08 January 2013
Welcome Back and New Search Bar
Welcome back! We hope you enjoyed your time off. I certainly did--enough so that I was nonexistent on this blog over the break. As you ease back into school, you may have noticed …
03 December 2012
Utah Recodifications
From to time to time the Utah legislature reorganizes and renumbers certain titles in the Utah Code. This process is known as recodification. It's ultimate goal is to increase clarity and usability in …
19 June 2012
Google Books to Library Books
Searching Google Books can often be an important part of research as it allows researchers to search the full-text of many books. However, researchers can only view portions of books that are still …
07 June 2012
Google Scholar Legal Documents
Earlier this week I retweeted a blog post on Internet for Lawyers detailing a change to Google Scholar and how it affects case law searching. I've had a chance to look at the …
04 June 2012
Where to Start Researching?
One of the common questions you'll face when receiving a new legal research assignment is "Where should I start?" There's a number of places that work as a good starting place, but one …
24 May 2012
Library Catalog Enhancements
The Law Library catalog is the place to go to find books (both print and electronic) in our collection. Recently a few more features were added to the catalog to make it more …
10 May 2012
The Citator Gap
Using Shepard's or KeyCite to make sure the cases you rely upon are good law is an essential part of the research process. These citators, however, aren't perfect and I was reminded of …
01 May 2012
Researching Municipal Law
One area of law that we generally don't have much time to cover in our first year legal research classes is local legislation. Municipal ordinances govern much of what we do on an …
20 April 2012
Research Help This Summer
While law students will be heading out to summer jobs and externships soon the library wants you to know that we'll be here over the summer if you need us. The library has …
19 April 2012
Summer Research Success
Finals are nearly over. Graduation is here. Congratulations on completing another year of law school! In a few weeks law students will head out to various jobs and externships to put their legal …
18 April 2012
Becoming a Better Online Researcher
Online legal research is a critical skill in today's law practice. The nature of legal controversies requires legal researchers to go beyond simple searches and employ a more thorough and thoughtful research process. …
08 March 2012
Searching HeinOnline
HeinOnline is one of the most popular databases we offer--and rightfully so. Its vast collection of pdf legal materials creates an incredible tool for researchers (especially those of you doing source pulls). While …
29 February 2012
Goodwin Liu and WestlawNext
The Law School is privileged to have Justice Goodwin Liu of the California Supreme Court as its Jurist-in-residence beginning tomorrow. As many of you are aware, Justice Liu was previously a professor at …
03 February 2012
Legal Research for Students
One of the things I love most about my job as a law librarian is trying to find ways to get students interested in legal research. I'm not going to lie--it's not always …
06 December 2011
Finals Advice
Finals start today. You can feel it. We wish you all the best of luck. I'm sure you've gotten lots of advice on taking finals, but here are a few more bits of …
08 November 2011
The Utah Law of Trusts & Estates
Some of the most useful legal research resources are legal treatises. If you can find a good one on your topic you can save a lot of research time. Unfortunately for us, there …
02 November 2011
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
Students and faculty at BYU Law have a number of international connections. Because of that, interest in foreign law is quite high. One resource you'll want to know about if you need secondary …
20 July 2011
History of International Law
HeinOnline is one of our favorite resources here in the law library. Most law students know it as the place to get pdf versions of law reviews and journals, but it's much more than …
