Post on 16-Aug-2014
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Building Better Briefs
Bonnie Shucha
Legal Research & Citation
Tools on the Internet
There is a lot of great legal information on the Internet.
It’s not always easy to find.
And watch out for the bad information.
When brief writing, it’s important that you get it right.
Evaluating Web Sources
Who created the site?
What is the site about?
When was the info last updated?
From where is the info coming?
Why does the site exist?
How accurate is
the information?
The Many Faces of Google
Search Terms in Quotes
Google Scholar
Google Books
Google U.S. Gov’t Search
There is a lot of great legal information on the Internet.
It’s not all on Google.
The Invisible Web
0.03%
What Google Finds
What Google Can’t Find
84%
Search engine spider crawls Web starting with already indexed static pages
Spider encounters link to a new static Web page
Spider follows link
Spider adds new Web page to search engine’s indexContent rendered “visible”
Webmaster registers new static Web page
with search engine
Search Engines & the Visible Web
Search Engine Database
Your search results
Author Title Publication
SearchingSmarter
Wisconsin Lawyer
J. Doe CommonLaw
MarquetteLaw Review
B. Shucha
1. B. Shucha, “Searching Smarter,” Wisconsin Lawyer. J.Q. Public Legal
Tech TipsABAJournal
ShuchaSearch this Database
Go
Spider encounters database
Query is required to access “dynamic” data
Spider incapable of generating query
Spider stops and cannot index data in databaseContent rendered “invisible”
Spider crawls Web starting with already indexed static pages
Search Engines & the Invisible Web
The key is not locating the answer itself as the first step…
…but in locating the right database in which to search for it.
Citation Tools
CheckCiteBatch Shepardizes your doc & verifies quotes
Free to LexisNexis subscribers
StyleCheck
Ensures citations conform to BlueBook style
FullAuthority
Builds a table of authorities from your document
Shepard’s LinkAdds links to Lexis, Web and your other docs
Batch KeyCites your document
CitrusAuto-corrects citations as you type – MS Word
Zotero
Free!
Collect cites while Web searching
SupportsBlueBook
Questions?
Bonnie ShuchaHead of Reference
UW Law Librarybjshucha@wisc.edu