Library.
Law books can be extremely useful because they provide information about the state of the law in a certain area, in addition to commentary, annotations and practical law advice. Law books can be written with a variety of audiences in mind. They can either be scholarly or practice oriented. Although research of such law books may be tough to understand at first, many legal practitioners and law students find what they are looking for usually by referring to the author who penned the law book. If you are researching a topic, how should one go about finding information about that specific topic?
New technologies make it easier than ever to search for information, even from the comfort of your own home. For instance, Harvard Law School has informational resources pertaining to law books right on their website. You can perform a search for the topic that you are researching and find information quickly and easily. Most websites only contain excerpts from books and not the full text, unfortunately.
If you plan on buying a law book, your best bet is to find out which law books are most commonly referred to buy judges. You can do this by searching through listings, such as The Most-Cited Legal Books Published Since 1978. The amount of citing a law book has is usually relative to its quality, so if you have a small budget, you may want to pursue this method when choosing a law book.
A researcher may also refer to Ken Svengalis’ Legal Information Buyer’s Guide and Reference Manual. This manual gives prices and detailed descriptions of the law books with the highest quality, organized by subject. It also contains helpful advice for selecting the law book that would be most useful to you.
A traditional method of finding law books is through library catalogs. This is especially useful when combined with the ease of the internet. Many libraries have linked their catologues to be quickly searched on via the internet. The Library of Congress may be an excellent source for law books, but law school library catalogs would do just fine. Law librarians may also have the information needed to find the law book you are searching for. They are knowledgable in locating relevant material, even if it is hidden in certain law books. Librarians may be busy with their work however, so take consideration when referring to one for additional help.
Also, IndexMaster (www.indexmaster.com) is an extremely useful source where you can search by subject and keyword. The search engine retreives table of contents within a variety of law books that may meet your requirements. This is a viable option because it allows you to search law books from many publishers, aside from just one if you would use a publisher website. While this informational source costs money, the costs are reasonable and it will be well worth the price.
While the process of locating a proper law book for your research may be a time-consuming process, technology and professional sources can help trim the amount of time it takes to find what you are looking for.
