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As the semester starts to come to a close, you may be in need of databases beyond just Westlaw or Lexis or yes, even beyond Google. One wonderful part (among many) of being at the UW Law School is that you have access to the entire campus' library catalog and all of the databases to which the university subscribes. However, if you aren't used to searching for these databases or non-law articles, it can be tricky. Here are a few tips and tricks for finding those elusive science, social science or humanities articles:

First, you should always start your search on the law library's home page. There is a wealth of resources there that will allow you to almost assuredly find what you are looking for, be it in the legal field or not. Click on the "Library Catalog" link to begin.

 

You are now searching not just the law library, but all of campus! You can search for books, of course, but you can also search for a specific database such as JSTOR. Watch this video for a demo.

You can also search for articles across a wide range of databases using the same library catalog. The database includes scholarly articles (such as law reviews) as well as newspaper articles, e-resources and a lot more. This kind of search is great if you are trying to find some very broad articles on your topic and you want to see what is out there. See it in action here.

If you know a specific journal that you want to review, that is easy to find in the catalog as well. Simply search for the name of the journal and you can see it available in print or, most likely, online. From there, it is only a few clicks to find your article. Watch a search for the Harvard Law Review yield very useful results in only seconds, along with a listing of all the article written by a particular author.

If you have tried the article search and cannot find anything and aren't sure where to look next, asking a librarian is always a good idea. We can help you locate the right resource for your final papers.

Good luck as finals approach!

Submitted by Kristopher Turner on December 7, 2015

This article appears in the categories: Law Library

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