Author: lmorales

The following guide provides a brief introduction to the most popular electronic resources provided by the law library. As you go through law school, prepare to practice by getting comfortable with a wide variety of tools. You never know what will or won’t be available in the future or what you will need to know.
Resources like Lexis and Westlaw require a personal password. Most resources use the same login through the law school. Resources, like Hein Online, will work automatically when you are on campus. From off campus, go to the law library’s Electronic Resources page at http://lawlib.stmarytx.edu/databases . These links will connect you through the law school’s account, and guarantee access from off campus as well as on. From on campus, links will work automatically. From off campus, you will log in with information on your student ID card. If you have trouble using any of the resources listed here, please contact Electronic Services Librarian, Wilhelmina Randtke ( wrandtke@stmarytx.edu ) for assistance.
If you would like to find out more about how to use the research tools, assistance locating a resource, or about additional research resources, please stop by the reference desk on the first floor of the law library. Any of the law librarians would be glad to help!
LexisNexis (www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool)
LexisNexis contains thousands of legal and non-legal databases. It is primarily used for researching case law or statutory materials. The cases and statutes provided by LexisNexis are annotated by professional staff and have cross-references. In addition LexisNexis offers a cite checking service known as shepherd’s which helps a researcher determine whether case law is still “good law.” In addition to primary legal materials LexisNexis provides a number of other secondary legal materials such as restatements, treatises, law reviews and journals, and non-legal material such as newspapers.
Bloomberg Law (www.bloomberglaw.com)
Bloomberg Law is a new legal research database which seeks to compete with Westlaw and LexisNexis. Bloomberg Law’s strength are news and current awareness material for legal fields. Bloomberg Law also contains federal trial court materials.
WestlawNext and TWEN (lawschool.westlaw.com)
Westlaw is almost certainly the most comprehensive service boasting an index of over 23,000 databases. It is primarily useful for researching case law and statutory material, but also contains a number of other items that may be of interest to a researcher.

Who can use it: Law students and faculty only.
Logging in: Register your personal account using an access code provided by the St. Mary’s University law library. This access code is in your 1L law library orientation folder. REGISTER IT!

Who can use it: Law students, faculty, and staff only.
Logging in: Register your personal account using an access code provided by the St. Mary’s University law library. This access code is in your 1L orientation folder.

Who can use it: Law students and faculty only.
Logging in: Register your personal account using an access code provided by the St. Mary’s University law library. This access code is in your 1L law library orientation folder. REGISTER IT!

HeinOnline
HeinOnline has law reviews and journals, available as PDFs. Most journals are available from the very earliest issues, so this is a good place for historical research or retrieving older material (Westlaw and Lexis only go back to the 1980s for journals). The law library’s subscription to Hein Online also contains other collections, including old versions of the federal register, and international law resources including treaties.
Index to Legal Periodicals (full-text)
ILP indexes and provides full-text access to over a thousand legal journals. Its coverage is more expansive than HeinOnline’s.
E-Journal Locator
This is a list of all journals the law library has online access to. If you start with a citation, you can use this to go straight to the article. To get to this list, go to the law library’s homepage at http://lawlib.stmarytx.edu , and use the box to “Search Electronic Journals”.
CALI (Computer Assisted Legal Instruction)
(www.cali.org)
CALI contains instruction modules, recorded lectures, and quizzes on a variety of legal topics, including property, torts, estates, the legislative process, etc. This is a good place to find quizzes for finals or extra lessons on a topic you cover in class. Your CALI registration code is printed on the instruction sheet for the card game you got in your 1L orientation folder.
Exam Bank and Best Briefs Winners
(http://lawlib.stmarytx.edu)
Go to the law library’s homepage. In the lefthand column there are links to the “Exam Bank” with old exams from St. Mary’s profs, and the “Best Briefs” with winning briefs from past 1L Best Briefs contests.
Texas Bar CLE material (www.texasbarcle.com)
CLE, or Continuing Legal Education materials are training materials targeted at lawyers to help them learn a new area of law or keep up with current developments in law. Currently enrolled students at law schools in Texas get access to state bar materials free-of-charge. You can find video, audio, and written training material related to Texas law.

Who can use these: Members of the public can use these by visiting the library in person. Current students, faculty and staff of the entire university can use these on and off campus.
How to log in: While on campus, you will automatically be logged in to these electronic resources. From off campus you need to log in through the law library’s remote access account. To go through the law library’s account, go to the law library’s webpage at http://lawlib.stmarytx.edu , and click the link on the left of the page to go to “Electronic Legal Resources”. This will take you to a page of links which will ensure the off-campus login works correctly. Login using the information printed on your St. Mary’s University ID card.

Who can use it: Law students and faculty.
How to log in: Go to www.cali.org Click “Create a new account” on the right of the screen. Register using the St. Mary's University registration code. This is printed on a card and on a CALI DVD both of which are in your 1L law library orientation folder.

Who can use it: Anyone, anywhere in the world.
How to login: You don’t have to!

Who can use it: Law school students, faculty, and staff get free-of-charge CLEs
How to login: Visit www.texasbarcle.com register an account as a non-lawyer, enroll for a CLE, do not enter payment information, and instead apply a discount and select student at a Texas law school.

Revised August 2014 by Wilhelmina Randtke

Comprehensive Legal Research Databases

Law Reviews and Journals

Classroom Resources