2. Session Objectives
We‟ll look at the legal databases available
and selecting appropriate subject keywords
when searching them
Finding EJournals
How best to approach your research
questions
Freely available websites on the Internet and
evaluating them
3. End of Session
Be equipped to use search
techniques to search the electronic
resources effectively
Have some understanding of how to
critically assess information available
on the Internet
22. Westlaw-Main Search Page
You can search either
using the Tabs across
You can use Westlaw to find the top of the page or
Acts,Cases, Current Awareness and the Boxes/Text below
Journal Articles
23. Westlaw-Content
Provides full text of UK amended legislation
Full text of EU legislation and case law
UK court decisions from 1220 from The Law
Reports series published by the ICLR(Incorporated
Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales)
Other law report series such as Weekly Law Reports
Selected High Court and Tribunal judgments back
to 1999
24. Westlaw cont‟d-Content
Contains Legal Journals Index
providing full text journal articles for
many titles such as Criminal Law
Review, European Human Rights
Law Review
29. PDF Format
View entire act and refer
to Table of Contents in
the Sidebar to get
updates regarding
provisions Repealed
and In Force
30. Cases
You can search either
using the BROWSE
feature which is
useful if you know the
name of the Law
Report series you
wish to search or the
SEARCH Window
Above
37. Westlaw-Subject Searching Cases
Different ways of searching for cases on a
specific subject
We‟ll do a General Search first and then
narrow our search by making it more
specific
38. Cases-Free Text Search
TIP-Type a Phrase in “Quote Marks”
We’ll use the
PHRASE “Defence
of Necessity” as our
search keywords
40. Look at Result#4 From this List
Search keywords are
highlighted for you to
see
context/usefulness
in the paragraph
41. Proximity Searching
Narrowing the Search /p= paragraph
Here we are asking
the database to
search for the
PHRASE within the
Same paragraph as
the word TRIDENT
47. Use a Proximity Operator to Narrow the
Search
We’ve added
another keyword
anaesthetic and
asked the
database to search
for it in the same
paragraph as the
phrase
71. Tips for Evaluating Websites
1.Authority
Who is responsible for the site?
Is it a reliable organisation or a subject
expert?
Can you trust them?
72. Evaluating Websites(Cont‟d)
2. ACCURACY AND RELIABILITY
Is the information correct?
Are the grammar and spelling correct?
Is it complete or are they just giving one point of
view? Bias?
Do they have their own agenda?
Is the information fact or opinion?
73. Websites(Cont‟d)
3.CURRENCY
Can you tell how up to date it is? Is it regularly
updated?
You shouldn‟t be quoting out of date information
4. AUDIENCE
Is the information at the right level to be quoted in
your work?
74. Websites(Cont‟d)
5.FEEL
Is the site well structured and easy to navigate?
Are the links from the page up to date and valid?
If it is well designed and maintained then you can
feel more confident about the information it
provides
75. Citation Style
For law the „Gold card‟ for style manuals is the
OSCOLA (Oxford) website.
If you wish to access it I have a link on my Law and
Legal Research Subject page.............see next slide