Research Tip: Use an Index

Westlaw and LexisNexis are great resources for doing legal research. They have thousands of databases of full-text documents, including statutes, regulations, cases, and articles from law reviews and other legal periodicals.

But searching a full-text database can be time-consuming and frustrating. How many times have you run what seems like a very precise search in a full-text database of journals and law reviews, and ended up having to sort through hundreds of articles in which your search terms appear only in the footnotes.

One way to improve the relevance of your search results is to use a legal periodical index such as LegalTrac or WilsonWeb. Because these indexes typically search just the most important parts of articles, like the title and abstract, they are much more likely to retrieve articles you can use. You can use LegalTrac from any computer on the SIUC campus network, but you must be connected to the law-school network to use WilsonWeb.

Westlaw and LexisNexis also have legal-periodical indexes: both systems have Legal Resource Index, the database that LegalTrac searches, and Westlaw has Index to Legal Periodicals, the WilsonWeb database. The indexes link you to full-text articles available on the system you are using.

Indexes can save you time and improve the relevance of your search results. For more information see:

• Using WilsonWeb to Find Legal Articles;
• Using LegalTrac to Find Legal Articles.

Westlaw & LexisNexis: Summer 2007 Access

Westlaw & LexisNexis: Summer 2007 Access
Unless you qualify (and register) under one of the categories below, your access to LexisNexis and Westlaw will be limited during Summer 2007 as follows:

Westlaw: Students will have 2 hours of access in June and 2 hours of access in July.
LexisNexis: Students’ LexisNexis IDs will be limited to career materials (as of June 1, 2007).
Full access to both services will generally resume August 1st, 2007.

Full Summer 2007 Access: You may be granted full access to LexisNexis and/or Westlaw during Summer 2007 if you meet one of the following criteria and register.

LexisNexis
To register, go to LexisNexis. Click on "Summer Access" and choose one of the following criteria:

• Summer School
• Moot Court Research
• Law Journal research
• Research Assistant for Law Professor
• Non-Profit Externship (includes Public Interest position)
• Unpaid Internship/Externship (or small stipend)

Westlaw
To register, click on the "Need Summer Access" link on the right when you sign-on to Westlaw. Register for Summer access online by May 31, 2007. After May 31 you will have to call Westlaw (800.850.9378).

For full access, you must be doing one of the following:

• Summer School
• Moot Court Research
• Law Journal research
• Law Journal research
• Research Assistant for Law Professor
• Public interest intern/externships

Questions? Contact Kara Grimme (SIU Westlaw Account Representative, kara.grimme@thomson.com) or Marantha Beatty-Brown (SIU LexisNexis Account Representative, marantha.beatty-brown@lexisnexis.com).

How Current Are LexisNexis and Westlaw?

A few months ago, I posted an item here about a LexisNexis statutory database that was much less current than I expected it to be. I recently discovered that another LexisNexis database—this time the Journal of Legal Medicine—is almost a year behind the same journal on Westlaw.

The Journal of Legal Medicine is a quarterly publication. The December 2006 issue is available in print, and the table of contents and abstracts have been added to the publisher's website. The most recent articles available on Westlaw are from the September 2006 issue—not as current as the print, but only one issue out of date. Westlaw's Scope for the database says that "Documents selected from this periodical ... are made available after a license for inclusion in WESTLAW has been obtained from the author(s)."

The most recent Journal of Legal Medicine articles available on LexisNexis are from the December 2005 issue. The LexisNexis Source Information says that coverage is "From March 1995 through current" and that the database is "Updated regularly - Atypical update schedule/as received from the publisher."

Although these are just two examples, I have started to wonder just how current databases on LexisNexis are. I wasn't looking for out-of-date databases when I stumbled across these two. Maybe I just happened to find two anomalous databases. Maybe there are many more. Have you seen other LexisNexis databases that are less current than you would expect? How about Westlaw databases? If so, please leave a comment.

The image above is the rabbit from The Tenniel Illustrations for Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, found at Project Gutenberg.

LexisNexis Discontinues West Headnote Coverage in Shepard's Citations

LexisNexis has announced that, as of September 1, 2006, it no longer provides coverage of West headnotes for most case law in Shepard's Citations. See "New Enhancements" section of the current LexisNexis Info Pro for Legal Information Professionals. LexisNexis also began removing "historic headnote analysis" from Shepard's Citations on September 1, 2006. The company cites the steady decline of print subscriptions to Shepard's and states that "we can no longer justify the resources required to keep up the labor-intensive process of performing analysis for headnotes that we do not have online."

This announcement comes one year after a September 2005 LexisNexis news release stating that "LexisNexis will continue to provide headnote analysis for West's reporters. Furthermore, no existing headnote analysis has been removed from any Shepard's product." This news release had been posted in response to questions and concerns raised at the time about the rumored possible elimination of West headnote coverage in Shepard's Citations.