Academic Legal Writing - Eugene Volokh [53]
4. If you want bluebooking help
If you have a bluebooking question, look the matter up yourself in the Bluebook or ask law review editors for advice. That's not part of the research librarians' job, especially since you can do it (once you've learned the Bluebook) as well as anyone else.
5. Talk to the librarians with the right attitude
I stress that you shouldn't hesitate to ask librarians for help—but remember that you're asking them for help. Be suitably polite, both in making your request and in thanking them.
Don't be impatient. It may take the librarian a while to find what you need, especially given the other tasks the librarian may have.
And help the librarians help you: Come with as well-articulated a question as you can, and provide as much in writing as possible (for instance, all the details on the court proceeding you're looking for, a list of all the searches you've already done, and the like).
And finally, if a librarian asks you a question about your research (e.g., “Is the case you're looking for state or federal?” or “When you searched for ___, what did you get?”), don't be embarrassed to say “I don't know.” Tempting as it may be to pretend you know the answer, neither you nor the librarian will be happy if your false claim of certainty sends the librarian down the wrong path.
G. Use Books and Treatises
Don't forget books and treatises, including those that are available only in print, and not just on Westlaw or Google Books. It's easy to miss them these days, when people are so focused on online searching. But they often go far beyond the articles you can find.
H. Use the Most Readable Printout Formats
When printing cases, try using Westlaw's “West Reporter Image” printing feature. I find that this output is easier to read than the usual two-column Westlaw or Lexis output.
Likewise, when printing articles, use HeinOnline, to which your library probably subscribes. This lets you see the article the way it was printed in the law review.
I. Search for Older Articles on HeinOnline
Westlaw's and Lexis's powerful search engines are generally the best tools for finding recent law review articles. But for most journals, Westlaw and Lexis generally go back only to the 1980s and 1990s. To search articles from earlier decades, you should use HeinOnline, which has a much more complete collection of older articles.
J. Use ATLEAST, NOT W/, and SY,DI() Searches
If your queries are returning too many false positives, try Lexis's ATLEAST and NOT W/ searches, or Westlaw's SY,DI() feature.
1. Lexis searches for ATLEAST3(copyright)—just to give an example—will find all documents that mention the word copyright at least three times. This excludes most documents that mention copyright in passing (for instance, court cases that use the word in a parenthetical describing an earlier case) without excluding many that do focus on copyright.
2. Lexis searches for rico NOT W/2 puerto will look for rico but not within two words of puerto, thus finding references to the RICO statute but excluding documents that just discuss Puerto Rico. This is not the same as rico AND NOT puerto, since the latter would miss cases that mention both Puerto Rico and RICO by itself. You can generalize this in obvious ways.
3. As I mentioned above, Westlaw searches for SY,DI(search terms) find all cases that contain the search terms in the Synopsis—usually a West-written paragraph at the start of the case—and in the Digest entries for the case. This will thus focus on what West sees as the heart of the case's holdings, and skips casual mentions in the facts or in a parenthetical briefly discussing some other case.
Note that SY,DI() searching will exclude many unpublished cases, for which West often doesn't prepare synopses and digests—but excluding unpublished cases may be part of your goal.
K. Researching Older Anglo-American Law
Here are some suggestions for researching Anglo-American law from the 1700s and 1800s.
1. Old treatises
Look up all the treatises you can find