Reference Sources for Background Information

American Jurisprudence. Clapp Docs KF 8836 A452 (legal encyclopedia)
If you can't find your term, look in the index volumes. Note: make sure you look for the section number in the pocket part in the back of the volume for updated information. Also contained in Westlaw Campus.

Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court. Clapp Ref KF 8742 W567 1997.

The Constitution and its Amendments. Clapp Ref KF 4557 C66 1999.

Encyclopedia of Abortion in the United States. Clapp Ref HQ767.5.U5 P35 2002

Historic U.S. Court Cases: An Encyclopedia. Clapp Ref KF 352 Z9 H57 2001. Vol. 2 has scholarly essays on court cases around race, gender, and sexual orientation.

How to Read a Legal Citation [Cleveland-Marshall College of Law]

Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Clapp Ref KF 8742.A35 O93 2005

West's Encyclopedia of American Law. An electronic book; legal encyclopedia in lay person's terms

Women's Rights on Trial. Clapp Ref KF 220 F76 1997
Chronological arrangement of 101 key trials of historical importance. Includes Roe v. Wade (1973), Harris v. McRae (1980), Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), Planned Parenthood of Southeastern PA v. Casey (1992), and Madsen v. Women's Health Center (1994).

Finding Books

Wellesley College Catalog - Use the Library catalog to find books and other materials (journal titles, NOT journal articles) we have here at Wellesley. Remember to start with "keyword" if you are beginning to research a topic then, when you find something good, see what subject headings are listed. You can click on these subject headings to find more useful items. Some subject headings to try:

• abortion law and legislation United States
• civil rights United States
• homosexuality law and legislation united states
• assisted suicide
• privacy right of united states
• human reproduction law and legislation united states
• prayer in the public schools United States
• religion in the public schools United States

WorldCat - Use WorldCat to find books and other materials not at Wellesley. Use the suggestions listed above. If you find a book you want that Wellesley does not own, use the ILL link within WorldCat to request the book.

Finding Supreme Court Cases and Articles about the Cases

United States Supreme Court

U. S. Reports. Clapp Docs KF 101 A2
Cite example: 511 U.S. 93 (511 refers to the volume number, U.S. is the abbreviation for the official set of Supreme Court reports, and 93 refers to the page number). This is the legally accepted version of a case. We have the complete set of U.S. Reports.

LexisNexis Academic Legal Research- full text of law review articles 1980s+ .

• Default screen brings you into law reviews. Look on the right side for links to federal and state cases.
• Searching by natural language and automatic sorting by relevance lists the best articles first.
• To construct specific searches, use the Terms and Connectors option.
  • search example: atl5(buffer zones) w/p atl5(abortion clinics) Translation: buffer zones mentioned at least 5 times within the same paragraph as abortion clinics mentioned at least 5 times. Results will be sorted by publication date, re-sort by relevance. Use w/s to search for words within the same sentence.
• Use can search for either the plaintiff's or the defendent's name in the title along with a a keyword about the case
• To narrow the results you already have, use the "Focus" button at the bottom of the results page.
• The number of words given in the citation gives you an idea of the length of the article.
• You can email yourself citations or the full text of the article. You can also mark records and print or email yourself the list of marked records.
• To search cases and law reviews at the same time, use this link, and put a check in the box beside Legal.

 Westlaw Campus Research - legal encyclopedias and legal analysis, federal and state court cases and statutes, and law reviews (900+ titles). Includes American Jurisprudence and American Law Reports. Westlaw appears to have more Supreme Court briefs than LexisNexis, and also has citing references for law review articles.

• To construct specific searches, use the advanced search option.
  • search example: TI(abortion) and TI(minors). abortion and minors mentioned in the title
  • search example: abortion w/s minors. abortion and minors mentioned in the same sentence

Finding Newspapers Articles

LexisNexis Academic News - Full text of news article (about 1990 onward) from major papers, worldwide papers, and United States city papers.

• to search for legal news exclusively, choose "Legal News Group File" from the Select Sources box
• when doing a News search, you can use the terms and connectors search, instead of natural language, to search in the headline and lead paragraph of the document, search by byline, or search for your terms mentioned more than once.
• you can also add length> to search for more substantial stories
• note default date for news is 3 months
• you can add another search box (to add more search terms) by clicking the "more" link at the bottom of the boxes
• citing from LexisNexis

New York Times
     paper = kept until microfilm received; located in Clapp Reading Room
     online = LexisNexis Academic, June 1, 1980+; New York Times Online , 1851-2001

Los Angeles Times online 1985+ (text only, no images)

Washington Post online, 1977-

Wall Street Journal
     paper = paper kept until microfilm received; located in Clapp Reading Room
     Wall Street Journal online 1986+ (text only, no images)

Boston Globe
     paper = kept until microfilm received; located in Clapp Reading Room
     online = Lexis Nexis Academic, Sept. 1, 1988-

Finding General Scholarly Articles

The Wellesley College Library subscribes to many databases that contain information on thousands of articles and other sources of information on a topic. Some of these databases link to the full article online while others are simply an index or contain only abstracts. If the database you are using does not contain the full-text of the article you need, use the Find It! @ Wellesley to connect to the full-text in another Wellesley database. Or, once you have a citation for an article, do a title search in the Wellesley College Library catalog using the name of the journal as the title. Look for a reference to the journal online, or see if we have it in print. Make sure we have the date you need. If Wellesley does not have the journal or issue, you can request it via Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

Suggested databases for this class:

For the following databases start with a keyword search and see what the subject terms are for any relevant articles you find. Look for an option to mark records, email records to yourself, or to link to Interlibrary Loan from within the database.

Academic Search Premier (off-campus link) and Expanded Academic ASAP - general multi-disciplinary databases. Index and abstracts from 1980; selected full text.

Sociological Abstracts - Articles on all aspects of sociology and other social science articles, 1963 to present

CQ Researcher - in-depth, unbiased background and analysis on timely political topics. Has summaries, pro/con, bibliography.

Internet Links

NOTE: Using a search engine to search for material is very tempting but is to be used with caution. You will find a lot of information on social issues but many are advocating a particular point of view which must be recognized in order to write a scholarly paper. Use the following criteria to evaluate any websites:

• Who is the author of the information?
• Can you find information about the author? What are his/her credentials?
• How current is the information? Is there a "last updated" date?
• Who is the intended audience for the information?
• Is the content objective or is it coming from a certain viewpoint?
• Is the information advocating a cause?

For more information on how to evaluate web pages see our search the web page.

General

• ACLU - The ACLU protects a person's first amendment rights regardless of the issue. Note the "Hot Topics" and "Issues" links on the right.
• Public Agenda - note links to issues

Legal

• American Law Sources Online - links to federal and state court cases, laws, and administrative codes. Also links to selected amicus curiae briefs.
• State Law Index [Washburn University School of Law]

Other Information

To find Congressional hearings on Supreme Court nominees, use LexisNexis Congressional and search for the name of the nominee. Watch the dates! You have to know the year the hearings were held. Wellesley also has congressional hearings in paper.

How to Cite your Information

Remember: if you find the full text online, you must cite the online source. Look for information within our Wellesley databases, or electronic books, on how to cite what you find.

MLA handbook for writers of research papers. Clapp Ref LB 2369 .G53 2003

Writers' Workshop MLA Style Handbook

Frequently Asked Questions about MLA Style

Documenting Electronic Resources in MLA or APA - includes instructions and examples for email, databases, CD-ROMs, and Web Sites

Prince's Bieber Dictionary of Legal Citations. 6th ed. Clapp Ref KF 246 P73 2001
Detailed examples for citing from specific law journals and U.S. and state statutes, and how to understand legal citations.

For additional legal information and links to Supreme Court cases online, visit the Resources by Subject: Legal Studies web page.