for full text articles • peer reviewed • you can search only for articles that are considered peer reviewed • date range • you can search only for articles that have been published during a specific time period

  34. Learning to Use the Database Options • Use the helpscreens, and advanced search options. • Remember that every database is different, offering different ways to create search statements or use controlled vocabulary. Each database will usually provide help screens to explain how to search effectively within that database.

  35. TIP:Be aware that each database and search engine may use Boolean logic in a different way.For example:In Yahoo and other search engines you can use the plus sign “+” as a Boolean “AND” or the “-” as a Boolean “NOT”.Some search engines have pop down lists to help. In Yahoo, a pop down menu helps you to focus your search. In Google, you can use the advanced search feature.

  36. TIP: For a basic guide to Boolean Logic, see the following internet tutorial: • Boolean Searching on the Internet, A Primer in Boolean Logic, by Laura Cohen, January, 2008. • http://www.internettutorials.net/boolean.asp

  37. Hein Online • Available for remote use free of charge at the Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries (requires Library Card) • Offers: • Nearly 1200 Journals. Comprehensive: Every page from every issue from every volume • English Reports, Full Reprint • Federal Register beginning with v.1 (1936) • Treaty Publications • US Statutes at Large, 1789-date • US Supreme Court Opinions, 1754-date • PDF Format

  38. Hieros-Gamos • A global legal site with links to legal and non-legal sites. • URL: www.hg.org

  39. LexisOne • Free service offering cases, forms, articles, headline legal news, links to law-related sites. • Targeted at small law firms, also offers flexibly priced legal research from LexisNexis. • URL: www.lexisone.com

  40. PublicLegal • Web site of the Internet Legal Research Group. • Offers LawRunner, a legal research tool and intelligent agent based search engine interface for Google.com and its 3+ billion indexed web pages, with the advantage of being able to limit search results only to those web pages within a particular jurisdiction for more effective legal research. • URL: www.ilrg.com

  41. Additional Resources • Check the topic entitled, “Legal Resource Websites”, in Appendix C of the CD accompanying Oran’s Dictionary of the Law for additional e-research sources.

  42. Anselmo Library Online Resources • Start Page:www.quincycollegelibrary.org • Legal Studies Research Guide: www.quincycollegelibrary.org/legalstudies.html • Lexis-Nexis Academic • Tutorials • User Guide (See Handout) • Zimmerman’s Research Guide: www.lexisnexis.com/infopro/zimmerman/

  43. Massachusetts Trial Court Law Libraries Online Resources • Start Page: http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/ • With (free) Library Card, access to: • HeinOnline • RetrieveLaw • Academic OneFile

  44. End of E-Research: Legal Research Using the Internet

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