Introduction to the Basic FeaturesStephanie A. HuffnagleLast updated 2/25/11

Online database providing access to News, Business & Legal Information

Newspapers (New York Times, Buffalo News)

Magazines (Newsweek, The Economist)

Company Information (SEC Filings, Hoover’s Company Records)

For a complete listing of publications, click on the Publications List link

You can search by title, OR

Scroll through the alphabetized list

Secondary Sources◦ American Jurisprudence 2d (Am Jur 2d)

◦ American Law Reports (ALR)

◦ Over 800 law reviews and journals

Primary Sources◦ United States Code Annotated (USCA)

◦ All federal and state court cases, including all U.S. Supreme Court cases

◦ State statutes and regulations

◦ Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)

◦ Federal Register

For a complete listing of law content, click on the Content List

You can search by title, OR

Scroll through the content list

KeyCite◦ Red Flag = no longer good on at least one point of

law

◦ Yellow Flag = some negative history

◦ Blue H = some history

◦ Green C = citing references with no direct negative history

West’s Key Number System◦ Cases are organized by topic and given a specific

Key Number

◦ You can search the Key Numbers to find cases with a specific topic by clicking on “Go” in the KeySearchbox under the Law tab.

You can browse through the subject list to find what you are looking for

OR, you can click on the Key Numbers in the case headnotes

Field restrictions and connectors◦ Examples:

Author – AU(Lewis)

Synopsis/Digest – SY,DI(“native american”)

* = universal character (e.g. wom!n = women and woman)

/s = within the same sentence (e.g. cigarettes /s tax, cigarettes and tax will appear in the same sentence)

◦ See separate handout for additional examples

Famous Documents

Legal Guides

Scope & Coverage

Click on the What’s in Campus Research link under the News & Business tab

OR, click on the Help (FAQs) link at the top of each page