1. WESTLAWNEXT
Tutorial for News Searching

7. Westlaw provides 24/7 research assistance.

8. You can search any of these
news areas individually, in
combination, or all at once.
Note that while Reuters is a news
source, its focus is mainly business
and finance.

9. SEARCHING ALL NEWS

10. Let’s start with searching
all of the News content.
This is a very broad
search and is mainly
intended
to give you a feel for
WestlawNext’s interface.

11. Note the U.S.
and non-U.S.
news sources.

12. Let’s go back
to the main
News screen
to make our
search more
specific.

13. U.S. NEWS SOURCES

14. Let’s search only
U.S. news sources.

15. Slightly different
set of search results;
U.S. news
sources only

16. NEWS BY TYPE

17. In WestlawNext, you can specify news content to
search, for up to 3 categories.
For example, let’s do this same search with blogs, journals,
magazines, newsletters and newspapers. These are our 3
categories.
Note: these are NOT limited to U.S. news sources only.
International news sources are included in these different
news types.

18. U.S.
newspaper
U.K.
newspaper
U.S. newswire
German
newswire
Displaying search
results in
“Relevance” order
Results will be limited to
U.S. and international
blogs, newspapers,
newsletters, journals and
magazines.

19. Sorting results
by “Date” order
produces
significantly
different results.

20. INTERNATIONAL NEWS

21. Let’s do an international news search on the
recent National Security Agency’s spy scandal.
We are sticking with a basic search for now.

23. NEWS BY TOPIC

24. You can restrict your set of news results by
topic. For example, for the most
recent news articles on the U.S. Supreme Court,
select the Legal & Justice topic.
News By Topic searches yield very specific results and differ
vastly, depending on the topic. For example,
you generally won’t find computer news by searching the
Energy & Environment topic category.

25. Your results are
limited to legal
and judicial
sources.
You would never
find this level of
Supreme Court
news detail in, for
example, the
Arts & Humanities
news topic.

26. Back to the main News
screen
So, what happens when
we simply
click on one of these
news links?

27. We get the 10 most recently added
news documents for that category (in
this case, Reuters Health eLine).
We don’t control the search results
when we do this. It is similar to
reading the day’s headlines.

28. SEARCHING BY
SOURCE

29. For an alphabetical list of
news sources in Westlaw,
click on News Index.

30. Click on a letter for a list of WestlawNext news sources
beginning with that letter.

31. Alphabetical list of news sources starting with
the letter “N”

32. Let’s take a look at the New York Daily News.

33. Remember, when we first click on a link to the individual
news source, we are shown the 10 most recent news
entries for that source.
In this case, it is as if we are
browsing the June 12th headlines in the NY Daily News.

34. You can do a basic search of the New York Daily
News from this screen, or choose an advanced search.
Let’s select an advanced search.

35. ADVANCED
SEARCHING

36. Use an advanced search to:
• limit your search by title, author, date,
exact phrase, etc.
or
• require certain terms or exclude terms from your
search results
or
• use Boolean connectors to further refine
and focus your search.

37. Here we are looking for articles in the NY Daily
News within the past 6 months that contain the
word “lawsuit” and have the words NYPD or
“New York Police Department”
and the exact phrase “stop and frisk.”

38. Note how WestlawNext automatically
constructs an advanced Boolean search
inquiry based on the terms you plug
into the advanced search template.
Click the SEARCH button.

40. From this screen
you have the option
of running another
NY Daily News
search or
returning to the
main News screen.

41. Let’s return to the alphabetical
list of news sources to do more
searching by specific source(s).
We will return to advanced
searching soon.

42. Select news sources
beginning
with the letter “N.”

43. Remember, this is a list of ALL of the news sources
beginning with the letter “N” in WestlawNext.
International news sources are included.
Let’s pick New York News sources.

44. You can search all of these New York news sources at once or
in combination of up to 3.

45. Let’s select Newsday, the New York Post, and the
New York Times.
Note that in order to run an advanced search, you must either search
one content category at a time, or all at once.

47. Your search
results are
limited to articles
from Newsday, the
NY Times, and
NY Post.
Back to News

48. Click on any of the states to view
the news sources from that state.
For example, click on the word
“Florida.”

50. We have search
results for all
WestlawNext’s
Florida news
sources, in date
order, on hurricane
season.

51. You can run an advanced news search with ALL
content (e.g. ALL Florida news sources), or with ONE source (e.g.
Florida Times Union).
You cannot run an advanced search in combination with 2 or 3
specific sources, like above. Try it.

52. This is the screen you will see if you try to run an
advanced search with a select group (2 or 3) of
news sources.
You cannot run an advanced search with a select group of sources.
WestlawNext will automatically default to searching ALL news content
in the particular category you are in, in this case, Florida.

53. ADVANCED
SEARCHING

54. The advanced search screen
allows you to search by
Document Field.

55. More document fields you can search
by, if you know how to!
See next slide for tips on how to
identify a document field.

56. 1st ½ of page

57. 1st ½ of page
It’s unlikely you
would
know the exact
citation
of a news
source, but if you
do, you can plug
the citation into
the Citation field
on the Advanced
Search template.

58. 1st ½ of page
If you know the
name of the
news source, you
can type it in the
Publication Name
field. See next
slide.

59. If you know the
Name of the news
source, type it in
the Publication
Name field.
Advanced Search
Document Fields
accept only
Boolean searching,
so
be sure to use
quotations around
an exact phrase.

61. 1st ½ of page
If you know the name of
the author of the news
source, you can plug
that in the Author field,
with quotations (since it
is
a phrase).

62. 1st ½ of page
You can
search in
the Text
field.

63. 2nd ½ of page
The last four fields listed above—Geographic Region, Language, Industry, and
News Subject—are examples of reference codes which have been added to
News documents on WestlawNext (by Westlaw editors) to help focus searching.
Using these fields, while not essential, can further refine and limit your search
results. See next slides for examples.

64. Here we are searching all news content
(U.S. and international) in the last 12 months
with Eric Clapton in the title.
We are making sure our search results include the
Westlaw reference code “entertainment” or
“audio recording” or “music.”
Remember, this is sophisticated, advanced searching!
You may not use all of these tools, but they are
available to you.

66. Let’s search all news
sources from June 1 through
June 19, 2013 with the
words “Chrysler” and “recall”
and “jeep” in the title.

67. We retrieve
71 news
sources of
varying type,
topic and
geographic
origin, within
this date
range, having
these title
words.
See how this
can change
dramatically by
adding a
geographic

69. Our results are
limited to the
geographic
reference code
“Asia,”
specifically
Reuters Asia and
the English
newswire
Xinhau News
Agency
in Asia only.

70. BOOLEAN SEARCHING

71. AND, OR, NOT…
• Boolean Operators are words (AND, OR, NOT) used to
combine or exclude words in a search, producing more
focused results.
• Click HERE for a simple visual explanation of this
concept.

72. Boolean Symbols in WestlawNext
Connectors and Expanders
• & AND
• /s In same sentence
• Or OR
• +s Preceding within sentence
• /p In same paragraph
• " " Phrase
• +p Preceding within paragraph
• % But not
• /n Within n terms of
• ! Root expander
• +n Preceding within n terms of
• * Universal character
When and how should I use
these?
• When: You have a focused
search in mind.
• How: Use one, two, or more in
combination.
• How: Don’t get overwhelmed
with trying to incorporate
several connectors or
expanders.
• You may actually ELIMINATE useful results
this way!

73. Westlaw’s
advanced
search screen
is designed to
simplify
Boolean
searching.
In addition to AND & OR,
a very commonly used
Boolean connector is used for phrases.
The symbol is
“ quotations” around the phrase.

74. Here we ran
an international
news search
requiring “Nazi war
crimes” to be in the
title and our results to
be
from
December 19, 2012
to the present.
You can see how
specific we were
able to make our
search with simple
quotations and date
limits.

75. Extensive Boolean Searching…
• For detailed WestlawNext search tips on Boolean
searching with exact phrases, simple operators, and
more, visit the next 9 slides.
• You can always make an appointment with a librarian for
one-on-one help with Boolean searching. Use the
individual library instruction request form to make an
appointment. Appointments require 24-hour advance
notice. You will receive an e-mail confirmation of your
appointment. Stop by the reference desk for immediate
assistance or use the chat or e-mail options provided on
this page.

85. DELIVERY METHODS
Printing, emailing, downloading, Kindle

86. Your options

87. Type in email address
and choose the format
you prefer.

88. Layout
options

89. Print layout options

90. Download
options

92. YOU CAN DO IT!
Ask for help.

93. HELP!
Email, chat or
make an
appointment with a
librarian,
or
call
1.800.REF.ATTY.
(1.800.733.2889)