This new video tutorial from the ABA is surprisingly comprehensive and focuses primarily on resources in the Law Library of Congress, the “largest law library in the world.” For international legal research, the LLoC is where it’s at. The law library is also one of the biggest online portals to legal resources available. In addition to surveying the LLoC’s website, this video also offers tutorials on Lexis’ free services, FindLaw, Google Scholar, and government websites such as the GPO’s FedSys. The presentation materials can be located here.

Here’s a summary of the presentation from the ABA:

This free program focuses on the legal research services and resources available from the Law Library of Congress, as well as several other free online collections. Following a general overview of the Law Library and its services available to lawyers, librarians, and researchers around the world, there is an explanation of the organization and content of Congress.gov and THOMAS, the Library of Congress’s federal legislative information sites, which together contain the full texts of House and Senate bills and resolutions, the

Congressional Record, and much more, starting with the 101st Congress (1989-90).

Special emphasis will be given to Congress.gov, which was launched by the Library of Congress in September 2012, and is in an initial beta phase, with plans to transform the Library of Congress’s existing congressional information system into a modern, durable, and user-friendly resource. Eventually, it will incorporate all of the information available on THOMAS.

Learn about the Law Library’s global research services, its vast collections in 195 languages from over 220 jurisdictions worldwide, and its expert staff equipped to answer your legal research questions.

The program also highlights other free, yet trustworthy, online legal collections and search engines, such as the U.S. Government Printing Office’s Federal Digital System (FDsys), Cornell University Law School’s Legal Information Institute, the University of California, Santa Barbara’s American Presidency Project, HG.org, FindLaw, Justia, LexisWeb, Google Scholar, and a number of others products.

Since it has become clear that Lexis has its continued existence riding on the success of the Lexis Advance rollout, it makes sense that Lexis would make such an offer this year. So far, word of mouth is that the offer has worked well for Bloomberg.

Here’s the text of the email my students recently received:

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Unlimited Access to Your Lexis Advance® ID this Summer

We are happy to announce that your law school Lexis Advance ID will remain active during the summer and that you will have unlimited access to the content available to you in law school to be used for your academic, as well as any summer associate or internship/clerkship purposes*. Whether working in a firm, government agency, any of the courts, or brushing up on your cost effective research skills, you will have unlimited access to Lexis Advance.

We understand that as a law student, your legal education does not stop during the summer. In fact, some of your most valuable and practical legal education occurs during your participation in summer associate and internship or clerkship programs. In recognition of this, for the months of June, July and August of this year, we are expanding the permissible uses of your law school Lexis Advance ID to include use by you in these programs, including all research or other work you perform for the firm, agency, or court. You simply need to be registered for Lexis Advance.

Registering for Summer Access

• If you’re already a registered Lexis Advance user, you don’t need to do anything else to get Summer Access. Your current ID is all you need.
• If you aren’t a registered Lexis Advance user yet (or aren’t sure), click here for assistance from your Account Executive.

Support throughout the Summer

Your school’s LexisNexis® Account Executive is available to you during the summer for training and support. Feel free to contact him or her early to let them know your summer research goals.
You also have access to 24/7 customer support for help with Lexis Advance, summer access or research questions at 1-800-45-LEXIS (53947).

Enjoy your “All Access Pass” to Lexis Advance this summer!

Indeed, this is one of the best curated guides I have come across. Check it out here.

New Guide to Free Internet Legal Research: John Marshall Law Library.

Updated Guide to Legal Research Apps: UCLA Law Library.

Free Access to Extensive CLE Database: Lawline via The Sociable Lawyer Blog.

“Free Legal Research in a Digital World” Seminar Materials: Stetson Law Library.

The first change at Google Scholar that is NOT for the better is that it’s now harder to find because it’s no longer located on the “More” drop-down menu. Instead, to navigate to Google Scholar you’ll need to click the “More” tab and then “Even More” (see Illustration 1).”

Read more here.

One of my favorite Westlaw features is the ability to create a KeyCite Alert that sends email updates whenever a new case cites a specific case. This feature is extremely effective at helping practitioners update cases. I’m happy to report (at the risk of sounding like a shill for Google Scholar) that you can now accomplish the same thing — for free — with Google.

The Process

Choose a case. Let’s say you’d like to keep abreast of the latest cases mentioning Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803). Here are the five steps required to create an alert for this case:

STEP 1: Simply navigate to the case in Google Scholar.

STEP 2: Once you’ve pulled up the case, locate and click the “How cited” link in the upper-left horizontal menu. You’ve just navigated to Google’s equivalent to Shepard’s. (See my previous post about Shepardizing using Google Scholar’s How Cited feature.)

STEP 3: On the How Cited page, we’ll be focusing on the “Cited by” heading. After a selection of documents listed under “Cited by” click “all [n] citing documents >>”. In the case of Marbury, the link reads “all 22,570 citing documents” (at this writing).

STEP 4: You’ve just navigated to a page listing all database documents citing to the document you’d like to track. On the upper-right-hand of your screen, click the button with the email logo next to “My Citations”.

STEP 5: Enter your email information and select the number of results you’d like to receive. Press “Create Alert and … Voila! You’re one step closer to staying abreast of recent treatment of a particular case.

Now for the disclaimers:  Remember that Google Scholar has its limitations. Keep in mind that there may be some delay between the date of opinion issuance and database integration. Also, be aware that Google Scholar may not index every decision issued. You’re always at the mercy of Google’s bots and algorithms. And, of course, this post should not, under any circumstances, be considered legal advice and is not a substitute for complete updating of cases.

An excerpt of the program description follows, and for a link to the registration site, click here.

The two court of appeals most comfortable with Wikipedia were the Seventh Circuit and the Ninth Circuit, with 36 citations and 17 citations, respectively. The 10th Circuit and Sixth Circuit recorded eight and six citations, respectively. The First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and 11th circuits all had five or fewer Wikipedia citations.