Research Strategies for Writing Seminars
This page was created to help Hastings students with their research needs in the Hastings Law Library. The procedures for requesting and locating materials may be new to you. The links below will help you access the materials you need.
SEARCHING THE CATALOG
Use the Hastings Catalog to find books and resources on your topic. If you find a book that looks interesting, and you are not on campus, click on the call number [in the Classic Catalog] or subject [in Encore Catalog]to browse similar titles. Of course, if you are on campus, browsing the shelves is a great way to find relevant books.
USING FIRSTSEARCH
If the book you want is not 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.
HASTINGS ONLINE RESOURCES
The Hastings Law Library subscribes to a number of Internet-accessible resources that may be useful in your research. All of our online resources 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 enter your password to gain access.
FINDING ARTICLES
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 & Books. [This
search will cover many more articles than the full-text database search
in step one, since these indexes include almost every law review article
written in the United States since 1980.]
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 & Books. (Note: The retrospective
index covering 1918-1980 is available only on this subscription database
and not on the Lexis or Westlaw versions mentioned above.) [This historical search is only necessary if you
need to check articles written before 1980.]
Search Current
Index to Legal Periodicals(CILP), an online database available
from a pull-down menu on the Library's home 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. It it useful to check CILP regularly as your
research progresses, as this will alert you to new articles as they are
published.
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 also includes articles from bar journals and legal newspapers written since 1980. This is not a full-text search.]
If you have found an article in an index or mentioned in a bibliography, and would like to know where you can access a full-text version, start with Hastings Law Library's e-journal finder. You can also type the article title into the Encore Catalog.
HEIN ONLINE
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 HeinOnline.
SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY
If an article you have found is not in a law-related journal, and not in one of our the non-law online resources that Hastings subscribes to, 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 Public Library card.
ASK A LIBRARIAN
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 September 14th , 2011.