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LegalTrac database provides indexing to over 800 law
journals including all major law reviews, bar association journals,
and other speciality legal publications. It also includes three daily and
four weekly legal newspapers, plus law-related citations from
approximately 3,000 other publications. Coverage begins in 1981.
Consult the UNC-CH Library catalog for current information about journal
holdings.
To access LegalTrac, click twice on the "UNC Library" icon on the
computers in The Park Library. When you reach the main menu of the UNC
Online Catalog, where it says "Welcome to UNC-CH Library Services"
select item number one" InfoTrac. This will be the screen with
"Indexes to Periodicals, Newspapers and Other Resourses" on it.
Select "LegalTrac." When you get to the LegalTrac screen,
you will be prompted to type in your search terms. You may run your
search in either "Subject " or "Key Word" mode. Searching by Subject
will only pull a record up if it has been classified as belonging to the
subject areas you type in. Key word searching will look for your search
terms in the Title, Author, and Abstract fields as well. Therefore, key
word searching will find more material. Use the up and down arrow keys to
toggle between Subject and Key Word mode.
You may search using key words and Boolean operators, for
example, "first amendment AND chilling effect." If your search
brings too many results, type "N" to narrow it; LegalTrac will
allow you to enter new terms, and search for those among the terms you
have already found. If you want to start over with new search terms, you
may enter a "\" to go back to the previous screen and enter a new search.
Other Sample Searches:
- fi hill & knowlton
(returns number of results, a set or "s1")
fi s1 and bank
di lo 1-5
- fi privacy and defamation
(returns number of results, a set)
di lo 1-7
- fi (hate speech) or (free expression)
(returns number of results, a set)
di lo 1-10
fi s1 and (campus or university)
di lo 1-10
Printing and Capturing Search Results:
When your search is completed, you may scroll through the list of
results highlighting the citations you wish to view. For the most part,
you will be able only to view brief abstracts of desired articles in
LegalTrac. To obtain full-text of these desired articles, you will have to
locate the bound or microfilmed journals in Davis Library or the Law
Library. Some legal publications may be found full-text on
Nexis/Lexis. Undertaking a Nexis/Lexis search will be much easier,
more focused because you will be armed with a specific publication,
headline and date. After you locate the full-text you can then print or
capture the article to disk.
In some cases, you may be able to view the full text of the desired record on LegalTrac.
Some of these full-text law articles may be VERY long. It is recommended that you do not use
the print command (pressing the "p" key) in these situations. It is better to "capture" or
download the desired articles, citations or abstracts to disk. To do that, make certain you have
a formatted, high density disk with enough disk space. Then, with your mouse:
click on "File" at the top of the screen
select "capture" (an info box pops up)
select "continuous"
move cursor to "capture filename" box; delete the default
designation
type in drive and appropriate filename with extension
(a:defamat.doc)
put formatted disk in "a:" drive and press enter
Then, all the text scrolling across the screen will be captured to your
disk.
When you complete your download, use your mouse to click on "file" but this time
select "capture off." Then you may exit LegalTrac and remove your disk.
Students may then open a word processing program such as Microsoft Word, go to the
a: drive and open the file (e.g., a:defamat.doc) and proceed to edit the file as desired.
Remember to give full attribution and citation for all information used in your reporting.
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