Below you will find contact information and instructional materials to help you begin your legal research. Also keep in mind the various Research Resources available.
Reference Help
The Reference Desk on L3 will be staffed throughout the semester. If you are not in the law school, you may contact us via telephone (203-432-1606), e-mail, or IM. You can IM us via the widget on the research page (http://www.law.yale.edu/library/research.asp), or at ylslibrary on Meebo, AIM, or Yahoo!Messenger. You can also reach us at ylslibrary@gmail.com on Google Talk and can text us at 265-010 (type ylslibrary and then your question).. After hours, please feel free to leave a voicemail message or send an e-mail, and we will respond during the next Reference Desk shift if not sooner.
Computer and IT Issues
For help gaining off-campus IP access, see the IT Services webpage on YLS Inside. Most YLS users connect to the Yale network using VPN for Mac or Windows. For other IT questions, please review the IT Services webpage. If assistance is still required, please contact IT Services' Help Desk via e-mail, telephone: 203-432-0821, or walk-in: L2, Room 007A.
For Passwords to the Yale Databases (available only to the YLS community), see the Library Databases page on the old Blackboard via the Community tab and the Organizations List, or contact the reference team.
Basic Legal Research
Introduction to basic legal research (pdf)
Beginning your research with Secondary Sources:
Research Guide (pdf)
Instructional Slides (ppt)
Researching Federal Statutes:
Instructional Slides (pdf)
Instructional Slides (ppt)
Introduction to the Federal Courts (includes Circuit and District maps):
Instructional Slides (pdf)
Instructional Slides (ppt)
Where to find Federal Court Rules:
Research Guide (pdf)
Research Guide (word)
Researching Federal Case Law (methodology can be applied to state case law research):
Instructional Slides (pdf)
Instructional Slides (ppt)
Instructional slides for using Citators (Shepard's and Key Cite):
Instructional Slides (pdf)
Instructional Slides (ppt)
Lexis also has an Online Guide to Shepard's
How to research Administrative Law:
Instructional Slides (pdf)
Tips for cost-effective legal research:
Instructional Slides (pdf)
Instructional Slides (ppt)
Free websites for case law, codes, and other materials:
This section will provide you with a few key links to free websites. For more comprehensive information consult UCLA's guide or Georgetown's guide to free or low-cost legal research.
Cornell's Legal Information Institute (this resource is particularly useful for its "how current is this" link which provides information on modifications to the U.S. Code)
GPO Access (federal government information - C.F.R., Fed. Reg., U.S. Code, Legislation, etc.)
Thomas (federal legislation) and govtrack.us (primarily Thomas content in a Web 2.0 format)Regulations.gov (federal regulations, including proposed rules and agency notices)
LexisOne and FindLaw both provide (limited) search functions for case law
U.S. Supreme Court website
Legislative History Research
Where to find legislative history documents:
Research Guide
Law Librarians' Society of Washington D.C. Inc.'s Legislative Sourcebook
LLSDC's Legislative Histories of Selected U.S. Laws in Electronic Format
Yale Law Library's Microform Guide (pdf)
State Legislative History Research Guide
Foreign Law Research (including national and regional databases and research guides)
Highlights:
International Law Research (including topics such as human rights and environmental law)
Highlights
*All databases can be found on the library's A-Z list of databases and/or the Foreign and International databases page.