LibGuides: Legal Resources: EDAD 686/ EDAD 687

Finding Topic Background Information

Articles from education journals, news publications, reports, and law reviews will help you identify and explain the importance of your judicial, legislative, or public policy. They may discuss significant holdings, trends in litigation, relevant law, and contrary opinions (Law review articles may be particularly useful for this). These databases will be a good place to start your literature review.

ERIC (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
Search for journal articles, ERIC Documents, reports, etc. using keywords which describe your topic. Also includes some education law reviews.
Description: ERIC EBSCOhost is a key database in the field of education, providing access to bibliographic records of journal and non-journal literature. About one third of the content is accessible in full text from within the database.
Time Period: 1966-present
Sources: Indexes more than 650 journals.
Subject Headings: Education, English & Linguistics, Mobile, Music
Scholarly or Popular: Scholarly
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Books/e-books, Dissertation and Theses, Grey Literature, Journal Articles, Reference Resources, Report
Information Included: Abstracts, Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: Yes
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: U.S. Department of Education
Updates: Monthly
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Search using keywords related to your topic and use the Law Reviews or Legal News facets in the left column of the results list to limit to either of those types of sources. News may be a useful facet as well.
Description: Nexis Uni provides access to newspaper articles, magazine articles, and transcripts. It is also a key database for business and legal research, containing company reports, law journals, and statutes and cases from all 50 states. Also contains legal resources for Canada and the EU.
Time Period: 18th century to present
Sources: Searches more than 15,000 sources.
Subject Headings: Business, General, Law, News, Social Sciences
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Citations, Journal Articles, Legal Materials, Magazine Articles, News, Reference Resources, Report, Transcripts
Information Included: Abstracts, Full Text, Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: Lexis Nexis
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
Congressional Research Service Reports (University of North Texas) This link opens in a new window
Use Congressional Research Service Reports to find government reports. The Congressional Research Service is tasked with "providing timely, objective, and authoritative research and analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate, regardless of political party affiliation." Information as this is compiled and made available as a public service by the Government Documents Department at the University of North Texas Libraries and includes reports not officially released to the public. See the link below for reports made available from the Library of Congress.
Description: The Congressional Research Service Reports database is one of the collections of the University of North Texas Digital Library. It contains taxpayer funded reports by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which is the public policy research arm of Congress. The reports were intended to inform Congress on a variety of topics and are in the public domain, yet have not been made available to the public by the CRS.
Note: This site is not affiliated with Congressional Research Service. The information is compiled and made available as a public service by the Government Documents Department at the UNT Libraries.
Time Period: Current
Sources: Contains more than 15,000 Congressional Research Service Reports.
Subject Headings: Law, Social Sciences (Congressional Research Service Reports)
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials: Report
Information Included: Full Text
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: University of North Texas
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
Congressional Research Service Reports (Library of Congress) This link opens in a new window
The Congressional Research Service Reports (Library of Congress) database provides access to reports prepared by the Congressional Research Service and are added as they are made available to congress.
Description: The Congressional Research Service Reports (Library of Congress) database provides access to reports prepared by the Congressional Research Service-- the public policy research arm of Congress. The reports are intended to inform Congress on a variety of topics and are in the public domain. The Library of Congress adds reports as they are made available to congress and is working to add previously published reports.
Time Period: Current
Sources: Contains more than 600 Congressional Research Service Reports from 2018.
Subject Headings: Law, Social Sciences (Congressional Research Service Reports)
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials: Report
Information Included: Full Text
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: Library of Congress
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited

Cases, Statutes, and Legislation

Strategies for Finding Cases, Statutes, and Legislation Related to Your Topic

See what cases are mentioned in your textbook. Look up the case in Nexis Uni and use the headnotes and the Citing Decisions links in the right column of the decision to find related cases.
Use West's Education Law Digest, located in the Bracken Library, to find cases on a topic.
Look for law review articles on your topic in Nexis Uni, they will cite cases and existing statutes related to your topic. Also, they often include a history of the issue and make an argument for why current policy should be changed.
Do a keyword search in Nexis Uni and use the facets in the left column of the results list to narrow results to cases or statutes.
Use ProQuest Congressional to find current legislation.

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Relevant cases, statutes, and law review articles can be found in Nexis Uni. Here are some tips.

1. To find a case or statute using a citation, enter the legal citation (e.g. 9 N.E. 3d 230 or i.c. 34-51-2-6), into the big search box.
2. To find a case, statute, or law review article using keyword searching, enter keywords describing your topic into the big search box and select either Cases, Statutes and Legislation, or Law Reviews and Journals from the facets in the left column of the results list.
3. Clicking on the hyperlinks above the headnotes in the case will lead you to cases on the topic which the headnote is written. Click on the headnote and then Get Documents. Headnotes are annotations from Nexis Uni which tell how a case relates to the topic and are located below the Case Summary.
Description: Nexis Uni provides access to newspaper articles, magazine articles, and transcripts. It is also a key database for business and legal research, containing company reports, law journals, and statutes and cases from all 50 states. Also contains legal resources for Canada and the EU.
Time Period: 18th century to present
Sources: Searches more than 15,000 sources.
Subject Headings: Business, General, Law, News, Social Sciences
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Citations, Journal Articles, Legal Materials, Magazine Articles, News, Reference Resources, Report, Transcripts
Information Included: Abstracts, Full Text, Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: Lexis Nexis
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window
To find current legislation by keyword, enter keywords that describe your topic into the search box and then use the facets in the left column to limit the results to current legislation. First, click on the Congress button at the top of the left column and select the most recent congress from the drop-down box. Next, use the facets in the left column to find legislation. Scroll down to the Document Type box and select Bill Profile under Bills. Bill Profiles provide an overview of the legislation as well as the text of the bill. Note: All types of documents will show up on the list, including hearings and CRS reports.
Description: Key database for information by and about the United States Congress. Includes full text of bills, laws, regulations, the Federal Register, the U.S. Code, and many other congressional publications. Other features include extensive information about members of congress, the bills they sponsored, how they voted, and financial disclosures.
Time Period: 1789 to present
Primary Materials: Citations, Legal Materials, Maps, Report
Subject Headings: Law, Social Sciences
Scholarly or Popular: Scholarly
Sources:
Information Included: Full Text, Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: ProQuest
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited

West's Education Law Digest
This is a multi-volume print source is located in Bracken Library. The set contains summaries of cases arranged by legal topic. Cases are given "key numbers," which is a combination of a word, representing the broad topic, and a number which represents a subtopic (e.g. Courts 89). Users can use the outline of the key number system at the beginning of each volume to determine what key number relates to their topic. The user then looks that number up in the digest, where they will find brief summaries of cases that relate to that topic and subtopic, along with a case citation (e.g. 9 N.E. 3d 230). The citation can be looked up in Nexis Uni.