Lexis Alerts

Do you ever find that you're running similar searches over and over again? Maybe you're doing research on a topic and you want to know every time a new article comes out on that topic. Maybe you want to see the developments of an ongoing case. Maybe there's a hot topic in legal news, and you want to stay informed of all updates. Lexis Alerts can do all of that work for you! Alerts are a great resources for automating your online searching.

To set up an Alert, go to Lexis.com and simply run your desired search as normal. On the results page, look for the "Save as Alert" link underneath the page navigation. From there you can customize your Alert:

• Name: Give your search a name, so that you can easily locate it in your list of alerts
• Frequency: How often do you want to be alerted? Daily? Monthly? Lexis will alert you of all new results at the time you choose
• Delivery: How would you like your alert delivered? You can either be alerted when you login to Lexis, or you can have an email sent to you with any updates on your search results.
• Notification: You can also choose to be notified anytime your search retrieves new results, outside of your scheduled alerts.

Besides the scheduled alerts, you can check in on your Alerts at any time. Whenever you're logged in to Lexis.com, look for the Alerts link at the top right of any page. Click there for a list of all your active Alerts. Click "Update Now" to see any new documents associated with your search.

Have questions about Alerts? Contact the Law Library!

New Catalog URL

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
-Winston Churchill

With those wise words in mind, we are announcing a (small) change to one of our library services. Our online catalog (what we refer to as our Online Public Access Catalog, or OPAC) is moving to a new URL: https://o90009.eos-intl.net/O90009  If you have bookmarked the old URL on your computer, make sure to change it! The old URL will work for another week, but just to be safe, go ahead and update any bookmarks now.

Besides the new URL, the OPAC is just one of the recent changes we've made to library services. Our OPAC is a great way to search our collection from your desk or home computer. And new, state employees and Oregon library users can sign up for a patron account in order to access MORE services. With a patron account you can customize your online profile, place holds on books and renew your checked out materials. You can sign up for a patron account here: http://soll.libguides.com/account

We are constantly working to improve our online access to legal resources so stay in touch to see which changes are coming up next!

Highlight on HeinOnline

In last week's blog post we discussed the importance of checking your resources. We've seen it many times that people come into the law library telling us they've looked everywhere for an article or resource only to find out they had access to the journal or resource all along! So today, we're highlighting HeinOnline as a great resource for your research. HeinOnline is available inside the law library for everyone and state employees have speciality access. Contact the law library for more information.
This month, HeinOnline reached an amazing milestone: they now provide access to over 2000 journals in their Law Journal Library! Here are some more interesting facts about HeinOnline's resources:

• Has more than 27 million pages and over 1.4 million artciles
• Every journal in HeinOnline is available back to its inception
• 92.5% of the journal titles are available through the most current issue
• 7.5% of the journals have an embargo of one volume or greater
• HeinOnline's law journal coverage extends well beyond the United States; currently, nearly 700 international journals published in more than 40 countries are included in the database

You can find even more facts, and some search tips for using the Law Journal Library here from HeinOnline's Help & Support blog: http://help.heinonline.org/blog/2014/05/milestone-heinonlines-law-journal-library-now-contains-over-2000-journals/

Top 5 Tips for Legal Researchers

Today we offer some tips for improving your legal research.

1. Boolean Operators
Most people have at least some understanding of Boolean operators, but we suggest becoming more familiar with them so they become almost second nature. Most legal databases will vary slightly in their format, so check the "Help" or "Search Tips" links on the database you're using for the exact format. Here we have highlighted HeinOnline's Boolean format:

• AND - evidence AND admissibility Search results will have BOTH of these terms
• OR - brief OR evidence Search results will have either of these terms, not necessarily both
• NOT - evidence NOT briefs Results will have the word evidence only when the term brief is not mentioned in the document
• " " - "love canal" Search results will have this exact phrase
• ( ) - (watershed OR "water rights") AND planning Use parentheses to combine multiple Boolean operators in one. Search results will have planning and either watershed or water rights.

2. Connectors
Connectors are a step up from Boolean operators. Use Connectors to search for groups of words instead of just single terms. Here we have highlighted Westlaw's Connectors format:

• /n - n represents any number up to 255. William /3 Hearst will return all of the following: William Randolph Hearst; William H Randolph Hearst; Hearst, William Randolph or any other combination where William and Hearst are within three terms of each other
• +n - another variation, but this connector ensures the first term will precede the next: pay +3 television will return pay television; pay per view television but not television for pay
• /p and /s - /p returns terms that are in the same paragraph, /s in the same sentence. For example: sanction /s frivolous, will return results where sanction and frivolous are mentioned in the same sentence. You can also use +p and +s to determine where terms will be located in the same segment.

Again, these will vary slightly depending on which database you use, so be sure to check for the exact format before you get started. You can almost always find the correct format by looking for a "Help" or "Search Tips" link on the database. And contact the law library if you need help!

3. Advanced Search

In library school we used to joke, "Friends don't let friends use basic search." The advantage of Advanced Search is that you can narrow your search from the very beginning. You instantly limit your results to full text availability, specific jurisdiction, format or specify whether you're searching for a title, author, or keyword. Almost any database will have an Advanced Search option. Try it out next time you're having a hard time finding what you're looking for!

4. Check your resources

Often we find that people are only using one database for their research, and therefore only seeing the results of one subscription. Take advantage of the State of Oregon Law Library's varied resources to see what else is available. Try HeinOnline or Loislaw for a new perspective and see the great resources these databases have to offer.

5. Ask a law librarian!

Possibly the most important tip on this list! Your friendly law librarians are very familiar with what the law library has to offer and how to search the databases. We've helped many people and may know the answer to your question right away because someone else has asked something similar. We are more than happy to help get your research started, locate that hard to find resource, answer the unanswerable question, or offer suggestions for more resources. Not to mention, we would just like to get to know you! So come by, bring your most challenging question, or just say hello. We look forward to meeting you!

Happy researching!