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Seton Hall Law

AWR Research

Library Resources for writing your AWR.

How to Locate and Collect Sources

The next major step in a cite check is to locate the sources cited in your footnotes.  The Bluebook requires citation to print sources "unless there is a digital copy of the source available that is authenticated, official, or an exact copy of the printed source" (this often means a PDF, though an authenticated or official source can be a website if the governing authority has designated it as such) (see Rule 18). If you know where to look for the print (or PDF) version of the most common types of sources, you can locate these quickly before moving on to sources that are not as common.

Working from home: Be sure to watch the videos on the  How Do I...?  tab information on accessing licensed database resources.

Knowing where to look for the most common types of sources: Each of the tabs in the box below provide tips on locating a common type of source found in cite checks.

Please see "Using the Library Catalog"  and subsequent boxes at the bottom of this column if you are not already familiar with searching a library's online catalog.

Using the Library Catalog

Using the Rodino Catalog

Whether you are looking for a physical volume in the library or looking to see whether the library has access to an electronic version of a source through a subscription database, begin with the Rodino Catalog.  Our catalog defaults to keyword searching.  But from the Advanced Search page you can search a particular field such as Title, Author, ISBN, ISSN, and Journal Source. the catalog record, you can find (1) if the Rodino Library has the item,  (2) the item’s Call Number so that you can locate it on the library shelf, and (3) if applicable, an electronic link to a database that has the item.   Be sure to check the available databases to ensure that they provide a PDF instead of a plain-text electronic version.  You will need the PDF version in order to accurately verify page numbers. 

Using the Catalog to Locate Materials Outside the Rodino Library

The catalog database collects data on the holdings of libraries throughout the United States and the world.  This can help you with your citecheck in two ways. First, you can search for a book, journal name, or other item to determine whether it has been properly cited, or whether there are problems with spelling, dates, etc.  Second, if Seton Hall Law does not own the item, the cataloging system can help you determine whether any other libraries own a copy so that you can make a request for inter-library loan (ILL).

Locating Common Sources

Books. 

  • Use the Rodino's Library’s online catalog to determine whether the book is available in our library note the call number so you can locate the book on the shelf. 
  • If our library does not have a copy, begin the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) checklist. The ILL checklist can be found in the Library Primer document on the left side of the screen. 
    • Steps in the ILL checklist include checking the Rodino Catalog, Google Scholar, Google Books, HeinOnline and the Advanced Search of the catalog. These can help you to make certain that the book citation is correct, and that the book is held by another library somewhere.  They can also sometimes lead to access to an online full-text PDF version that was not apparent from the UCLA catalog.
  • Once you have completed all steps in the ILL checklist, you may place an ILL request to obtain a copy from another library.  
  • Our Catalog defaults to keyword searching but Advanced Search allows you to search for an item by keyword, author, title, subject, and ISBN. 

  • Library catalog.  Use the Advanced Search module of the Catalog to search for the article by Title and Author. ​
  • Heinonline  has a large collection of law review articles in PDF form, and it is a good place to start looking up law review articles. 
  • Google Scholar. Alternatively, you can search for the title of the article in Google Scholar. If  Seton Hall subscribes to the article online (e.g. through Heinonline or JSTOR), Google Scholar will provide a link to that content. 
  • Note: Google Scholar may locate the article you need on SSRN or another online repository.  Online repositories are not journal databases, they are places for authors to store their work. Authors often upload to a repository the "author's final version" which is the last draft the author had before giving the journal a copyright license. The "author's final version" is usually NOT the version you want to use for cite-checking, so if you beware of using SSRN or other repositories for cite-checking.

Cases. You may find Bluebook-friendly “authenticated, official, or an exact copy of the printed source” cases in some internet databases. 

  • First, Check T1 in the Bluebook for the approved case reporter for each court and jurisdiction.
  • Try Heinonline and Westlaw for Bluebook-approved (PDF) versions of cases.  Keep in mind however that (1) most electronic versions of cases are not PDFs and (2) if you do find a PDF version of a case, many PDFs are from non-Bluebook-approved case reporters.
  • Use the library.  If you cannot find Bluebook-approved versions online, you need to use the library. Make sure that you are accessing the Bluebook-approved reporter noted in Bluebook T1. Note, however, that our library no longer has a current subscription to many case reporters.  Therefore, you may find that you need a case for which there is no PDF and no copy in our library.  In those instances, you should place an ILL request for the case.   

Statutes: Codes.  "Official and unofficial codes arrange statutes currently in force by subject matter." (Bluebook Rule 12.1).

  • Check T1 in the Bluebook for the approved statutory compilation ("code"). Be aware that there is often more than one published version of a jurisdiction's code, and that the Bluebook will tell you which version you need to cite. If you are using state codes, please see the State Codes tab at the top of this Libguide for more information.
  • The Bluebook rule for putting the date (the year) on a citation to a code section requires that you use the printed version of the code.  This is because the required date for a code section is neither the year the section was enacted, nor the current year in which it is in force, but rather: "the year that appears on the spine of the volume, the year that appears on the title page, or the latest copyright year—in that order of preference." (See Bluebook Rule 12.3.2)
  • Because online databases tend not to provide PDF images of the spine, title page, or copyright page, the only way to determine the Bluebook-approved date is to pull the print volume from a shelf and view its spine, title page, and copyright page.
  • One possible exception is the official US Code which is available with dates in PDF versions on Heinonline.
  • Our library has a limited collection of State Codes in print.  They are located in the Fourth Floor in the Rodino Reading Room. If the library does not own a print copy of the Bluebook-approved code, you will have to inter-library loan (ILL) a copy from another library in order to find the correct year. 
  • If you are pulling state codes, make sure you check T1 in the Bluebook to confirm the version you need.

Statutes: Session Laws.  "Official and privately published session laws report statutes in chronological order of enactment." (Bluebook Rule 12.1). Like codes, session laws are also statutes, but they refer to a law or act in its entirety as it was passed, rather than a section of that law or act as it was later codified.  A law typically starts as a bill, gets passed by a legislature, approved by a president or governor, published and bound first in a collection of “session laws” which are organized chronologically by order of passage, then published and bound later in “codes” or the familiar arrangement of subject matter topics (i.e. the 50 titles of the United States Code).  Bluebook Rule 12.2.2 explains the exceptions for when a Session Law would be cited instead of the current Code.

  • Heinonline has PDF versions of session laws for federal, state, and US territories. In Heinonline, locate federal session laws under "U.S. Statutes at Large" and locate state sessions laws under "Session Laws Library."
  • A citation to a federal session law looks like this: Pub.L. No. 91-190, § 102, 83 Stat. 852 (1970). The “Stat.” portion of the citation refers to a publication called “Statutes at Large” and it is the federal collection of session laws published chronologically before a law gets codified and published in the United States Code. 

Websites.  Locating and pulling a website as a source seems simple.  However, one thing to keep in mind is the risk that links can break or the content therein can change.  Once you have verified a link in your cite check assignment, determine whether your journal is using Perma.cc to archive URLs and create permanent Perma links to insert in the article.  Learn more about Perma on their website: http://perma.cc/about

UN Documents. UN documents can be located using the UN document symbol in the citation.

Human Rights Council Res. 26/9, Rep. of Human Rights Council, 26th Sess., June 10-27, 2014, A/HRC/RES/26/9 (June 14, 2014);

In the citation above, the UN document symbol is A/HRC/RES/26/9.  “Each UN document has a unique symbol at the top right of the document or on the cover page. Symbols include both letters and numbers. Some elements of the symbol have meaning, while other elements do not. The first component indicates the organ to which the document is submitted or the organ that is issuing the document. (A/ = General Assembly)." For more details, see http://research.un.org/en/docs/symbols.

  • If you have a United Nations Document Symbol, the easiest way to download a document is to add the symbol after the following URL:http://undocs.org/.  For example:
    • http:undocs.org/A/HRC/RES/26/9
  • Another place to start is: http://documents.un.org/

Bluebook Rule 21.4.5 (page 204) requires determining whether the United States is a party to the treaty, and whether the treaty is bilateral or multilateral. 

The University of Minnesota Law School has put together a helpful guide to frequently cited treaties: https://libguides.law.umn.edu/frequentlycitedtreaties 

Newspapers. The 20th Edition of the Bluebook contains a different rule than the 19th Edition regarding newspapers. The 20th Edition of the Bluebook states "Online newspapers may be used in place of print newspapers" (Rule 16.6(f)).

  • When using an online version, the citation should be to the online version. It should not appear that you are citing to the print version if you have not checked the print version.

If you wish to try and locate a print version (or an equivalent PDF of the print):