Ard, Constance. "Legal Research in the Age of Open Law," Online (Oct. 2010), 34(5): 29-32.
Chandler, Yvonne J. "Accessing Legal and Regulatory Information in Internet Resources and Documents," Journal of Library Administration (2006), 44 (1/2): 263-324.
Ebbinghouse, Carol. "The New Surge of Open Legal Information on the Internet," Searcher (June 2008), 16(6): 8-16.
________. "The People's Law: Free Legal Help and Legal Research on the Web," Searcher (April 2006), 14(4): 38-44.
Markoff, John. "A Quest to Get More Court Rulings Online, and Free," New York Times, Aug. 20, 2007: 6.
Moore, Wendy E. "Fantastic Facts about the 50 States: Websites for State Legal Research," University of Georgia School of Law, Continuing Legal Education Presentations (Mar. 28, 2011). [26-page PDF]
Pike, George H. "Evaluating Free Online Legal Information," Online (Sept/Oct. 2008), 32(5): 20-23.
The purpose of this guide is to provide you with organized access to the Cheng Library's legal resources collection online. These materials are available from our subscription databases - particularly Lexis-Nexis Academic and Westlaw - and from free sources on the web.
Navigating the landscape of legal information can be challenging. Along with the wide range of subjects covered by the law, students must also consider issues of jurisdiction (international, federal, state, county, municipal, etc.) and legal sector (legislatures, courts, executive and regulatory agencies, etc.) when searching for sources of the law. There is also a substantial amount of secondary material consisting of legal scholarship and news. This guide is intended to help you get to what you are looking for as quickly and easily as possible.
Because starting points for research and course assignments can always vary a great deal, we invite you to contact us directly if you need additional assistance. Please see my contact information on the right if you need further assistance.
The new edition of Locating the Law: A Handbook for Non-Law Librarians is freely available for download in its entirety or one may view individual chapters and appendices. Below is the table of contents.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: How to Read a Legal Citation
Chapter 3: Basic Legal Research Techniques
Chapter 4: Legal Reference vs. Legal Advice
Chapter 5: California Law
Chapter 6: Bibliography of California Resources
Chapter 7: Federal Law
Chapter 8: Bibliography of Federal Law Resources
Chapter 9: Assisting Self-Represented Litigants
Chapter 10: Bibliography of Self-Help Resources
Chapter 11: Availability, Accessibility and Maintenance of Legal Collections
Chapter 12: Major Law Publishers
Appendix A: Glossary of Legal Terms
Appendix B: Common Abbreviations in the Law
Appendix C: California County Law Libraries
Appendix D: California Law Schools
These "one stop shopping" sites provide users with a myraid of links to law-related materials on the Internet. They provide users with a catalog of Web sites, a search engine or both.
None of these sites are featured extensively in this guide but are worth a mention. Their aim is to expand public access to legal information.
The following Web sites are referenced throughout this guide.