FACULTY OF LAW

JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA

TOPIC- FINDING MATERIAL IN LAW LIBRARY

(LEGAL METHODS)

SUBMITTED BY-

MASOOM RAZA

ROLL NO- 34

B.A.LL.B (H) 3rd SEMESTER

SUBMITTED TO-

DR. SHABANA SHABNAM

GUEST PROFESSOR, (FOL)

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………...

INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………….

LAW LIBRARIES ARE SPECIAL LIBRARY………………………………

APPROACH FOR A LEGAL RESEARCH………………………………….

COLLECTION IN LAW LIBRARY………………………………………….

ROLE OF LIBRARIANS……………………………………………………..

CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………...

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMNETS

I would like express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher Dr. Shaban Shabnam Ma’am,
as well as my seniors who supported me while researching for this wonderful assignment on the
topic- FINDING MATERIAL IN LAW LIBRARY, which also helped me in doing a lot of Research
and I came to know about so many new things as I am really thankful to them.

Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this
project within the limited time frame.

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 INTRODUCTION
The law has always been information based and information intensive. As organizations seek to
harness and derive value from information ever more efficiently, the net for relevant information
is thrown more widely, particularly in law firms. The relevant legal information is no longer
contained solely in published form or in house documentation, expertise, and information
deriving from the practice of law and from discrete legal transactions. Many types of information
are now drawn in to more formal information systems and become intellectual capital within
these vigorous competitive environments. This, in fact, is an embarkation of any
library/information system.

So the librarians have a lot of responsibility for the selection, acquisition, storage, arrangements,
and delivery of right and useful information source of legal relevance in convenient and speedy
ways suited to the nature of the legal research of their users. In doing this, they can play a vital
role in the administration of justice, in the support of scholarship and the promotion of quality of
legal education, and in the functioning of a social system which adheres to the rule of law as
judges, researchers have no time to find out relevant judgment reports and acts, allied rules etc
which are spread over vast variety of sources, and only option is to relay upon the librarian and
his professional skills which enhance the capability of any researcher to arrive at early
conclusion stage in his research work. To achieve this the librarian or Library and Information
Professionals serving in law institutions including colleges could take a leadership role such as
working with the legal writing program, creating special training modules, joining with the
faculty in developing the necessary curricular components for enhanced training of students in
the use of technology in research such as use of legal databases in legal research.1

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 LAW LIBRARIES ARE SPECIAL LIBRARY

Even though the basic education and the core competencies of law librarians are similar to those
of other types of librarians, there are sufficient differences in mission and responsibility to
separate them. The law librarians and the law libraries play a unique and integral role in shaping
the quality of the legal system at all levels by the virtue of their unique collection and services.
They are a part of the process from the very start. They participate in legal education, and now
play an increasing role in helping the public protect its legal rights. They are also a part of the
legal effort at the other end of the process, protecting the availability and quality of legal
information at reasonable cost, and ensuring open and equal access to legal information for
everyone.2

What should be the approach for a Legal Research?

In many respects working a “legal research plan” is much like briefing cases; there are certain
steps that ought to be followed and certain landmarks to look for along the way. Once you
become familiar with briefing cases, you no longer need to work through the process every time
you read a case, as that process occurs in the background. So it is with legal research.

PRIMARY ANALYSIS

Before you can begin researching, it is important to spend some time analyzing the materials that
you’ve been given looking for clues to assist you in researching the question that you have been
asked to answer. You need to have a plan. Very often research goes wrong because the
researcher attempts to begin researching without being able to answer some very fundamental
questions about the topic. Librarians call this the “shot in the dark” approach. It cannot be
emphasized enough, especially in your first research projects, that you take the time to answer
the following questions, and extract as much information as possible, before you begin

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researching. Part of the reason for this is that the answers to some of these questions will guide
your research process in terms of locating and ordering sources.3

Before we attempt to answer the legal question presented, we must understand it. In order to
understand the question, we have to review the preliminary materials that we have been
given as a starting point. It is crucially important that you read everything that you’ve been given
carefully and ask yourself the following questions:

 What is the legal issue? Sometimes the legal question at hand may be ascertained easily
from preliminary materials. For example you may be given documents that comprise an
initial case file and be asked based on the facts whether a potential client has a cause of
action for intentional infliction of emotional distress against a co-worker? Other times, it
will be less obvious. Part of your research process may involve "learning” enough about
an unfamiliar subject area to determine exactly what the proper legal question is. Legal
research can sometimes be frustrating because it is a recursive process. In other words,
sometimes we need to go through a significant amount of research just to determine what
the question is that we are trying to answer. Only then can we do additional research,
often using the same sources, to determine what the answer to the question is.

 Who are the parties involved? When asking yourself these questions, think in terms of
potential legal relationships, and not necessarily labels. For example, in the scenario
above, it may be important that the co-worker is the employee's supervisor. The
supervisor – employee relationship might indicate that one person or party can exercise
authority or control authority over another person or party.

 What is the thing in controversy? Is there a contract involved? Is a piece of property at

issue? The answer to this question may be helpful because it often leads the researcher to
specific legal subject areas. Knowing that a question is a matter of tort law or contract
law reduces the universe of possible resources to consult and may lead directly to certain
sources, like a treatise on torts--as a starting point.

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  What type of relief is being sought? In other words, what are the possible bases of
action or defenses? Is a party seeking monetary damages for an injunction? Again,
knowing the answer to this question, if ascertainable at this point, may lead the researcher
to a specific legal topic like what standard needs to be met in order to get an injunction
given a particular set of facts.

 What jurisdiction governs legal question at hand? Again, at this point, it may be
difficult to answer this question. Some legal subjects are governed primarily by federal
law (environmental, immigration, copyright) and some by state (contracts, torts, criminal
law). When you’re done with law school, you will be in a much better position to answer
this question initially. If you did know the answer with some certainty, again this would
restrict your universe of possible sources because if you knew the question was governed
by Illinois law, for example, you could eliminate the federal law and 49 other states as
potential research sources, or at least as primary authority. Doing so will allow you to
focus your research much more narrowly and save a lot of valuable research time.4

 When did the events take place? The answer to this question helps to determine
whether you are researching current law or historical.

 Are there any starting points embedded in the preliminary materials? For example,
you may be pointed to a particular statute as a starting point. Or, you may have been
given the name of the seminal case. If, for example, you knew that the answer involved a
particular federal statute, you might begin by reading that statute and looking at
annotations in an annotated federal code like USCA or USCS.

 Is there any language that you don’t understand? If you need to look up terminology
in a legal dictionary, by all means do so, and do so before you continue on. There’s no
prize for assuming you know what a term means or how it is being used. If you make an
assumption and it turns out that you are wrong, you only need to start your research over
again. That is a tremendously inefficient way to proceed.

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 FORMULATE A RESEARCH STRATEGY

At the conclusion of the Preliminary Analysis stage of the research plan, a researcher ought to
have a basic understanding of the legal question and a list of search terms based on the
questions above. The researcher might also know the jurisdiction to be searched, as well as
whether it is current or historical information that is sought. A researcher's level of
confidence will next guide the research strategy by indicating what resources should be searched,
and in what order. So, the first question is this.

Can you state your legal issue in a sentence?

No.

 If you are not confident that you can state your answer in a sentence, do not be dismayed.
This is perfectly natural. But, before you start looking for answers when you don’t
understand the question, it’s time to take a step back. You can’t find a needle in a
haystack if you can’t identify the haystack you need. This is where most beginning
researchers go wrong. Don’t go jumping into a rolling sea of contradictory opinions
without the proper context for understanding the information that your research has
gleaned. You'll just waste precious time.

 If you can’t state your legal issue in a sentence at this point--in other words, if you are not
confident that you have or understand all the terms of art, what the governing jurisdiction
is, or what the governing law is--it's best to begin by trying to ascertain a very broad
overview of your subject area. This is the Google Maps equivalent of changing your
focus so you see a broader area in less detail. One way to "learn" about unfamiliar legal
topics (like intentional infliction of emotional distress or employment discrimination or
injunctions), is to begin with basic secondary sources like national or state encyclopedias
or hornbooks. Students are often loath to take this intermediary step because it’s not the
fastest way to get research done. One important point to keep in mind here is that often
preliminary research involves looking for starting points, and not necessarily looking for
answers. A basic secondary source will identify the answers to some of the questions
asked above like is intentional infliction of emotional distress a question of state or

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 federal law? Is it primarily governed by statutes? Case law? Or both. Are there particular
statutes or cases in the area that you must be aware of in order to answer the question
asked? Are there important terms of art that you need to know to execute an effective
online search?

 After you review one or more basic secondary sources, you should at some point feel
confident that you can state your legal issue in a sentence. When that happens, keep
reading below.5

Yes, at least I think so.

 If you have done a thorough job with your preliminary analysis you may at this point be
able to state your legal issue in a sentence. This is an extremely important point, because
if you can state your issue in a sentence, it may be possible for you to begin searching for
answers or pieces of an answer using a natural language or terms and connectors search.
That technique, however, is not recommended if you are exploring an unfamiliar area of
law.

 Before you begin researching, take stock of what resources you have at your disposal.
Don’t just go looking for cases. If you know that your question involves a state or federal
statute, or section of code, retrieve that statute or section from an annotated code. Then,
read it, and look at the annotations, especially references to secondary sources like law
review articles or treatises that discuss and dissect the entire statute or section.

 Likewise, now would be a good time to look for more advanced secondary sources
covering your topic, like treatises or law review articles. If you are not familiar with the
treatises in the particular subject area, don’t be afraid to ask your friendly reference
librarian for input. Doing so may save a lot of time in the long run. Another trick is to
look at the practice pages on Lexis and Westlaw and Bloomberg and see what major
works or treatises are available through these resources.

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  Finally, remember that legal research is a recursive process. As you read more and learn
more, you may have to adjust your question. Again, this is perfectly natural. However, it
leads to the next important point about executing a research plan.

RECORD YOUR ACTION, SOURCES AND RESULTS

Executing a well thought out legal research plan is a lot like briefing cases. It’s drudgery at first,
but it becomes a natural process after you’ve done it a few times. Those who don’t do it become
stuck using the same poor technique or series of sources with no understanding of whether that
technique will work or not. When all you have is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail. The
best lawyers still brief cases. Very good lawyers brief cases mentally whether they know it or
not. Good researchers record their actions in some manner, shape, or form. Once you become
familiar with a particular area of law and its related research resources, your research process
will become intuitive. Your search history and Lexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg can aid greatly
with this part, but not every source is available through those three commercial services. So it’s
important to have a log, separate of these research histories, even though there will be some
overlap.

For now, here are six good reasons why you ought to keep a "research log" for your first few
assignments, followed by an example of one might look like:

 It’s helpful to have a a written record research log to keep track of sources consulted
because, if your question changes slightly as you learn more about your legal topic, you
will have a record of what has and hasn't been searched, what terms or techniques were
used, and what the results were so you do not re-create the wheel and waste your own
time.

 Keeping a research log will give you some assurance that you haven’t missed anything.
You can compare your list of potential sources like treatises, law reviews, annotated
codes, case databases etc. against what you’ve actually researched. This will give you

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 confidence that there isn’t more information lurking out there somewhere that you ought
to have found.

 If you need to consult with a partner, professor, or a librarian about your research, it
would be most helpful to have a written record of what your searches have been and
where you have looked. An expert will be able to determine whether there are sources
that you should have searched, or whether your search terms need modifying, if you have
a record.

 In the real world, whether you are clerking, have an externship, or you are a summer or
young associate, if the answer turns out to be "I cannot find an answer," you will need to
prove that result is justified. The best way to do that is by presenting the assigning
attorney with your research log based on your research strategy and searching.

 If you have to set aside your research project for any length of time, a research log will
help you by identifying where you have been, and what you have learned. Again, don’t
re-create the wheel. If every time you sit in front of a computer you start fresh, you’re
going to waste a lot of precious time, and you will have no confidence that you found
everything that there is to find because you have no list or record.

 Finally, as you are researching, you will probably identify sources that seem interesting,
or possibly helpful, but that may be outside the scope or focus of your current research.
Write those down and keep them somewhere--perhaps in a separate folder labeled
"maybe." Never look serendipity in the mouth. Often times skillful researchers end up
finding very good resources or bits of information in places they never thought they’d be.
Don’t lose the opportunity to take advantage of this information simply because you
failed to record its existence when you had the opportunity.

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 COLLECTION IN LAW LIBRARY

The documents related to legal affairs always require special skills to handle; especially court
judgments, legislative enactments, constitutions, treaties, ordinances and administrative rules and
regulations. Apart from these text books, reference books and professional journal publications
are the core contents of the any law library. The law library holdings can be categorized as
follows:6

PRIMARY SOURCES

 Constitutions of the Nations

 Statutes, Acts, Rules, Ordinances - Central and State Government bodies
 Parliament Debates/Proceedings - both Upper and Lower Houses’
 Gazettes - both Central and State Governments
 Court Judgment Reports - of Supreme Court, State High Courts, Tribunals, Special
Courts, Commissions.
 Legal Periodicals
 Thesis and Dissertations produced by the legal institutions 8. Government Publications -
A number of publications are brought out from time to time by the central as well as state
governments. Most of them consist of reports of various committees and commissions.
The reports of such bodies are of great help in any legal research without referring to
them will not be complete.

SECONDARY SOURCES

 Compiled Bare Acts of Parliaments and Legislative bodies

 Manuals containing Government Department’s rules and notifications
 Compilations of International Treaties
 Text Books

TERTIARY SOURCES

 Judgment Citations
 Digests of judgments on particular subjects
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  Legal News and Reviews
 Index to statutes

ONLINE LEGAL INFORMATION SERVICES

There are several legal information sources, mainly websites of government departments and the
Supreme Court and the High courts are the authentic sources of information. One should not rely
upon the online blogs, opinion expressed through the social networks like Orkut, tweeters etc.
legal knowledge should be confined to its authenticity otherwise it may end up with
complications which are irreversible and potential to cause harm to the person or institutions in
any extent. The law librarian should be cautious in acquiring or providing such legal information.
‘Selection policy and purchasing decisions require not only critical evaluation of subject matter,
but also consideration of the efficacy of particular formats (e.g., print, online, CD-ROM,
microform, etc.), space limitations, user access, cost and other relevant factors. The knowledge
and use of cost-benefit analysis techniques are essential to the collection management processes.7

ROLE OF LAW LIBRARIANS

The ideal law librarian is in harmony with the values at the heart of the legal profession and the
librarianship is completely knowledgeable about everything relevant to legal information, and
has all the necessary character traits, attitudes, and skills to be a superbly effective legal
information specialist. The competencies of law librarians are similar to those of other types of
librarians. There are sufficient differences in mission and responsibility to separate them. The
law librarians and law libraries play a unique and integral role in shaping the quality of the legal
system further evidence of the consensus that law librarians don’t need to be lawyers themselves,
following are the few essential tasks performed by the law librarians:

 Assist in the use of electronic legal resources

 Provide customized reference services on law-related topics
 Evaluate the authenticity and accuracy of legal sources
 Be well-versed in the legal profession

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Hazelton P. (1993). Law Libraries as Special Libraries: An Educational Model.

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  Monitor trends in specific legal fields
 Assist non professionals visitors in accessing the law
 Understand planning, budgeting, and control in the law library setting.

The law librarians are part of the legal effort at the other end of the process, protecting the
availability and quality of legal information at reasonable cost, and ensuring open and equal
access to legal information for everyone. The law library is a place for students to work and
study, then on the value of the instruction that law librarians offer to students faced with an
increasingly complex and perhaps confusing legal information environment.8

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 CONCLUSION

As we know doing research is not an easy task in the field of law and it needs high dedication to
do it. For any research or deep study of any subject students need to be very friendly the whole
library process. In this whole task the librarians plays an important role, the academic law
librarians are likely to be more involved in the mission of the law school than ever before, to
place greater emphasis on skills training, to be actively engaged in the teaching of information
skills and themselves to formally acquiring teaching skills, to be involved in the management,
organization and delivery of electronic information locally and at a distance, perhaps be
collaborating in the construction a portal or a virtual learning or research environment, and be
assisting in the selection and administration not only of information products but also their
delivery mechanisms.

Law is dependent on government documents as they are essential for comprehensive legal
research even though legal research material, such as statutes and judgments which are now
available in commercial sources. Thus legal faculty members use these documents which are
current as well as historic as they learn to read and analyze statutes, cases and regulations.
Hence, the academic law libraries have a significant role in developing collection resources that
can add value to for the legal researcher. As we have already well discussed above that how to
do a research and what should be the better steps in completion of any research, I want to
conclude this assignment by saying that research or finding material in law library needs an
excellent dedication in the field of law. We are future lawyers and we must have sound
knowledge of law, because without complete knowledge and information it is not easy to deal
with clients.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS:

 Prof. Tshar Kanit Shah, Textbook on Legal Methods, Legal Systems & Research, 2015
 Dr. S.R. Myneni, Legal Research Methodology, 2018

WEBSITES:

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/98726/12/12

http://lawlibguides.luc.edu/firstyearlegalresearch/researchstrategy

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