Jody Kelley Librarian McKenna & Cuneo, LLP September 1998
Mar 26, 2015
Jody KelleyLibrarianMcKenna & Cuneo, LLPSeptember 1998
Basics Goals
• What is the Internet?
• How do we access it?
• Where do we start to find the information it contains?
• Firm Goal - cost effective access to information - including legal sources & research
What the Internet is NOT
• Information Superhighway
• Free source of information otherwise found on Lexis and Westlaw
• Free source of any information you could possibly want about anything and everything
WHAT IT IS
• Massive resource of services
• Wonderful self-publishing medium
• The largest, most disorganized library in the world
Research Uses
• Current information - not retrospective• Primary Law - cases, statutes,
regulations• Company homepages - news,
financials, stock quotes• Government sites, Federal and State• Finding people• E-mail discussion lists and Usenet
E-Mail Discussion Lists
• Electronic Mailing Lists– http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/lawlists/
lawlists.txt
• Deja News– http://www.dejanews.com
• Netiquette – http://www.learnthenet.com/english/html/
09netiqt.htm
The Web Address
http://www.mckennacuneo.com
Hypertext TransferProtocol
Arbitrary use of www
not always present
Host name
Domain(Commercia
lEntity)
Domain Types• .com (Commercial)• .edu (Education)• .gov (Government)• .mil (Military)• .net (Networking
Organizations)• .org (Nonprofits &
Associations)• Others (.uk, .ca, etc.)
Browser Basics
• URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is in the Address box.
Browser Buttons
Back one page
Forward one page
Stop the process
Re-load the page
Go Back (Home)to theResearchAssistant
Bookmarks you’ve added
Where you’ve been
See more ofthe page
Check Mail
Where to Start
• Know the URL? Type it in and go.
• Don’t know it? Try guessing.
• Define the subject matter
• Use a directory (try Findlaw or Yahoo)
• Use search engines for unique words and phrases
Search Engines
• Directory Type– Good for finding general information– Groups websites together by category
• Index Type– Sends “Spiders” or “Robots” to find
information– Finds individual pages that match terms– Can find gem, or waste a lot of time
Search Engines - Directories
• Yahoo - http://www.yahoo.com– Good starting point for general
information– Use for companies, state & local
governments– Quick stock quotes with graphs
• Excite - http://www.excite.com– Daily news & review of other sites
Search Engines - Indexes
• Alta Vista http://www.altavista.digital.com– Search Web and Usenet– Updates information often
• Infoseek http://www.infoseek.com– Search Web, Usenet & E-Mail addresses– Gives a score to your search
• HotBot http://www.hotbot.com– Fast & powerful– Results ranked by confidence rating
Metasearch Engines
• Metacrawler http://www.metacrawler.com
– Searches nine other search engines, discards the duplicates, brief abstract
• Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com
– Searches some different engines
Search Engines Don’t Find--
• Adobe PDF and formatted file content
• Content from a site requiring a login
• Protected pages
• Non-Web resources (FTP, Gopher)
Law Related Sites
• State and Federal primary law
• Courts and other Government links
• State Bars and CLE programs
• Attorney directories
• Legal publishers
Law Related Sites
Link to Supreme Court Cases from 1893 (FLITE)
http://www.findlaw.com
http://law.house.gov
Law Related Sites
List of available State Laws
List ofavailable
Int’lLaws
Law Related Sites
• Legal Information Institute at Cornell– http://www.law.cornell.edu– full text searching of Supreme Court
cases from 1990-– U.S. Code - handy update feature
• Center for Information Law & Policy– http://www.vcilp.org– Government and Court information
Government Sites - Start here
• The Federal Web Locator– http://www.law.vill.edu/Fed-Agency– Villanova’s list of government agency
sites - excellent starting point
• GPO http://www.access.gpo.gov– Government Printing Office - may
search databases from Federal Register, Congressional Record and MUCH more - files are usually Adobe
– Commerce Business Daily
Government sites - Continued
• Thomas http://thomas.loc.gov
– Federal legislation, Congressional Committee reports, Congressional Record, Links to committee pages, Public Laws
• Administrative Decisions– http:www.law.virginia.edu/Library/govadm.htm
– Links to Directives, Decisions, Orders, Circulars from various Federal Agencies (Agriculture to Veterans Affairs)
Government Sites - California
• California State http://www.ca.gov– Laws– State agencies
• Legislative Information – http://www.leginfo.ca.gov
– Maintained by Legislative Counsel– Subscribe to current bills
Another California Site
• California Courts http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov
– Supreme Court & Court of Appeals Slip Opinions
– Judicial Council Forms– Court rules for many Superior and
Municipal Courts– Fee schedules for Superior and
Municipal Courts
Government Contracts
• CCH Government Contract Reporter no longer published
• DFAR no longer updated in paper
• Government Printing Office moving away from paper publishing
• Rely more on online sources
Look for these Sites
• Practice Groups ; Government Contracts (Research Assistant)
• FAR site– http://www.arnet.gov/far
• DFAR site– http://acq.osd.mil/dp/dars/index.html– Subscribe to DFAR updates
More Government Contract Sites
• Defenselink http://defenselink.gov
– Good place to start for Defense information
• GAO http://www.gao.gov
– Decisions, reports, rules– GAO listserv
Finding People
• Attorneys – Martindale-Hubbell
• http://www.martindale.com
– West’s Legal Directory• http://www.wld.com
• Telephone numbers - addresses– White Pages – E-Mail Addresses
Browser Tips - View History
• To see pages from previous sessions, click the History Button on the toolbar
• Click appropriate Folder
Add Favorites
• While on page, click Favorites on menu
• Click Add to Favorites• Type a new name if needed• Click OK• To arrange in folders, click Create in
Add Favorites - Continued
• Highlight a folder or click on New Folder
• Name the folder and press Enter
FIND
Click EDIT
And thenFIND
Typein word
Send a Link- Click on FILE, then on SEND- Send LINK or PAGE
Print a Page• Click on File (on menu)
• Click on Print
• Choose All or page range
• Click on OK
• Send large documents or graphics to the high-speed printer
Save Text or Files
1. Click FILE on Toolbar
2. Click
SAVE AS
Save Text or Files - Continued
3. Designate the location to save file: Type in C:\Download\[filename]
4. Save as text file, not html
5. ClickSAVE
PDF & Adobe Acrobat
• .PDF = Portable Document Format
• Use Adobe Acrobat to Read
• Usually, document automatically downloads and opens up
• If you need to download, use AllFiles extension
• Documents are not Text files
Find
To learn the Web - Use It
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