SHASTA COLLEGE LIBRARY 11555 Old Oregon Trail  *  PO Box 496006  *   Redding, CA 96049-6006

Library Contact: Carolyn Salus Singh

• Locating Information: Books, Videos, and Online eBooks
• Locating Information: Case Law and Journal Articles
• Useful Internet Links
• Shasta College Library Information

The Library Catalog is the author/title/subject guide to the 80,000 books and videos and 18,500 Online eBooks in the Shasta College Library collection. Most law books are grouped under Library of Congress classifications KF or KFC.
Codes, reporters, regulations, and handbooks are shelved in the Reference section and are for use in the library only (self service photocopying is available at 10 cents per page).  Discussions of individual cases or topics are often shelved in the stacks and may be borrowed for two weeks.  Some Library of Congess subject headings to try include:

Antitrust Law     Criminal Law     Criminal Procedure     Continuing Education of the Bar
Discovery Law     Evidence Law     Probate Law and Practice     Public Domain      Copyright Law
Real Estate      Business Law     Security Law     Trials, Litigation, etc.    Law Offices    Legal Assistants
Legal Ethics    Legal Research    Law Libraries

• Reference Books
Below is a sample list of Legal reference books in the Shasta College collection.  Browse the reference
shelves and book stacks at these call numbers for additional titles.
Codes and Reporters
• Miller and Starr California Real Estate [Reference KFC140 .M5]
• Shepard's California Citations: Cases [Reference KFC59 .S44c 1999]
• Shepard's California Citations: Statutes [Reference KFC59 .S44s 1995]
• Supreme Court Reporter  West Group [Reference KF101 .S8]
• West's Annotated California Codes Research Guide [Reference KFC30 .C2 Guide 1998]
• West's California Reporter [Reference KFC48 .A517]
• West's California Reporter. Second Series. California. Supreme Court [Reference KFC48 .A518 ]

 
Research Techniques
• Elias, Stephen. Legal Research : How to Find & Understand the Law. 8th ed. Nolo Press, 2000.

[Reference  KF240 .E35 2000]
• Herskowitz, Suzan. Legal Research Made Easy. Sphinx Pub., 1995. [Reference KF240 .H47 1995]
• Mack, Zella.  California Paralegal's Guide : Formerly California Paralegal's Handbook.  LEXIS Law Pub., 1998.   [Reference KFC77 .M322 ]
• Martin, Daniel W.  Henke's California Law Guide 5th ed.  LEXIS Law Pub, 1999. [Reference KFC74 .H46 1999]
• Olson, Kent C. Legal information : How to Find It, How to Use It.  Oryx Press, 1999.

[Reference KF240 .O365 1999 ]
• Videos
Videos are listed in the Library Catalog and for use in the library only.  Headsets are available at the Circulation Desk.  A group study room or the Fireside Room may be reserved for communal viewing.
To locate a video:
• Select Library Catalog from the Library's web page.
• Click on Search/Home and then click on Or Switch to Power Search.
• Enter your search term in the words or phrase box.
• Scroll down and select VIDEOCASS from the type box.  Click on Search. Over 40 titles are retrieved.
• Repeat search with different search terms.
• Each of the following terms finds at least one videocassette:

Law Offices     Law Libraries    Legal Assistants     Legal Ethics      Legal Research     Trials
• Online eBooks are electronic versions of printed books.  The Shasta College Library's eBook collection is purchased through netLibrary and includes more than 18,500 titles.  These are available at no charge to the College's registered students and staff.  The Internet also hosts collections of free ebooks.  These are usually older works no longer protected by copyright.
Locating  Online eBooks:
• Select Library Catalog from the Library's web page.
• Click on Search/Home and then click on Or Switch to Power Search.
• Enter  in the words or phrase box.

Scroll down and select Online Book from the type box.  Click on Search.
• Repeat search with different search terms.
• Online eBook is read by clicking on the URL button in the Full Details box.

Locating Information: Case Law and Journal Articles

The Shasta College Library subscribes to over 50 full text and bibliographic databases. Academic Universe (Lexis-Nexis®) is the seminal resource for legal research.  SIRS Researcher is an excellent resource for current events articles and U.S. Government Reports. CQ Researcher is the smallest full text database but is unique in its balanced, comprehensive coverage of current topics of social importance.

• Logging In

1) Go to the Library's webpage (http://library.shastacollege.edu)
2) Click on Articles & Databases (http://library.shastacollege.edu/databases.html)
3) Click on Government and Law (http://library.shastacollege.edu/govnlaw.html)
 

To login on campus or from one of the extended ed sites,  click on the database's title. If off campus, click on the satellite icon and follow instructions.

• Academic Universe (Lexis-Nexis)
• Search Hints:
• Use the * (asterisk) to search for words containing a common word root.                                 For example, legislat* yields legislate, legislator, legislation
• Use or to search for synonyms. For example,
retire* or "senior citizens"
• Use and to combine two ideas that must appear together in the same document. For example, public and nuisance
• Use w/n to locate terns within a certain number of words of each other. For example,           public w/1nuisance
• To limit by date, click on Date drop down box or enter start and end dates in From and To boxes.
• Military and Government Collection (EBSCOhost)

Offers current news pertaining to all branches of the military and government, this database includes periodicals, academic journals, and Government documents. The Military & Government Collection provides  full text for nearly 400 journals
• To find a refereed article:  Scroll down to Limit your results. Click on Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals.
• To find a primary source: Click on Advanced Search, scroll to  Limit Your Results,  click on Publication Type, select Primary Source Document.
• SIRS Knowedge Source

Provides access to full-text documents from newspapers, magazines and  journals. This resource also includes access to thousands of full text publications, documents and graphics from agencies, departments, and commissions of the U.S. Government.
• SIRS Government Reporter has links to: Historic Documents and National Archives Documents
• CQ Researcher

CQ Resarcher covers, current and controversial issues  with concise summaries, insight into all sides of the topic, chronological outlines, bibliographies and links to related websites.

Useful Internet Links

•  Librarian's Internet Index (LII)
Anybody can publish anything on the web.  How can you rapidly find reliable information? The LII is a classified list of hundreds of web sites. These sites have been previewed by librarians (and if you can't trust a librarian, who can you trust?) and are regularly updated.  Try searching on a few topics, both broad and narrow.  For example, a search on California Law yields over 50 hits. Below is a sampling of those sites:


General

Nolo Law Centers --http://www.nolo.com/lawcenter -- is maintained by this respected publisher of self-help law books. This site includes a legal dictionary, current law encyclopedia, and links to reliable resources for state and federal statutes and cases.

Forms
California Courts--http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/--California forms available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format for downloading and printing (you cannot complete forms electronically).  To access, click on FORMS heading.

Find Law--http://www.findlaw.com/--is the free legal research product of Westlaw (Lexis's competitor).  Federal and State forms are available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format for downloading and printing (you cannot complete forms electronically).  To access forms, click on Forms, click on California and scroll down list for appropriate topic.  Findlaw links to many other resources such as tax forms.

Codes
Redding Municipal Code--http://ordlink.com/codes/redding/index.htm

Official California Legislative Information--http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/

Case Law
Find Law California Case Law--http://www.findlaw.com/cacases/index.html

• Current hours are posted on the Library Hours web page.  Come visit!
• All of the online resources listed on this page are available via the Shasta College Library web site                                       24 hours a day, 7 days a week.