Research Strategies for Writing Seminars

This page was created by the library to help Hastings students with their research needs during the
library renovation. The procedures for requesting and locating materials may be new to you. The links below will help you access the materials you need.

Use the Hastings Catalog to find books on your topic. If you find a book that looks interesting, click on the call number to browse titles on the shelf nearby.

If the book you have found has a location of Reserve Stacks, Course Reserve, Reference or Circulation, it is available in the First Floor Library. Check the map of the First Floor Library for locations. Other books may be retrievable from 50 UN Plaza, or may need to be borrowed from another library. If the book is retrievable, you will see a request button on the page you are viewing. Click that button, and follow the instructions on the page.

For complete instructions on paging books, either online or using the form available in the First Floor Library, click here.

If the book you want isn't in the Hastings Law Library, or you would like to locate other books on your topic, use FirstSearch, a database containing information about books from most of the libraries in the English-speaking world. When you find a book you want, click on the ILL icon at the top, and request the book.

The Hastings Law Library subscribes to a number of Internet-accessible databases that may be useful in your research. All of our subscription databases are listed here. You can access all of them on campus. Most of them also allow remote access. If you are not on campus, and you click on the database you would like to access, you will be directed to this screen.

Search Lexis full-text law reviews AND Westlaw full-text law reviews. Although there is a lot of overlap, you should search both Lexis and Westlaw since their databases include many different articles. [This search will cover most of the law review articles written since the mid-1990s.]

Search Index to Legal Periodicals and Books on Lexis (LAWREV:ILP) OR Westlaw (ILP) OR the Index to Legal Periodicals and Books Internet Database. [This search will cover many more articles than a full-text database search, since this index includes almost every law review article written in the United States since 1980. However, you may retrieve fewer articles than you located in the full-text database since this is not a full-text search.]

If articles on your topic may have been published prior to 1980, then make sure you search the historical version of Index to Legal Periodical and Books. You can search for articles back to 1918 by selecting "Legal Periodicals Retro" at the Index to Legal Periodicals and Books Internet Database. (Note: The retrospective index covering 1918-1980 is available only on this subscription database and not on the Lexis or Westlaw versions mentioned above. If you'd prefer the books, you can search for articles back to 1918 in the print version of Index to Legal Periodicals and Books. This index is located in the Gold Reading Room (Alcove 5); search each volume using the listed subject headings. [This historical search is only necessary if you need to check articles written before 1980.]

Search Legal Resource Index on Lexis (LAWREV:LGLIND) OR Westlaw (LRI) OR the LegalTrac Internet database.[This search will include a few additional journal articles, and articles from bar journals and legal newspapers written since 1980 that would not be retrieved in your other searches. Like the index search in Index to Legal Periodicals and Books, this is not a full-text search; Legal Resource Index and LegalTrac are simply online versions on the print Current Law Index.]

Search Current Index to Legal Periodicals(CILP), an online database avalaible on the Library's Subscription database page, OR search CILP on Westlaw (CILP). This index is published every week, but you only need to search the past two months. If you use Westlaw, you can either browse the most recent issues or you can select "edit search" to search the eight available issues. [This will update your searches. You'll only need to read the most recent eight issues of CILP, because prior issues have already been included in your other search results.] It it useful to check CILP regularly as your research progresses, as this will alert you to new articles as they are published.

If you have a citation to an article that is not on Westlaw or Lexis (and is older than the last year or two), you will probably be able to print a PDF version of the article from Hein On Line.

If an article you have found is not in a law-related journal, you may want to search the online databases collection at the San Francisco Public Library. You can check to see if the journal you want, for the year you want, is accessible from one of the databases provided by the San Francisco Public Library, by searching their Periodical Finder. Any resident of California may apply for a San Francisco Library card.

The reference librarians at Hastings are available to help you plan your research strategy and to help you find the resources that might be useful in writing your article. Good Luck!

Last updated January 21, 2007.
Prepared by Susan Nevelow Mart, Reference Librarian. Contact