Research Tip: How Current Is Your Source?

Most of us instinctively assume that online sources will be more current than print sources. That is not always the case, even with premium services like LexisNexis or Westlaw.

This semester, I had my Lawyering Skills students use the Missouri statutory code for one of their legal research exercises. While preparing the answer sheet, I was surprised to see that the MO statutory code section on LexisNexis had this statement about currentness: "Current through all 2005 legislation." I was sure that this had to be a mistake, so I investigated.

I started with the books. The pocket-parts for Vernon's Annotated Missouri Statutes in print, which we received in February, are current through the end of 2005!

The MO statutory code section on Westlaw had this statement about currentness: "current through the end of the Second Regular Session of the 93rd General Assembly (2006)." Westlaw's Scope information for the database states that "State Revisor's corrections are not incorporated until they are received from the state."

The Source Description for the LexisNexis Missouri Annotated Statutes says that the statutes are updated annually. I confirmed this information with a LN reference attorney, who told me that the database is scheduled to be updated after Thanksgiving, when LN receives the new code from the state and after the editorial enhancements are added.

Missouri only updates its official code annually, and the Missouri Revised Statutes on the General Assembly website has this warning, entitled Frequency of Statute Updates: "As provided in section 3.125 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri 2000, the statutes of Missouri are permitted to be published once a year or every two years. In compliance with this section, the statutes on this web site are updated only once a year."

Of course, you can always use a legislative service to update a statutory code, whether you are doing research using books, LexisNexis, or Westlaw. You just don't expect to have to do so much updating when you are using an online annotated code.

Related research tip: Is It Still Good Law?

Neko Is Law Dog of the Week

This week's SIU Law "Dog" is Neko, who belongs to Neil Poston, a first-year law student at SIU. Neko is a 7-month-old Snowshoe. Click on Neko's photo to see her "Law Dog of the Week" page.

To see photos of all previous Law Dogs of the Week, visit our Gallery of SIU Law Dogs, which you can find under Related Links in the sidebar. See our Call for Photos for instructions on submitting your SIU Law Dog photo.

Featured Resource: NewsBank InfoWeb

NewsBank InfoWeb includes AccessUN, Access World News, hot topics, special reports, maps, and other news resources.

Access World News includes electronic editions of more than 1500 local, regional, and national U.S. newspapers and key international sources in a searchable database. Newspapers include the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and many smaller newspapers. The Southern Illinoisan is there--is your home town newspaper?

AccessUN indexes United Nations documents including Official Records, masthead documents, draft resolutions, meeting records, UN Sales Publications, and the UN Treaty Series. It also includes the full-text of several thousand UN documents.

You can connect to NewsBank InfoWeb from any computer on the SIUC campus network, including your laptop using the SIUC or law school VPN. To see a complete list of electronic resources to which the law library subscribes, go to our Subscription Electronic Resources page.

Thanks to our Acquisitions/Catalog Librarian, Cornelius (Neil) Pereira, for the tip.

Lexi Is Law Dog of the Week

This week's SIU Law Dog is Lexi, who belongs to Kim Dulin, a friend of the SIU Law Library. Lexi will play fetch as long as someone is willing to throw something. Click on Lexi's photo to see her "Law Dog of the Week" page.

To see photos of all previous Law Dogs of the Week, visit our Gallery of SIU Law Dogs, which you can find under Related Links in the sidebar. See our Call for Photos for instructions on submitting your SIU Law Dog photo.

Research Tip: FirstGov Search Upgrade

The government web portal, FirstGov.gov, has upgraded its Search to give users the choice of searching federal and state government websites, just news, or just images. The Web search option includes news and images in its search results. FirstGov Search just received a major overhaul in January, finally becoming a useful research tool, and it is now even better.

Once you have chosen a Web, Images, or News search, click on Advanced Search to make your search even more specific. For example, with a Web search, you can limit your search to federal sites or to a specific state. With a News search, you can limit your search to news from a specific source. See Search Tips for other options.

Search results are categorized using Vivísimo's clustering technology, and they can be sorted by topic, agency, or source. On some search-results screens there is a tabbed box at the top with selected links to FAQs, forms, jobs, and podcasts. Other search results may be topped by blocks of categorized news links. Featured images may be displayed in a box below the list of clusters.

For an excellent review of FirstGov Search as both a search tool and an information discovery tool, see FirstGovSearch Adds Image and News Search and Continues to Provide Dynamic Clustering on ResourceShelf.

See also Peggy Garvin, The Government Domain: FirstGov becomes First in Government Search on LLRX.com.

Timely Explanation of Citators

Groklaw presents "A Brief Description of Citators for Those Without a Legal Background" by Mark Giangrande.

Mark Giangrande is a lawyer and member of the Illinois Bar. He currently works as a reference librarian at the Vincent G. Rinn Library at the DePaul University College of Law in Chicago. He is also the editor of the Tech Law Prof Blog and a co-editor of the Law Librarian Blog.

For more information on Groklaw, see Groklaw's Mission Statement and What We Offer You and the Map to Groklaw.

Thanks to the Law Librarian Blog for the tip.

Legal Research Mind Maps

A couple of people have asked to see my legal research mind maps. Those I created for my spring 2006 and fall 2006 Lawyering Skills classes are available at http://www.law.siu.edu/lawlib/mindmaps/legalresearch.htm.

Zoey Is Law Dog of the Week

This week's SIU Law Dog is Zoey, who belongs to Michelle Clark, a first-year law student at SIU. This photo was taken during a trip to Canada. Click on Zoey's photo to see her "Law Dog of the Week" page.

To see photos of all previous Law Dogs of the Week, visit our Gallery of SIU Law Dogs, which you can find under Related Links in the sidebar. See our Call for Photos for instructions on submitting your SIU Law Dog photo.

Mind Mapping Legal Subjects

Thanks to a comment by David Stubbs on my posting about Mind Mapping Legal Research, I learned about this fabulous site that David and some friends have set up to share their maps with others.

They have detailed maps for core and elective subjects for an LLB in the UK, as well as compulsory subjects for the UK Legal Practice Course (LPC). The maps are available in both PDF and either .MMP or .MMAP format. All work on www.lawmaps.org is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence.

David says: "We would love people to download the maps and use them, and we would be thrilled if people shared back improved and updated versions of our maps." So check them out!

Congratulations, Moot Court Competitors

This year's SIU Intramural Moot Court Competition was won by Wade Shimer and Timothy Ting. Natalie Gregory and Jennifer Kelly came in second.

The award for Best Brief went to Shimer and Ting, with second-place brief going to Luke DeSmet and Jamie McCarthy. The award for Best Oralist went to Timothy Ting, second place to Glenn Katayama, and third place to Joe Roark.

Well done, everyone.

Miss Kitty Is Law Dog of the Week

This week's SIU Law Dog is Miss Kitty, a one-year-old Beagle who belongs to Matt Roark. Click on Miss Kitty's photo to see her "Law Dog of the Week" page.

Matt is a first-year law student at SIU. He reports that, since moving to Illinois from Tennessee, Miss Kitty finds herself spending hours sleeping wherever she happens to fall, eating the covers off of Criminal Law textbooks, and being a general nuisance to the public.

To see photos of all previous Law Dogs of the Week, visit our Gallery of SIU Law Dogs, which you can find under Related Links in the sidebar. See our Call for Photos for instructions on submitting your SIU Law Dog photo.

Walker Is Law Dog of the Week

This week's SIU Law Dog is Walker, who belongs to Steve Krake. Click on Walker's photo for more photos of Walker. Walker's brother Roman appeared here last month.

To see photos of all previous Law Dogs of the Week, visit our Gallery of SIU Law Dogs, which you can find under Related Links in the sidebar. See our Call for Photos for instructions on submitting your SIU Law Dog photo.