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Library Course Guide: Law For School Leaders
Education 618
 

Introduction: This guide is arranged in the order that one might work through the research process. However, if you would like to go to a particular area, choose from the alphabetical grouping below.

 Books | Citation Styles | Databases | Internet Resources | Journals, Periodicals 
Locating Materials from Databases | Reference Materials

Reference Materials

Some sample reference books relevant to this class (located on the Main floor of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library):

  • Education Law  REF KF 4115 R37
    A comprehensive, in-depth, but concise treatment of all issues relating to education law. Looseleaf pages updated quarterly.
  • Black's Law Dictionary  REF DESK KF156 .B53 1999
    The legal profession's leading and most heavily quoted legal dictionary.
Books

Search for books in the Library Catalog.

Some sample subject headings for topics relevant to Law for School Leaders:

  • Universities and colleges religion
  • Sexual harassment in universities and colleges
  • Discrimination in Higher Education

 

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Databases

Locate citations, abstracts and/or full text of journal articles, magazine articles, newspapers, dissertations, government documents, and other information sources in your subject.

Examples:

  • Academic Search Premier: - Citations, abstracts and full text articles from scholarly and general-interest periodicals relating to social sciences, humanities, education, as well as many other disciplines. Tip: For scholarly articles, limit the search to refereed publications.
  • Education Complete: Education Complete (from Proquest) contains references to articles from 550 periodicals in the field of primary, secondary and higher education. A portion of the articles are provided in full-text.
  • ERIC: UMass Amherst Subscription: Citations and abstracts for education journal articles (EJ references) and ERIC documents (ED references). Links to full text are provided for many recent Eric documents. Older EDs are located on microfiche in the Du Bois Library Microforms Room. This link provides access to full text articles from e-journals to which UMass Amherst subscribes.
  • LexisNexis Academic: Full text articles from law reviews; state and federal case law; and statutory law.
  • LegalTrac: Citations to and some fulltext articles from law reviews and law-related journals.
  • Westlaw Campus Research: Full text legal encyclopedias, law reviews, and legal treatises; federal and state statutes, regulations, court decisions; and newspapers, news wires, magazines and business and industry data.

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How to Locate Materials from Databases
If you do not see the full text (or a link to it), try these steps.

  1. The UMLinks button appears near the citation in most (but not all) databases. Click to view your options, which depend on the source (e.g. journal titles) and the UMass 
      Amherst Library's holdings.

  • If available, you will see links to the full text of your article in one or more of the other databases to which the Library subscribes.
     
  • If you see UMass Amherst Library Catalog listed, the Library subscribes to the source in some format. Click on the link to view the record for the title. Make a note of the item's location in the Libraries and its call number. For journals, also note if we have the volume and year you need.

  2. If the UMLinks button does not appear in the database you are using, open a new browser window, so you do not lose your place in the database. Search the UMass Library
     Catalog
by Title (if a book) or Journal Title (if a journal article). Alternatively for journal articles, check the EJournal Locator for online access. Note: Be sure to look up journal titles rather
     than article titles.

  3. If you have a citation to a book, article, or journal, enter the information you have about the item into the Citation Linker to view your access choices.

  4. If we do not own or have access to the material you need, try these steps.

  • For a book, try these options in order:

               Search the Five Colleges Catalog and if found, click on the "Request Item" button.

               Request it through Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery.

 

Internet Resources

Currently the best free law webpage is Findlaw. It is a huge collection of legal material including federal and state cases, federal and state statutes, case briefs and law reviews.

 Citation Styles

See Using Citation Styles for examples and links to standard style formats.


Prepared for David Schimmel, Education 618, 9/2007
Library guide by Barbara Morgan, Law Reference Librarian

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University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Created: May 2003
Last modified: September 22, 2005