Our databases page is broken up into the following categories: articles & law reviews, citators, e-books, general primary law, media, study aids, subject-specific databases, and tools.   (See the A-Z list of databases for individual descriptions of each database.)  This help page first outlines databases suited for specific research tasks.  View this comparison chart comparing specific coverage and materials available in HeinOnline, LLMC-Digital, Nexis Uni, and Westlaw Campus Research.

To find an article from a legal publication

HeinOnline is an excellent journal archive which contains PDF scans of journal articles.  LegalTrac includes only selected full text legal articles but offers a refereed articles search.  Legal Scholarship Network and Bepress Legal Repository are both depositories for "open access" legal research.  Nexis Uni has a wealth of full text journals to share.  The Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals will help you locate citations for publications with an international focus.  The Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective is a great tool for locating older citations, particularly those between 1908-1981.

To citate law

Use one of our citators to see if your case, statute, or regulation is still considered "good law".  Shepard's (via Nexis Uni) and KeyCite (via Westlaw Campus Research), are available campus-wide or off campus with your UWYO username and password.  

To read a treatise online

The best way to access our many collections of e-books and e-treatises is to search the library catalog by keyword.  HeinOnline, LLMC-Digital, and Making of Modern Law Treatises are all excellent databases for reading treatises online.  HeinOnline includes American Law Institute publications, legal classics, and foreign and international law titles, among others.  LLMC-Digital contains state, federal, and international titles.  The Making of Modern Law Treatises collection contains American and British historical works from 1800-1926.  The library also subscribes to e-book collections from legal publishers such as BNA, Brill, Cambridge, National Consumer Law Center, and Oxford.   

To research primary law

Courtroom Cast is unique in that it provides audible case law in a downloadable mp3 file. Primary law access in HeinOnline, Nexis Uni, LLMC-Digital, and Westlaw Campus Research is compared in this chart.  The UN Treaty Collection provides access to treaty documents.  Proquest Congressional leads you to house and senate documents and reports.  The U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs database gives you access to these hard to find records from 1832-1978.

For further assistance

Stop by the law library to speak with a librarian to discuss your research options, or contact a librarian via the Ask Us web page.