Finding Law Resources in the Library

Transcription

1 Finding Law Resources in the Library August 2013

2 Introduction to finding Law resources Finding a book Go to the library website: and click on the Explore the catalogue link. Enter the name of the book you are looking for in the catalogue search box and press the arrow to search. Click on advanced search to search for books by keyword, subject, title and author. Finding a print journal article Your reading lists will contain many journal articles. These will mainly be available electronically but some may be available in print as well, or occasionally in print only. Check the catalogue to see if we have a journal in print or ask at an Information Desk in the James Joyce Library. NB. When trying to locate a journal article, search for the journal first, e.g. Irish Law Reports Monthly. Select Print Journals under format on the left hand side to just see the print journal records only. In the record for Irish Law Reports Monthly, click on Show library holdings to see what years of this journal are available in print in the library. 2

3 Understanding a journal article citation Your reading list might contain an electronic journal article citation like the one below: Jeffries, S. and C. E.W. Bond, Does a therapeutic court context matter?: The likelihood of imprisonment for Indigenous and non-indigenous offenders sentenced in problem-solving courts (2013) 41 (1) International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice The following table explains the different elements of the citation above Jeffries, S. and C. E.W. Bond Does a therapeutic court context matter?: The likelihood of imprisonment for Indigenous and non- Indigenous offenders sentenced in problem-solving courts Authors of article Title of article (2013) 41 (1) Year, volume number and issue number of the journal International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice Title of journal Page number: this applies whether the article is in print or online To find an electronic journal article Find the journal first e.g. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice Go to the Library website: Select ejournals under other search options Enter your UCD Connect user name and password if prompted. Your username is generally your student number and your password your date of birth in ddmmyy format Put the name of the journal (in this case, International Journal of Law Crime and Justice) in the search box and press search. Click on the journal when its name comes up. Click on the title of the journal in red. 3

4 You will see this journal is available via Elsevier. It shows that we have this journal electronically from 2008 to the present. We also have archive access to this journal from 1995 to Click on the Go button above Available from 2008 to access the recent issues of the journal. A list of years and volumes is displayed on the left hand side of the screen. Click on 2013 and you will see a list of that year s volumes and issue numbers. You are looking for volume 41, issue 1. Click on this link. Jeffries and Bond s article is the last on the list of contents, note the page numbers are as in the citation Click on the PDF link to see the full-text NB. Note that this journal is not in a Law database like Westlaw or Lexis Library. Many law journals will be available in non-law databases so make sure and check the ejournals link on the library homepage when looking for an online article. Law databases You can access Law databases on the library website by clicking on the Databases link, under the Search the Library search box. You will need to use your UCD connect username and password to access the databases You can type in the name of the database eg Westlaw and click search or if you want to see all the law databases at UCD, click on the subject tab and scroll down and select law from the list and click search. This will display a list of the law databases at UCD. Clicking on the i button opposite each database will tell you what kind of content the database covers. Click on the name of the database to open it. 4

5 The main law databases that UCD Library subscribes to are: Westlaw UK Lexis Library Justis Hein Online Westlaw IE. NB. Different law databases have different holding so which one you use will vary depending on what you are looking for. A good database to use that links to all is Justcite. A general idea of holdings is below. Irish case law Irish Reports Justis, Lexis Library Irish Law Reports Monthly Westlaw IE Irish legal articles The only exclusively Irish legal database UCD subscribes to is Westlaw IE and this has extensive Irish legal journals. Click on the Journals tab in Westlaw IE to access them. English (UK) case law The main database for UK decisions is Westlaw UK but you will also find holdings in Lexis Library and Justis USA, Commonwealth (Canada, Australia, New Zealand) case law Westlaw UK click on the Services tab across the top bar and select Westlaw International English journal articles These are most commonly found on Westlaw UK. If you cannot find the journal article you are looking for on Westlaw, remember that you can search for the specific journal if you click on E-journals on the library homepage. American law journals The main American law journals are available in PDF form on HeinOnline. Lexis Library is also useful if you want to conduct a more general search of American law journals on a specific topic. 5

6 Other useful sites Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations If you are not sure what a citation stands for, check the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations, which is freely available on the Internet. Google Cardiff Index or use the URL: BAILII British and Irish Legal Information Institute Available online for free at this site has British and Irish case law and legislation and other material. Click on the Ireland link on the left hand column for the Irish content Courts Service of Ireland Available online for free at Courts.ie is useful for up-to-date decisions from the Supreme Court, High Court and Court of Criminal Appeal. Click on English and then click on the Judgments link on the right hand of the screen. Further help UCD Library website: Information Desk, Level 2, James Joyce Library 6