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Reference Sources (Background)
Oxford Reference Online - Politics & Social Sciences (full text; current)
Search social science-related dictionaries and reference books published by Oxford University Press. Includes Dictionary of Contemporary World History, A-Z of Countries of the World, Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, Dictionary of Geography, Dictionary of Political Biography, Oxford Companion to the Politics of the World, Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics, Dictionary of the Social Sciences, andOxford Guide to the United States Government.
Oxford Reference Online - Law ( full text; current)
Search law-related dictionaries and reference books published by Oxford University Press. Includes Oxford Companion to American Law, Dictionary of Law, Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, and Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions.
Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
Legal citations can be difficult to decipher. This source will list the abbreviations used in citations in U.S., British and
The call number area for legal materials is K.
Finding Books
MaconCat
The library's online catalog, providing access to books, journals, music, and movies in the library.
WorldCat
A catalog of books and other materials in libraries worldwide.
Books and articles not owned by our library can be obtained from other libraries through Interlibrary Loan. Allow sufficient time for processing. Average turnaround time is 3-5 days for articles and 3-14 days for books, excluding holidays and weekends. Submit ILL requests well in advance of deadlines.
Locating Articles (Databases & Indexes)
LexisNexis Academic (dates vary, most 1990s-present ; full-text)
Provides full-text of legal, governmental, business, and general news information; searching under Legal Research and in News sources (particularly National or Regional papers) can be especially useful. Use the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations to determine the source in the citation.
LexisNexis Congressional (dates vary, most 1990s to present; full-text)
LexisNexis Congressional contains a comprehensive index to U.S. legislation, including full-text of proposed legislation, legislative histories, bill tracking, and current member rosters for Congress.
OmniFile Full Text Mega (some full text; 1994 to present)
Articles from scholarly and popular sources in all disciplines. Select the subject area "LEGAL"at the bottom of the search screen to get the most relevant results. This searches only the Index to Legal Periodicals.
PAIS International and PAIS Archive (1915-present; citations & abstracts)
Indexes articles, books, conference proceedings, government documents, book chapters, and statistical directories.
NCJRS (National Criminal Justice Research Service) Abstracts Database
Websites
Federal Resources:
GPO Access
GPO (the Government Printing Office) publishes over 360,000 documents each year. Since 1994, many of these documents have been made available on-line.
Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet
Thomas runs an Internet database for finding information on legislation, Congressional records, and committee information.
State and Local Resources:
Legal Links: Virginia Continuing Legal Education (VA Law Foundation)
Virginia Legislative Publications
Includes Rules of the Senate, Rules of the House of Delegates, Session indexes, etc.
Governing.com
Portal for state and local government sites.
General Guides:
Internet Public Library: Law
Guide to Law Online (Library of Congress)
Law and Policy Institutions Guide
Geared towards lawyers, law students and other professionals
NOLO
The laypersons guide to the law
American Bar Association
ABA LawInfo.org
The American Bar Association's legal information gateway for the public
Evaluating Sources
Evaluating Sources (R-MC)
Is it POPULAR or is it SCHOLARLY? (R-MC)
Critical Evaluation of Resources on the Internet (University of Alberta Libraries)
Citing Sources
Introduction to Basic Legal Citation