A Better Article Finder

Many of you have started your research for papers and notes. You all know to search Lexis and Westlaw for law review articles. But how many of you get results with your search terms that have nothing to do with your topic??? (I know there have been a few, since I have overheard you at the Reference desk.)

Yes, there is an alternative which can sometimes be a better way. Try an index. For law related topics, try Index to Legal Periodicals-Wilson or LegalTrac. Both of these databases are available from the Article Finding page of the Library's Online Resources.

With an index, you enter your search terms, and get articles which have those terms in the title or subject descriptors. Frequently, this retrieves articles more on your topic and fewer irrelevant results.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat