How to Conduct FREE Legal Research Online: Overview for the
ABA 2013 Midyear Meeting
Matthew Braun Acting Reading Room Coordinator
Law Library of Congress February 8, 2013
Today’s Presentation The Library of Congress
• Mission • Overview
The Law Library of Congress • Mission • Overview • Digital resources
• Foreign legal resources • U.S. legal resources
• Ask a Librarian • Social Media
Other Legal Resources Questions
The Library of Congress
Mission
To support the Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties and to further the progress of knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the American people.
The Library of Congress
Overview Oldest U.S. federal cultural institution Serves as the research arm of the U.S. Congress Has a permanent staff of about 3,600 employees Largest library in the world
• Contains more than 144 million items in 420 languages including: 22 million books 3 million sound recordings 12.5 million photographs 5.3 million maps 64 million manuscripts
www.loc.gov
www.loc.gov
The Law Library of Congress Overview Established by law in 1832 as a
separate department of the Library of Congress Largest law library in the world
• Over 2.84 million volumes that include U.S. state and Federal materials, foreign codes, constitutions, official gazettes, law reports, treatises, serials, and laws from all historical periods
• Covering some 267 existing nations and jurisdictions • Working reference collection of approximately
30,000 volumes in the public reading room • Global Legal Research Center – staffed by foreign law
experts who do foreign law reference and research and help build the foreign law collections
The Law Library of Congress
Mission The mission of the Law Library of Congress
is to provide research and legal information to the U.S. Congress as well as to U.S. Federal Courts and Executive Agencies, and to offer reference services to the public.
Public Services Division
Collection Services Division
Global Legal Research Center
Global Legal Research Center
Argentina Brazil Canada China Eritrea European Union France Germany Greece India, Pakistan
Israel Japan Lebanon Mexico New Zealand, Australia Nicaragua Russian Federation United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland
Foreign Law Specialists,
Principal Jurisdictions
Augmented by Contract Foreign Law Specialists and Senior Legal Research Analysts
Global Legal Research Center Sample of Secondary Jurisdictions
China Hong Kong
Eritrea Ghana Nigeria Botswana
France Belgium Haiti
Germany Austria Liechtenstein Switzerland
European Union
Greece Cyprus
India Pakistan Nepal Sri Lanka
Japan North and South Korea
Russian Federation Armenia Azerbaijan Bosnia and Herzegovina
United Kingdom Channel Islands Isle of Man British Virgin Islands Malta
The Law Library of Congress
Online Resources • Guide to Law Online: www.loc.gov/law/help/guide • Current Legal Topics: www.loc.gov/law/help/current-topics.php • Global Legal Monitor: www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news • THOMAS: www.thomas.gov • Congress.gov: http://beta.congress.gov • A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw
www.law.gov
www.law.gov
Guide to Law Online http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide.php
Legal Portal of over 9,000 links • Annotated compilation of Internet links • Organized by jurisdiction and topics • Multinational, international, U.S. and state
materials • Full text of laws, regulations, and cases • Legal commentary
Current Legal Topics www.loc.gov/law/help/current-topics.php
• International Issues • Legal commentary • Historical Events • Commemorative Observations • Bibliographic resources
Global Legal Monitor www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news
• Worldwide legal news • Frequently updated • Can be searched by topic, country,
keyword, author, or date • Persistent URLs
THOMAS www.thomas.gov
Launched on January 5, 1995 Content:
• Bill summaries: 1973 –> • Bill text 1989 –> • Congressional Record 1989 –> • Congressional Committee Reports 1995 –> • Treaties • Presidential nominations Subscribe via RSS feeds, Share/Save Law Library manages content
www.thomas.gov
This is the “Advanced Search”
beta.congress.gov
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw
U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates • March 16, 1998 debut • Content (1774-1875): Continental Congress Constitutional Convention Journals of Congress Debates of Congress Statutes and selected bills and reports
• TIFF format
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw
May limit sources searched here
The Law Library of Congress Social Media
• In Custodia Legis Blog: http://blogs.loc.gov/law • Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lawlibraryofcongress • Twitter: http://twitter.com/LawLibCongress • You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/LibraryOfCongress#g/c/96401BE3402149B9
• iTunes U: http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/law-and-the-library/id386017780#ls=1
http://blogs.loc.gov/law
www.facebook.com/lawlibraryofcongress
http://twitter.com/LawLibCongress
www.youtube.com/user/LibraryOfCongress#g/c/96401BE3402149B9
http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/law-and-the-library/id386017780#ls=1
Ask A Librarian Overview OCLC QuestionPoint Software Library of Congress – June 2002 Law Library of Congress – December 2004 250-300 queries per month
E-mail or web account Available worldwide
www.loc.gov
www.loc.gov/rr/askalib
www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ask-law.html
Other free & trustworthy sources • Federal Digital System (FDsys):
www.gpo.gov/fdsys • U.S. House of Representatives, Office of
the Law Revision Counsel: http://uscode.house.gov
• Regulations.gov: www.regulations.gov • USA.gov: www.usa.gov (official portal) • Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law
School: www.law.cornell.edu • HG.org: www.hg.org
Other free & trustworthy sources (con’t)
• FindLaw: http://lp.findlaw.com • Justia: www.justia.com • LexisWeb: www.lexisweb.com • NOLO Laws and Legal Research:
www.nolo.com/legal-research • The American Presidency Project,
University of California, Santa Barbara: www.presidency.ucsb.edu
• Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com
QUESTIONS?
Contact Information:
Matthew Braun Acting Reading Room Coordinator
Law Library of Congress 101 Independence Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20540 E-mail: [email protected]
V: (202) 707-3190
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