This document provides an overview of resources for researching EU law at Sheppard Library, including: 1) Databases like Westlaw International, Lexis Library and HeinOnline for searching journal articles and legal texts. Summon allows simultaneous searching across multiple databases. 2) Websites for current awareness on EU issues, news and information like Europa and the European Information Association. 3) Guides on the library catalogue and subject guide for finding relevant e-books, journals and annotated reading lists. 4) Tips on effective literature searching, using subject keywords, setting up article alerts and accessing e-resources through the library login.

1. CATHERINE FUNNELL
SENIOR LIAISON LIBRARY
SHEPPARD LIBRARY
LEX 4110
ISSUES IN EU LAW

2. PURPOSE OF SESSION
 Look at a few of the subscription databases with
some possible topics you might use for your research
proposal
 Useful websites freely available on the Internet-places
to start for a literature search or research proposal
pertaining to EU law
 Briefly look at SUMMON-for multi-database
searching

3. LEGAL WRITING AND EFFECTIVE LITERATURE
SEARCHING
 Let‟s start by looking at some useful titles that
we have in the library for legal writing
“Research and Writing in Law”-Hutchinson
“How to Write Law Essays”-Strong
“How to Write Better Law Essays”-Foster

4. USE „LEGAL COMPOSITION‟ AS THE SUBJECT
KEYWORDS
By doing a SUBJECT
KEYWORD search on
the catalogue you will
get a good number of
books on legal
writing

5. TRY THIS TITLE
There is
only 1 copy
but I have
more on
order!

6. .......AND A FEW MORE!!!!!!!
ALL ON THE LIBRARY CATALOGUE
Really useful Excellent Book by Peter Clinch
by John
Knowles
Legal
Writing
by
Higgins

7. EFFECTIVE LITERATURE SEARCHING
 It helps to make a plan first as it may take much
longer to do your literature search than you
anticipated!
 You may also need to visit other libraries and/or
order books /journal articles through Inter-library
Loan
 Not everything can be found on the Internet!

8. THE PLAN
 It may seem silly to plan the stages of your
search by resorting to a flowchart but a visual
image may help to get you organised,
prioritising the stages involved in the research
and reminding you what there is left to do!

9. THE PLAN
 You may want to start by searching for some
general background information and then
move to the more specific and current
information
 Start thinking about specifc subject keywords
that you would use when structuring your
search strategies
 Remember alternative terms and spellings eg
labour/labor, euthanasia/assisted suicide

10. THE INTERNET
 The Internet may be the quickest and most
effective tool for accessing EU publications as
more and more documents are being made
available online. The EU‟s own website Europa
http://europa.eu/index_en.htm
is the obvious place to start but many find it diificult
to navigate so you may find it easier to search
using a search engine such as Google.However.....

11. GOOGLE OR ADVANCED SEARCH GOOGLE?
COMPARE BASIC GOOGLE AND ADVANCED
Advanced
allows for
numerous
refinement
s
Beware of the
shortcomings of a
Basic Google
search

12. CURRENT AWARENESS-PART OF EUROPA-INFO
EUROPA

13. EU NEWS-NEWS FEEDS FROM THE
EUROPEAN INFORMATION ASSOCIATION

14. THE EUROPAEUM

15. ZETOC ALERTS-AVAILABLE FROM THE
DATABASES LISTINGS(MY UNIHUB)
 Zetoc provides access to the British Library‟s Electronic Table
of Contents of around 20,000 current journals published each
year
 Database covers 1993 to date and is updated daily
 Includes an email alerting service to enable you to stay up to
date with relevant new articles and papers in your area of
research

16. ZETOC ALERT HOMEPAGE
Select Middlesex from the
universities list and click
GO. Then you will be asked
for your network log in

17. CREATE AN ACCOUNT
Create your account
with your email
address. Click
create.Then you can
add the journals you
wish to be alerted about

18. SETTING UP ALERTS
The alert can be set up
for contents lists of
several journal titles and
also for TITLE Keyword
searches

19. TIME PERIOD
 You can have a number of alerts for contents
lists or article keywords and add them or make
changes as required
 They are set up for 1 year and require renewing
after that period
 Email alerts will be sent to whenever the
British Library database is updated with new
issues and articles relevant to your search

20. BLOGS-LINKS ON MY SUBJECT GUIDE

21. ONLINE JOURNALS-APPEAR ON THE CATALOGUE
AND CAN SEARCHED AS FOR A TITLE
The record
links directly
to the e-
version.
Check the
coverage
details to see
the format

22. E BOOKS ALSO APPEAR ON THE CATALOGUE AND
CAN BE SEARCHED AS FOR A BOOK

23. ACCESSING E BOOKS AND ONLINE
JOURNALS-
 Access for all online or electronic resources to
which Learning resources subscribes will
requite a log in
 This is to identify users as Middlesex students
or staff and therefore eligible under the user
licence
 At some point then a log in screen will appear

24. ACCESSING E BOOKS-SUGGEST CLICKING ON THE
ALTERNATIVE ACCOUNT OPTION

25. CHOOSE ALTERNATIVE LOG IN

26. TYPE IN MIDDLESEX OR CHOOSE FROM
THE LIST BELOW UNDER OPTION
UNIVERSITIES

27. CLICK ON MIDDLESEX

28. MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY LOG IN PAGE-
AND CLICK!

29. NOW YOU TYPE IN YOU NETWORK
USERNAME AND PASSWORD

30. FINALLY-THE E BOOK VERSION
Choose from the
Choose to
options 1-7 number
download
of days you to the to
according want
download of days
number
1-7

31. ONLINE JOURNALS ACCESS FROM THE CATALOGUE-GO
THROUGH THE LOG IN STEPS AS ON PREVIOUS SLIDES

32. CHOOSE DATE FROM OPTIONS ON LIST

33. CHOOSE ISSUE NUMBER

34. FIND ARTICLE ON THE LIST-CLICK ON
ARTICLE AND PDF FORMATTED ARTICLE
SHOULD APPEAR

35. SUMMON>MY UNIHUB>MY STUDY>MY
LIBRARY>SUMMON

36. SUMMON-ALLOWS YOU TO SEARCH
VARIOUS DATABASES SIMULTANEOUSLY
Can do a Basic
or Advanced
search but the
latter gives you
more opportunity
to narrow /refine
the search

37. SUMMON-ADVANCED SEARCH-PHRASE SEARCH
INVERTED COMMAS-NO BOOLEAN FUNCTIONALITY

38. RESULTS-KEEP REFINING AND UPDATING
WITH MORE SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS
Can refine by
Change the date, type of
using the
publication, subject terms
sidebar and
to get fewer and more
changing
meaningful results
date, pub type
etc

39. PREVIEW OF THE FULL TEXT ARTICLE

40. FULL TEXT ARTICLE-FROM BUSINESS
SOURCE COMPLETE

41. SUMMON-TRY “EUROPEAN COURT OF
JUSTICE” AND “HUMAN RIGHTS”

42. RESULTS-MASSIVE!!
Use the Sidebar
to refine the
search-eg
narrow the date
range, peer-
reviewed articles
only

43. RESULTS
Fewer

44. ECJ AND ECHR-VIEW THE ABSTRACT FOR A
PREVIEW

45. WESTLAW INTERNATIONAL-MY UNIHUB>MY
STUDY>MY LIBRARY

46. WESTLAW-ENTER HERE TO GO TO WESTLAW
HOMEPAGE

47. WESTLAW INTERNATIONAL

48. JOURNAL ARTICLE SEARCHINGVARIOUS WAYS TO
SEARCH

49. SEARCH BY JOURNAL TITLE OR DO A SUBJECT
SEARCH

50. SEARCH BY FREE TEXT OR NATURAL
LANGUAGE

51. USING TERMS AND CONNECTORS FOR
FUNCTIONALITY AND EFFICIENT SEARCHING
Enter phrase in
inverted commas and
ask it to search for this
phrase in the same
sentence as eu-
contextual searching

52. RESULTS
Scroll down the
results as they
appear in the
sidebar and read
the abtract which
describes the
text of the article

53. PRINTING,SENDING, SAVING AN ARTICLE

54. LET‟S LOOK AT ANOTHER

55. RESULTS

56. REFINE IT SOMEWHAT

57. RESULT

58. MORE PROXIMITY SEARCHING

59. RESULTS

60. LEXIS LIBRARY-CLICK ON SOURCES

61. TICK KEYWORD AND THEN START
FILTERING

62. FILTER BY PUBLICATION TYPE AND
CONTENT AND THEN CLICK ON MORE
SOURCES
For pub type I
chose legal journals
and for topics I
chose all of
EU, Immigration
and
Nationality, Intellec
tual Poperty and
International Law

63. NOW HIGHLIGHT TITLES TO SEARCH-YOU CAN GIVE
IT A FILE NAME AS WELL

64. TYPE IN SEARCH STATEMENT
You can scroll down
this list to see the
names of the titles
you highlighted to
search

65. STRUCTURE THE SEARCH STATEMENT
CAREFULLY-LEXIS USES BOOLEAN OPERATORS

66. RESULTS-CAN EDIT AND ADD OTHER
SEARCH TERMS IF NECESSARY

67. TRY ANOTHER WITH PROXIMITY
OPERATOR

68. RESULTS

69. HIGHLIGHT FROM THE LIST

70. SUBJECT KEYWORDS ARE HIGHLIGHTED
IN BOLD-SEE THE CONTEXT-
WORTHWHILE?

71. HEINONLINE-MY UNIHUB>MY
STUDY>MY LIBRARY>HEINONLINE
Choose Advanced
Search for more
flexibility and
functionality

72. SEARCH STATEMENT, REFINE BY LIMITING
DATE AND CONTENT TYPE(ARTICLES ONLY)

73. RESULTS
Click on View
matching Text
Pages for para
with the search
terms you used

74. FULL TEXT
Print
function
s and
moving
between
pages

75. SUBJECT GUIDE

76. SOME USEFUL EU
BLOGS, DATABASES,READING LISTS