June 5, 2012
6:00 PM
Room 101

Amy Taylor, Access Services Librarian amytaylor@wcl.american.edu

Amy Taylor, Access Services Librarian amytaylor@wcl.american.edu

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 circ@wcl.american.edu
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 ill@wcl.american.edu

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Pence Law Library
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18 weeks for general collection material
My Leagle
 Network user name/password
University Library
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6 weeks for general collection material
Proxy borrowing form
 http://www.american.edu/library/services/upload/Proxy-
Authorization.pdf
My Aladin
 Last name/AU ID or barcode/affiliation
Check your accounts

 Use ILLiad service via Pence http://library.wcl.american.edu/ill.cfm
 Create an account
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Find material using WorldCat or enter citations manually
Include faculty sponsors’ name on every request
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Borrowing period set by lending library
Check your account

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Very important to keep your account clear for registration, graduation, transcripts, etc.
If you have questions or problems, touch base with us and we can help.

Ripple Weistling
Reference Librarian rweistling@wcl.american.edu

 Ask a Librarian
 https://library.wcl.american.edu/ask.cfm
 Email reference assistance
 reflib@wcl.american.edu
 Instant messaging assistance
 Summer hours M-F 1:00-5:00

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 M-F 1:00-5:00
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In person
Telephone – 202-274-4352
 Reference librarian office visits
 Librarian offices, Rms. 109 -115 in Reserve Room
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M-F, business hours
Appointments encouraged

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John Heywood, Foreign and International Librarian, Rm 115 heywood@wcl.american.edu
Susan Lewis, Associate Director for Public Services, Rm 114 slewis@wcl.american.edu
Bill Ryan, Foreign & International Librarian, Rm 112 wryan@wcl.american.edu
Amy Taylor, Access Services Librarian, Rm 105B amytaylor@wcl.american.edu
Ripple Weistling, Reference and Electronic Svcs Librarian, Rm 111 rweistling@wcl.american.edu

 Log in from anywhere in the world
 Pence Law Library databases
 Use your my.american.edu login/password to access
 AU Library databases
 Use your AU ID number to access

library.wcl.american.edu
 Encore or Leagle – Pence Law Library catalog
 Your starting point for what’s available from the library
 Research Tools link
 Your guide to all library research resources
 Articles indexes and databases
 Your starting point to find articles (better than Lexis/Westlaw)
 Information Resources links
 Databases and websites
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Topical
A-Z

 Encore or Leagle – Pence Law Library catalog
 Your roadmap to what’s available from the library, in any format:
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Physical collection – books, periodicals, microform, DVDs
Databases and other electronic resources
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Bloomberg BNA Library – US Law Week, etc.
HeinOnline
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Arab Law Quarterly
Many more
Websites

 Legal articles indexes: Research Tools Page
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Include LegalTrac, ILPB, Current Index to Legal Periodicals, Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
Large collections of journals indexed
Good place to do topical article searching
Some articles are available in full text; others are citations
 If full text isn’t available, then HeinOnline or LexisNexis/Westlaw
 LexisNexis, Westlaw, HeinOnline
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Great for finding articles with known citations
Not so good for topical article searching
 Smaller collections of journals indexed

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We have a large collection of legal databases and websites on a variety of topics
Access them from
 Information resources by topic link
(library.wcl.american.edu/resources/topics.cfm)
 Information resources, A-Z link
(library.wcl.american.edu/resources/resources.cfm)

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ProQuest Congressional - the definitive source for legislative history research
Bloomberg BNA Library – a large collection of databases on a range of legal topics
Bloomberg Law – Legal, business, and news database; a good source for docket information
 (for access, go to bloomberglaw.com/activate and sign up using your WCL email)
U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978 - an excellent source for historical Supreme Court research
Social Science Research Network - articles and working papers from law and other social science disciplines

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AU main library has an extensive collections of non-legal databases in arts, business, international studies, social science, etc.
You have access to all main library resources (see slide on remote access, above)
Search Databases or Find Journals
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Find Journals (by title) when you have a citation
Search Databases when you’re doing topical research
 Databases are organized alphabetically and by discipline

International & Foreign Law Sources
John Heywood
Foreign and International Law Librarian heywood@wcl.american.edu

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Municipal Law – A nation-state’s domestic law
Foreign Law – A foreign nation-state’s domestic law
Comparative Law –The study and comparison of the domestic law of 2 or more nation-states
International Law –The law governing the inter-relations of nation-states

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This is not as easy as you think it will be
Each of the 192 or so nation-states in the world has a distinct and complex legal system that, just like ours, requires years of study to master
Most countries neither legislate nor adjudicate in English
The first place to start is the Foreign Law Guide , available on our A to Z list

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3 sources of international law:
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Treaties
Custom
General Principles of Law
The last 2 would take us until sometime tomorrow to discuss how to find….come see Bill or me
Treaty finding can also be daunting, but we have a few tips that will help you 75% of the time
 For the remaining 25%, come see Bill or me

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The Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law , from our A to Z list
Janis & the nutshell are both excellent
Research Guides from the American Society of International
Law, NYU, LLRX, etc.
My own online IL list is useful (it links through the WCL proxy server): http://internationalcourts.net/presentations/InternationalLegal
ResearchOnline.php

 US Treaties
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If the US is a party, it is US domestic law, and fairly easy to find
HeinOnline has a Treaties & Agreements Library with almost everything you need
The most current US treaties & agreements are on either the
State Department or Trade Rep’s websites
Treaties not yet consented to are on Thomas
Lexis/Nexis & Westlaw are useful, especially if you want to see how US courts have interpreted a treaty

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May be much more difficult to find
A UNTS or LNTS cite makes life easier
A treaty between 2 foreign countries, especially if neither have English as an official language, and also especially if they are developing nations, can be a real challenge
 Come find Bill or me

Zotero & EndNote
John Heywood
Foreign and International Law Librarian heywood@wcl.american.edu

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Tools to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources
There are many competing products
We will talk about the two most popular:
Zotero & EndNote

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Free open-source software
(both free as in beer and free as in speech)
Developed by scholars for scholars
Organizes all of your sources: bibliographic info, notes, pdfs, websites, etc.

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One-click source collecting
Automatically senses what type of source you are storing
Grabs database search results from library catalogs, LegalTrac, amazon, Google Scholar, etc.
Will not import from
Lexis/Nexis or Westlaw

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Lets you tag your sources and notes
Integrates with Word,
LibreOffice, & GoogleDocs so you can insert sources into footnotes in whatever style you choose
1500+ different styles, including the Bluebook,
Chicago, & Oxford

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Syncs with zotero.org so your info is available on the web or on multiple machines
Work with your data on any web browser anywhere…just login to your free zotero.org account (300 Mb free,
$20/year for 2 Gb)

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You can share your research
Easy backup of all your work
Easy to generate a bibliography
Mobile apps for iOS &
Android which you can use while offline or on

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2 versions:
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One that lives inside
Firefox as an extension
One that is standalone with plugins for Firefox, Safari,
& Chrome (IE works as well, but it is very clunky)
Both versions work with
Windows, Mac, & Linux

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Proprietary software owned by Thomson
Reuters, the folks who own
WestLaw
Will not import from
Lexis/Nexis or Westlaw
Works well with most other databases

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Very similar in function to
Zotero
A standalone app with plugins for Word and IE
Has a web app called
EndNote Web which allows collaboration
Works in Windows or Mac

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Has 5000+ styles, including the Bluebook,
Chicago, & Oxford
Has a mobile web app, but you must be connected to the web while using it
No user-defined tags

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Retails for $299.95, but you can download it from
AU for free while you are a student
Go to: myau.american.com

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They are both very useful
Zotero is always free, and your data is in an open format
EndNote is free while you are a student, and your data is in a proprietary format
Most folks I know despise
Endnote, but your mileage may vary

Amy Taylor
Access Services Librarian, Pence Law Library

B
Y
R

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Create a research log, whether in paper, on a spreadsheet or in a word-processing document.
You will need to keep track of the sources you consult and use for your paper in order to provide complete citations and full bibliographic information of every source you cite or use generally.
Be thorough!

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If you need a source that is not available at the Pence Law
Library, you can obtain it through interlibrary loan.
Be sure to leave enough time to obtain your source through
ILL – it may take as long as 2 weeks to get your material.
Additional information on interlibrary loan is posted at http://library.wcl.american.edu/ill.cfm

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Depends on what you know
The less you know the more you need secondary sources
Legal pubs are either chronological, by subject or both
ALWAYS update your research (Keycite/Shepardize) and generally pay attention to the dates of what you are using

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Rely on authoritative and unbiased sites
Know your search engines and how they work
NEVER use (or admit to using  ) Wikipedia
Keep a record of the sites you visit and preserve their
URL’s
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Use Google Scholar – an amazing resource but it’s complicated
Use more than one search engine
NEVER rely exclusively on the Internet (or Lexis and
Westlaw)…

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Legal research sources derived from the print - “human ordering” (key numbers, indexes, citators). Your skills are derived from the online world – you need to bridge that divide to do the BEST research
Let someone else do the initial and basic work for you (and I don’t mean the office paralegal!)

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Always be sure to use the most current information available.
Use Shepards and Keycite to insure that the cases you use are still good law, and consult the most recent version of applicable statutes and regulations to determine if they are still in force and have not been amended.

LexisNexis Shepard’s
Updates
Google Alerts
Westlaw Alerts

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Did you answer the question you originally started with?
Have you checked and updated all the sources you used and cited?
Are you seeing the same sources every time you attempt to do further research.
If you do you are probably finished, especially if your deadline is approaching.

or
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Consult an expert reference librarian. Come to the Reference
Desk in the library or email us at reflib@wcl.american.edu
If it takes you longer than 10 minutes to find something you are better off asking the experts – your librarians!

Thank You,
Pence Law Library