THE PARALEGAL’S GUIDE TO GOING BEYOND BASIC SEARCH:
Tapping into Google’s Full Potential for Legal Research
Going Beyond Basic Search: Tapping into Google’s Full Potential for Legal Research
Essential search tips and productivity tools for using Google’s basic search effectively
When and how to use Google’s advanced search Finding legal materials using Google Scholar
Thursday, June 21Presented by Elizabeth Geesey Holmes
Essential search tips and productivity tools for using Google’s basic search effectively
Part 1
Check Your Settings!
How to Change Your Settings
Do a Search FIRST!Click on gear to bring up search settings
Search Settings: Search Results
Search Settings: Search Results
Google Search automatically returns results in the language you choose for Google product text. You can also request results in other languages. If you don’t select any other language you will only get results if the page is in English
Search Settings: Languages
Search Settings: Location
My location is set to Baltimore, MD so my results are in that area
Check & change location quickly by clicking here
Use Boolean Searching (and/or other search
strategies)
Boolean Logic A system developed by mathematician
George Boole during the 19th century that uses a series of connectors to define relationships between objects
Boolean Connectors: AND Google Default All of the keywords are present
Search: probate law Results: Both the term probate and the
term law
Boolean Connectors: OR One keyword or the other, or both
keywords are present Search: probate OR trust law Results: will all have the term law
combined with either the word trust or probate
NOTE: You must capitalize OR otherwise Google will treat it as a stop word and ignore it
Boolean Connectors: NOT (-)
No results with this keyword are returned Search: Anne Tyler –author -novel Returns results with the keywords Anne
and Tyler, but without the keyword author, and without the word novel
Use this strategy to find results for your former classmate Anne Tyler, but not for the novelist Anne Tyler
Word Stemming (and un-stemming)
Searching for constitutional will also find the words: constitution and constitutions
Proximity Searching:Asterisk (*)/ Wildcard
Search: Elizabeth * Holmes Results: Include:
Elizabeth Geesey Holmes Elizabeth G Holmes, BUT also Elizabeth Spencer, Amy Holmes
Proximity Searching:Asterisk (*)/ Wildcard
Phrase Searching: “ “
Use for searching exact phrases or words Use to stop Google from stemming Enter your phrase or word in quotation
marks Search: Ed Braks Results: Ed, Edward, Breaks – not Braks Search: Ed “Braks” Results: Ed, Edward and Braks – NO Breaks
Navigate your search results
What if I just want News Articles?
Sidebar for narrowing your search
Results limited to NEWS
Links to Advanced Search & Search Help
Ads related to this search
Other searches related to this search
When to Use Basic Search, and Some Other Tips &
Tricks
Use Basic Search As… Your starting point
Then narrow results, or use Boolean search operators to get more relevant hits
Use Basic Search As… A tool to look up simple facts
Population Ecuador President Poland Capitol of Massachusetts
Use Basic Search As… A calculator
7 * 2 + 4
Use Basic Search As… A dictionary
define res ipsa loquitur
Use Basic Search As… A weather forecaster
weather 02806
A few other tips and tricks Keep it simple Think how the page you are looking for
will be written Choose descriptive words
When and how to use Google’s advanced search
Part 2
I’m Curious Have you used
the Advanced Search page? A. Yes B. No
If you have not used it, why not? A. I didn’t know
about it B. I am not an
advanced searcher
C. I don’t need to use it.
How to get to Advanced Search2. Click on GEAR Icon
3. Choose Advanced Search
1. Do a Basic Search
Limiting Results to Specific File Formats
Enter your search words in the Boolean search boxes at the top of the page
Scroll down to narrow your results by File Type
Choose the file type from the drop down box Example: Limit search results to .ppt to find
presentations posted to the web by opposing experts.
Click on the arrow to bring up the drop down menu box
Limiting Results to a Specific Web Site
Search one site (like wikipedia.org) or limit your results to a domain like .edu, .org or .gov
The command to do this in basic search is site:
Enter your search terms
Limit to a domain or domain type
All Results are from domains ending in .edu
A few more Hidden Features Limiting results to where your search
terms appear in the website In the title of the page In the text of the page In the URL of the page In links to the page
Limiting results by date updated
Two ways to limit by date updated
Basic Search SidebarAdvanced Search
Page
Why Use Advanced Search Indispensable in refining your searches
to bring the relevant results to the first pages Use to find results:
From a specific date range In a different language From a particular website In a specific file format
Fill in the box format means you don’t have to remember specific search commands
Finding legal materials using Google Scholar
Part 3
What is Google Scholar? Specialized search that retrieves results
from a separate database Includes: Articles, Theses, Books,
Abstracts, and Court Opinions From academic publishers, professional
societies, online repositories, universities and other scholarly web sites
How to get to Google Scholar Go to: (http://scholar.google.com/)
OR In Basic Google type in the search:
scholar Your first result will be for Google Scholar
Old “Look” for Google Scholar main page
Click here to try “modern look”
Link to Advanced Search is still here
New “modern look” Google Scholar Main Page
Revert to “old venerable” look
Settings are still here, but link to Advanced Search is gone
Important Preference Settings
Default to search legal opinions and journals
Set number of results per page
Open results in a new window
Don’t forget to Save
What legal research material can I find here?
Federal and State case law Legal journal articles
Where does it come from? Google’s own database Google also links to alternate
sources for some cases, such as Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, Justia and Public.Resource.org
Google Scholar Case CoverageU.S. State appellate and supreme Court case opinions
1950-present
U.S. Federal district, appellate, tax and bankruptcy court case opinions
1923-present
U.S. Supreme Court case opinions
1791-present
Searching Google Scholar by Topic
Do not forget to check the radio button to search legal documents
Click on the arrow to get to the advanced search boxes
Advanced search boxes are the same as those in regular Google. Notice there are no boxes for limiting your results, just for searching
Click X to close Advanced search boxes
Search results not limited. Legal documents is highlighted. To limit by jurisdiction chose the select courts button to chose the courts you want to search. Rhode Island courts is an option because it is the last court I limited to in a previous search.
Sidebar with options for narrowing your search results
First result is one of the key cases for this topic
Navigating Google Scholar Search Results
Navigate between views. Current view is READ
Name & citation of case
Navigate between views. Current view is HOW CITED
12
3
Search by Citation Enter the bluebook form of the citation
into the Find articles with the exact phrase box on the Advanced Search page
Search for your words appearing anywhere in the article
Searching by Party Name Enter the party names into the Find
articles with the exact phrase box. Only use the letter v and not the whole
word versus or the abbreviation vs. Limit where your words occur to “in
the title of the article” On the results page limit by jurisdiction
if relevant
Searching by Judge Enter the judge’s last name into the
search box labeled Return articles written by.
On the results page limit by jurisdiction.
Google Scholar for Legal Research: PROS
Hyperlinked case citations Fast and accurate search results Relevancy as good or better than commercial
legal research services “How Cited” tab provides links to cases and
scholarly documents that have cited your case
Set up Alerts Send direct links to cases It’s FREE
Google Scholar for Legal Research: CONS
Search results based on Google’s system for ranking search results rather than actual importance of case
Cannot easily tell if case is still good law. No index tool Statutes and Rules are not hyperlinked Lacks some older cases
“Have fun and keep googling.”~Larry Page and Sergey Brin in a note on the new google.com (1998)
Contact Information
Elizabeth Geesey HolmesLibrarianPartridge Snow & Hahn [email protected]@gmail.comhttp://www.elizabethgeeseyholmes.com/
Resources Official Google Blog (
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/) Google Help Center (
http://support.google.com/?hl=en) Nancy Backman’s Google Guide (
http://www.googleguide.com/) Google for Lawyer’s by Carole Levitt and
Mark Rosch Google Hacks by Tara Calishain and Rael
Dornfest
More Resources Google Scholar Help (
http://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html) Advanced Scholar Search Tips (
http://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/refinesearch.html)
Google Scholar Advanced Search (http://scholar.google.com/advanced_scholar_search?hl=en&as_sdt=2,40)
Google Scholar Advanced Search Help (http://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/refinesearch.html)
Even More Resources “Google Scholar Advanced Legal Research
Tips” by Josh Camson on Lawyerist.com http://lawyerist.com/google-scholar-advanced-legal-research-tips/
“Advanced Search in Retreat” by Greg R. Notess in Information Today Online (http://www.infotoday.com/online/mar12/On-the-Net-Advanced-Search-in-Retreat.shtml)
My website: http://www.elizabethgeeseyholmes.com
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