Legal Research Engine

From my cozy spot near the Reference Desk, I've noticed that paper writing research and challenging source gathering assignments are taking up lots of law student time these days. This is a good time for a reminder about Legal Research Engine, one of my favorite online resources that can provide quick help. Developed by Cornell University Law Library, Legal Research Engine searches through a select group of web sites that are sources of authoritative research guides. It comes up with a focused list of guides with direct links to the web sites you need for that specialized and unfamiliar paper topic, or even for tracking down that elusive foreign law. The next time you don't know where to start, or need trustworthy online resources for an unfamiliar topic, check out Legal Research Engine.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Code Surfing

USCodeSurf is a website that supports natural language searching of the Legal Information Institute's version of the United States Code. While searching the U.S. Code with natural language technology does not rival browsing its index or Popular Name Table (if you do not know what the popular name table is, click on the link--seriously, you really should know what it is), USCodeSurf may be on to something with how it displays its search results. It displays search results in a grid with three columns, rather than a top-to-bottom list. Will this be a feature that more well-known search engines and databases will adopt in the future?




Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Goodbye Lexis and Westlaw??

Will PreCYdent replace Lexis and Westlaw? Test it out and make your own judgment. PreCYdent is a search engine for legal materials - opinions, statutes, us government documents - which is available on the web FOR FREE!! On his YouTube clip, the founder claims that PreCYdent retrieves more relevant results than Lexis and Westlaw.

Test it out and tell us what you think.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat