Week 1: Saturday, March 4, 2000

Instructor: Joan Shear, Boston College Law Library

Introduction

What is law? - What is legal research?

Primary and secondary materials

Importance and methods of updating

Knowing where to start

Reading citations

Basic finding aids

The importance of cases

Court structure

Court reporting

Variety of information formats: hard-copy; online; CD-ROM; Web; microformat

Shepard's and other Citators (including Key-Cite, Auto-Cite and Insta-Cite)

Week 2: Saturday, March 11, 2000

Instructor: Jonathan Fernald, Northeastern University Law Library

Case finding

The importance of cases

Court structure

Court reporting

National Reporter System

West Digests

Week 3: Saturday, March 18, 2000

Instructor: Mary Ann Neary, Massachusetts Senate Clerk's Office

Statutes and legislative history

Finding statutes - Federal and Massachusetts

Codes

Session laws

Slip laws

Interpreting statutes

Finding cases that interpret

Legislative history to interpret

Updating statutes

Finding and compiling legislative histories

Week 4: Saturday, March 25, 2000

Instructor: Brian Harkins, Social Law Library

Administrative law and looseleaf services

Agency information

Regulations

C.F.R./L.S.A.

Federal Register

Adjudications

Looseleaf services

Week 5: Saturday, April 1, 2000

Instructor: Barbara Morgan, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Secondary Materials

Specific secondary sources

ALR

Restatements

Treatises

Uniform Laws

Periodicals and their indexes

Mass. Practice Series

Encyclopedias, dictionaries

Form books

The Human Sources - calling committees, organizations, etc. through the use of the Encyclopedia of Associations, Yellowbooks, etc.

Week 6: Saturday, April 8, 2000

Instructors: Mark Frongillo, Westlaw and Nancy Kirk, Lexis.

Online commercial services

Hands-on Westlaw

Hands-on Lexis/Nexis

Week 7: Saturday, April 15, 2000

Instructor: Christine Swan, New Hampshire Law Library

Strategy

How to approach a problem

Hands-on research exercises

**Course evaluations distributed and completed**