Standard Reference

Materials for Legal Research

Wesleyann Johnson

LIS 6120: Access to Information

2 December 2014

Observation Assignment

• The reference librarian that supervised the Observation Assignment, the

library and the broader institution are recognized as R. F., Library C and

the Law School.

• Spent 10 hours with R. F. over the course of five weeks between October and

November in Library C at the Law School.

• Completion of the Observation Assignment involved attending a

bibliographic instruction seminar within a classroom, a tour given in the

stacks and a directed study of two databases: Lexis and Westlaw.

Library C in the Law SchoolImage depicts a portion of the 670,000 volumes (380,000 titles) shared by the five libraries of the Law School. .

Overview

• The patrons of an academic law library, i.e. that housed within a law

school, include students, faculty/staff and community members.

• There are two main types of reference materials used in legal research:

primary and secondary sources.

• Primary sources come directly from the Government of the United States.

• Secondary sources are interpretations of/commentary on primary sources.

• Staff members conduct bibliographic instruction (in classrooms and via

tours) to enable the patrons to efficiently utilize the materials.

Primary Sources

1. Statutes – Legislative Branch

• Clusters of subject-specific laws, available at both the state and federal levels

2. Case Laws/Reporters – Judicial Branch

• Statements made by courts are called “case law” and, when grouped, they compose “reporters”

• When “case reporters” are indexed, they become known as “digests”

3. Codes/Regulations – Executive Branch

• Laws are upheld by the “regulations” that are developed by relevant agencies

• Many “regulations” are called “codes”

Secondary Sources

1. Encyclopedias

• Provide succinct entries on topics encountered by the patrons of a law library

2. Legal Dictionaries and Thesauri

• Consulted after wading through legal jargon when a clearer definition/understanding

of a term(s) is necessary

Secondary Sources, Pt. II

3. Legal Periodicals

• Publications of current information in the form of newspapers, journals and reviews

4. Treatises and Looseleafs

• Both pertain to current information on narrow subjects, though “treatises” link that

information to citations of primary sources and “looseleafs” additionally

contextualize it with the insight of experts (i.e seasoned lawyers and/or scholars)

Secondary Sources, Pt. III

5. Form Books

• Includes blank copies of commonly used forms used for wills, employment

contracts, mortgages, taxes/securities, etc.

6. Nutshells and Hornbooks

• Subject-specific paperbacks that may serve as guides to the following topics: state

and religion, medical liability, income taxation of corporations and stockholders,

patent law, trial advocacy and constitutional analysis, etc.

Electronic Resources: Databases

• Subscribes to 25 databases annually, most of them require a fee.

• The majority can be accessed remotely by the student and faculty/staff

patrons of Library C with a password obtainable from the reference

librarian, and this is preferable to those with odd schedules.

• The two databases that are undoubtedly the most popular are Lexis and

Westlaw, even though they make the generally the same information

accessible.

Bibliographic Instruction

• R. F. spends approximately 15 hours weekly conducting bibliographic

instruction seminars or giving tours of the materials.

• Working in classrooms and in the stacks.

• The tours are most often requested by groups of paralegals-to-be but R. F.

will give a tour to a solitary patron, if necessary.

• He crafts assignments/quizzes in locating resources in print and/or on the

Internet, building searches for the databases and citing materials.

Concluding Statements

• There are multiple kinds of materials intended to support legal research

and a well-rounded study should involve many of them, but answering the

reference question(s) of a patron remains the priority.

• Encouragement should be offered to patrons to leave their comfort zones trying both

print and electronic resources.

• The staff members of the library are there to help.

• Please direct any comments/questions to fo0081@wayne.edu, and they

will be answered as promptly as possible.

References

ALL-SIS Task Force on Library Marketing and Outreach. (2013). Marketing and outreach in law libraries: A white paper. Law Library Journal, 105(4), 525-538. Retrieved from Library Literature & Information Science Full Text (H.W. Wilson) database.

Bopp, R. E., & Smith, L. C. (2011). Reference and information services: An introduction. (4th ed.). Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.

Heller, H. W. (2009). The twenty-first century law library: A law firm librarian’s thoughts. Law Library Journal, 101(4), 517-523. Retrieved from Library Literature & Information Science Full Text (H.W. Wilson) database.

References, Cont.

Mann, T. (2005). The Oxford guide to library research: How to find reliable information online and offline (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Murley, D. (2009). A selective history of technology in law libraries. Law Library Journal, 101(3), 415-420. Retrieved from Library Literature & Information Science Full Text (H.W. Wilson) database.

Quidachay-Swan, S. (2013). The effect of time of day on reference interactions in academic law libraries. References & User Services Quarterly, 52(4), 298-301. doi: 10.5860/rusq.52n4.298

Westerberger Prager, S. (2004). Law libraries and the scholarly mission. Law Library Journal, 96(3), 513-524. Retrieved from Library Literature & Information Science Full Text (H.W. Wilson) database.