Hein Online Search Tip

The Hein Online databases contain an enormous quantity of useful legal material but is not the most user friendly interface.  So, here are some simple tips:

1.  Terms are not case sensitive but the connectors are.
2.  Place words in quotes to be treated as a phrase, ie "buyer beware".
3.  The connectors AND/OR must be in caps.  You can use & instead of the word AND.
4.  You can set a date range by date:[1938 TO 1945].  Note that the "TO" is in caps.
5.  The * is a multiple character wild card.  Use it in the middle of a word "lab*r to find all variations; or at the end of a word such as employ* to find words that have "employ" as the root.  It is the same idea but slightly different than how the wildcard and root expander work on Lexis and Westlaw. 

Remember that the documents in Hein Online are PDF so it is worth your time to learn to use properly.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat