The University of Alabama School of Law
The University of Alabama School of Law
For journal students, this suggested order of the checklist is based on Bluebook rules that often state a preference for certain formats when citing materials. Make sure to follow the Bluebook rules or your journal’s cite checking policies.
This suggested order is based on trying to find a physical print book in the most readily available physical locations first, then moving on to recreations of the print book online. If the book is still not found, you should move on to Interlibrary Loan (ILL).
Below is more explanation about the sources in the checklist above.
If you are looking for a print version of a book, the starting point for locating books that the Bounds Law Library has in its collection is a catalog search.
If you need assistance locating a print item that you found in the catalog, you can find the location in the library where the book is kept using the library’s floor maps or you can look it up in the catalog and select the "Map It" option under the call number and a map should pop up pointing out the books location in the library. If you are still having issues locating the item, you can always ask for help at the circulation desk.
Any and all materials from Bounds that are removed from a shelf should be checked out, even if only used within the library.
If the law library does not have the item you need, check to see whether it is available through the university libraries or the Tuscaloosa Public Library.
If none of the libraries on or around campus have the item you need, check WorldCat. WorldCat is the world's largest online catalog and it's a good place to check to make sure that you are searching for the correct title/edition of a book. WorldCat is also useful for determining whether a book that is not available at the law school or university libraries is available at another academic law library.
If you are unable to locate the required source, please follow the interlibrary loan (ILL) directions. If possible, please try to locate your book on WorldCat and note down some details such as author, title and edition.
The UA libraries online catalog provides access to PDF versions of some books across a wide range of subject areas from all the university libraries at UA. Note: you should select "book" under "type", even for an e-book, to ensure you receive accurate results.
Provides PDF versions of the full text of many scholarly titles in a range of subject areas, including literature, biological sciences, economics, finance, statistics, as well as foreign-language material. You can browse by title or complete a search by author or title.
Provides the ability to view/download PDFs of various parts of books, including the whole book if not subject to copyright, or if the copyright holder has given Google permission to provide access. There should be something below the title that tells you whether you can read the full book or just a preview.
HeinOnline is home to around 93,000 books scattered throughout the collection. Several of the topics with the largest selection that you can browse are "Legal Classics," "World Constitution Illustrated," "Military and Government," "Criminal Justice & Criminology," "Intellectual Property Books," "Animal Studies: Welfare, Rights and Law," and "U.S. Supreme Court Library." However, if you don't know what topic to search under or if the book you're looking for doesn't fall under these categories, not to worry! Another way to search for books on HeinOnline is to use the search bar to do a catalog search of whatever you're looking for. After getting the search results, you can then filter by "Publication Type" to the left of the screen and filter by "Book."
A product of Gale, the Making of Modern Law: Landmark Records and Briefs of the U.S. Court of Appeals focuses on the first 90 years of the federal appellee court system's history. It contains materials spanning from 1891 to 1980 and is full of nearly 2 million briefs, replies, appendices, memoranda, petitions, statements, transcripts and more. To access it, you'll want to go to the university libraries database search and look for "Gale Primary Sources." After selecting that, you'll be redirected to a page with multiple Gale Primary Sources websites. You'll want to scroll down until you find "The Making of Modern Law: Landmark Records and Briefs of the U.S. Court of Appeals." Once there, you can run an advanced search that will allow you to filter by term, circuit, date, and more. You can also select tabs such as "Circuits," "Cases," or "Authors" to held find the materials you are looking for.
Provides access to public domain and some in-copyright content from a variety of sources. This resource is a good starting point for older (pre-1930s historical) materials as they may now be in the public domain. You should be able to do a keyword search or do a search by title, author, etc. There is also an advanced search option to the right side below the search bar that will allow you to put more information in to narrow your results.