ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 18/C&RL News Internet resources for law By C orin n e J a c o x and B rian Strim an Oh, what tangled webs we weave .... L aw-related information on the Internet is growing at a fast pace. Sites are in various stages o f development. Most o f the files within the sites referred to can be read online and are accessed through the use of telnet, gopher, or lynx. A few notable ftp files are also included. Most of the sites contain combinations of judicial, legislative, executive, constitutional, state, and international law and could be in­ cluded under several of the topic areas listed in this article. Many of the sites link to each other. Our intention is to give as many stable sites as possible and some o f their features. Keep in mind that these sites are sometimes busy. Legislative sources There are several sites for United States legisla­ tive information. • LOCIS (L ib rary o f C ongress In form tion Service). Updated daily, this is probably the best single source for federal legislative ma­ terials. The files in LOCIS include bills and reso­ lutions from the 93rd Congress (1973) to the current one, including the content and status of legislation, digests of bills, sponsors/cospon­ sors, and committees of referral. Information about amendments and the full text of most public laws are available beginning with the 97th Congress (1981-1982). Instructions on searching the various files, searching hours, and how to ftp similar instruc­ tions are available inside the menu. Access: Telnet locis.loc.gov (limited to 60 simultaneous users); or via LC MARVEL (Campus-Wide In­ formation System): Gopher gopher.marvel. a loc.gov/library o f congress online systems/con­ nect to locis. • Library o f Congress W orld Wide Web. This incredible resource contains hypertext and multimedia documents. That’s only the tip of the iceberg. Easy-to-read screens help guide the searcher to find current daily files such as House and Senate committee actions, bills, schedules, and calendars. Many of the menu entries and links are still under construction. Access to LOCIS is also available as a menu choice. Searching for terms is accomplished via a traditional gopher search. Access to House and Senate gophers as well as a C ongressional Q uarterly gopher are also provided. Access: Lynx h ttp :/ / lcw eb .lo c.g o v / h o m e p ag e / lchp.html/global electronic library/u.s. govern­ ment legislative branch/link to lc marvel con­ gressional information. • COIN (Colum bia Online In form ation Network). COIN is limited to five simultaneous users and 60 minutes maximum use. COIN is host for a few Government Printing Office (GPO) databases and is still developing. Cur­ ­rently, the GPO Access service offers three full- text databases: The F ed e ra l Register, Congres­ s io n a l Record, and the C ongressional Bills. The C on gression al Bills are indexed and keyword searchable on files since the start of the 103rd Congress. A ccess: Telnet 128.206.1.3/login: guest/government center/access the govern­ ment center/united states of america. • C oun terpoint Publishing. A commer­ cial service that allows users to browse the C ode o f F ed e ra l R egulations (CFR) and the F ed era l R egister(FR). FR files are added daily and limit nonsubscribers to the table o f contents and a portion o f the notices and articles. A ccess to the F e d e r a l Register: Telnet gopher.internet.com/ login: gopher/counterpoint publishing/united states federal register; o r G opher gopher. Corinne J a c o x is a recent MLS grad u ate em ployed at the University o f Nebraska College o f Law Library, e- mail: corinnej@unllib.unl.edu; B rian Striman is a ssociate professor o f Law Library a n d h e a d o f technical services a t the University o f Nebraska College o f Law Library, e-m ail: brians@unllib.unl.edu http://lcweb.loc.gov/homepage/ mailto:corinnej@unllib.unl.edu mailto:brians@unllib.unl.edu Ja n u a ry 1 9 9 5 /1 9 internet.com/counterpoint publishing/united states federal register. CFR files are added monthly and limit non­ subscribers to searching the CFR index and Title I G eneral Provisions. A ccess: T eln et gopher.internet.com/login: gopher/counter- point publishing/code o f federal regulations; o r gopher gopher.internet.com/counterpoint publishing/code of federal regulations. Judicial sources In the world of judicial documents, there are many sites offering U.S. Supreme Court deci­ sions. Many o f the sites go to the Cornell site mentioned below. At this time, there are a very limited amount o f other judicial resources. • C o rn ell Legal In fo rm atio n Institute (I II). This WWW site provides hypertext ac­ cess to the archived Supreme Court decisions located at Case Western Reserve University stored in WordPerfect format. The decisions are distributed on the day o f the decision under Project Hermes and begin with May 1990. Searches are available by date of decision, topic, party nam e, and keyword. A ccess: Telnet www.law.cornell.edu/login: www; o r Lynx http://www.law.cornell.edu/lii.table.html; o r Telnet fatty.law.cornell.edu/login: gopher. • C ase W e s te r n R e se rv e U n iv e rsity . Valuable for ftp files o f cases in the U.S. Su­ p rem e Court. T h is tra n sfe rs d o cu m en ts quickly but requires good know ledge o f ftp and the file n am e standards used by the Hermes Project. A ccess: Ftp.cwru.edu/login: anonymous/password: [use your e-mail ad­ dress]. At the prompt, type “cd herm es.” Then type cd “w ord-perfect.” State law sources Most states lack comprehensive databases and documents relating to court decisions, admin­ istrative rules and regulations, statutes, session laws, legislative journals, and bills: Currently, there is a smattering of states like Oregon, Utah, Minnesota, California, Texas, and Hawaii which are developing more substantial databases. Oftentimes what appears to be a good menu entry has either just a list o f bill or session law numbers or access is denied to that database. One of the best individual states for legislative m a te ria ls is M in n e so ta . A c c e s s : G o p h e r gopher.revisor.leg.state.mn.us. States that offer gophers have limited menus and provide information such as directories of senators, legislator’s names and phone num­ bers, state government job listings, discussion groups, calendars, voter information, weather, and other state news services. • LC MARVEL (L ib ra ry o f C o n g re ss). This is one o f the few places to find at least 38 states in one menu selection. Some o f the state entries offer instructions on how to connect to their databases and resources directly. LC MAR­ VEL will not always provide direct links to the remote state sites. Use of Jughead (found un­ der Internet resources) to search the term “state*” will provide at least nine pages o f all kinds o f individual state information and a search under individual state names produces some hits that may be useful. A ccess: Gopher marvel.loc.gov/government information/state and local government information. Specialty law topics The host sites below use Jughead software to aid in searching the abundant menu offerings dealing with a variety o f special law topics. • W ashington and Lee University. This is on e o f the b est law “je w e ls ” in all o f gopherspace. Jughead searching o f words like “law” and/or “leg”’ will produce over 10 screens o f menu options. Specialty law topics included are laws relating to disabilities, the Internet, adoption, copyright, and environment. There are also extremely valuable links that directly connect the user to law menus in many other gopher sites. Access: Gopher liberty.uc.wlu.edu/ libraries and information access/law/law related sources; o r telnet liberty.uc.wlu.edu/login: lawlib/password: lawlib. • Rice University (H ouston, T exas). This wonderful site offers gopher, telnet and WWW. A more extensive version of Ricelnfo is avail­ able via the WWW browser software tools Mosaic or Lynx. The WWW version with hy­ pertext works very well as it provides the reader with a host o f information and definitions on Internet-related jargon like HTML, URLs, yahoos providers, http, and gophers. Special law topics such as copyright law, natural law and natural rights, women and law, and world constitutions are available, as well as links to selected law libraries and archives of law-related discussion lists (some o f which have WAIS searching o f file texts). A ccess: Go­ pher riceinfo.rice.edu/information by subject area/government, political science and law; o r Lynx http://riceinfo.rice.edu/information by subject area/government, political science and law. http://www.law.cornell.edu/login http://www.law.cornell.edu/lii.table.html ftp://Ftp.cwru.edu/login http://riceinfo.rice.edu/information 2 0 /C&RL News International law sources There are several sites that include offerings from many international countries. W hen searching for international documents, the searcher must be aware that some documents are written in their vernacular and may not be readable online. • SunSITE (U niversity o f N orth C aro lina). Choices in this gopher include entries containing Australian documents, basic law o Hong Kong, Canadian documents, German documents, selected treaties, and other miscel laneous international documents. Access: Go pher sunsite.unc.edu/worlds of sunsite/law and legal studies/united nations justice network/ foreign and international law. • InforM (U n iv ersity o f M aryland at College P ark ). Jughead searching offers a rich pool of legislative, judicial, and other law-re lated information from which to draw. One o this site’s strengths is that it pulls together many international gopher sites. When going into this site using Lynx, the hypertext screens will look slightly different, but the databases and con tents seem to be the same. Access: Gopher inform.umd.edu/educational resources/aca demic resources by topic/united states and world politics, culture and history/resources by continent; o r telnet inform.umd.edu; o r telnet inform .um d.edu/login: lynx/academ ic re ­ sources/united states and world politics, cul­ ture and history/continent resources. Other resources • Saint Louis University SLUVIEW. The law library portion of this gopher site contains many miscellaneous resources. It is definitely worthwhile spending time investigating its con­ tents. A ccess: Gopher sluvca.slu.edu/library services/slu law library services. • W ashburn University WASHLAW. The law-related, well-organized menus include a wide variety of files such as lawyer jokes, Ho­ locaust Information System, virtual reference desks, and many law-related gophers. Access: Telnet lawlib.wuacc.edu/login: washlaw. • The Legal List, Law-Related Resources o n th e In tern et and Elsew here. Compiled by Eric J. Heels, this is a valuable resource for find­ ing law-related information on the Internet. This list is free on the Internet, but costs if you print it. Online access: Gopher gopher.sluvca.slu.edu/ library services/slu law library services/law-re lated gophers and information servers; o r a c ­ cess via an o n y m o u s ftp : ftp ftp.midnight.com. • In tern et Sources o f G overnm ent In­ form ation. Compiled by Blake Gumprecht, this is a useful tool to find out what government information is available. It is organized into major topic areas which are arranged alpha­ betically. The most useful section for legal re­ sources is “Political Science, Law and Govern­ ­ m en t.” O n lin e a c c e s s : G op her una.hh.lib. umich.edu/inetdirs/guides on the social sci­ f ences/governm ent; o r a n o n y m o u s ft p : ftp una.hh.lib.umich.edu/user: anonymous/pass­ ­ word: e-mail address/cd inetdirsstacks/get gov­ ­ ernment: gumprecht. (Ed. note: A portion of Gumprecht’s resource list appeared in C&RL News, January 1994.) • Law Lists. Compiled by Lyonette Louis- Jacques, this document lists a wide variety of law-related discussion groups. Instructions for subscribing to these groups are included. A c­ f cess: Lynx http://www.kentlaw.edu/legal do­ main network/law lists; o r Gopher gopher. kentlaw.edu/search all menus on this gopher/ [search term “law lists”]. ­ UseNet newsgroups Access to UseNet newsgroups varies according to local providers. Check with your system administrators for access information to these sele cte d new sgroups: b it.listserv.ada-law, c l a r i.co u rts , c l a r i.b iz .co u rts , c la ri.la w , clari.law.civil, clari.law.supreme, courts.usa. federal.supreme, misc.legal. • The Legal Dom ain Network (Chicago- Kent College o f Law). This provides a single place with read-only access to law-related Usenet articles in a “threaded” fashion to con­ solidate all substantive legal discussions. In­ dexed with WAIS, each listserv will have dif­ feren t reten tion p o licies. A ccess: G op her gopher.kentlaw.edu; o r Lynx http://www.kent law.edu/lawnet/lawnet.html/law/listserv. Conclusion Rem em ber to use searching tools such as Veronica and Jughead. Also, once inside a file, use o f the “p ” or “m” command allows the docum ents) to be e-mailed directly to the user’s e-mail account. When using the Internet, remember that the resources are constantly changing. Be sure to read the introduction screens carefully. What was available one day may not be available the next. Source and file names change without notice and files that look enticing may be un­ der construction. ftp://ftp.midnight.com http://www.kentlaw.edu/legal http://www.kent