Category: Training

Students taking Federal Income Tax were recently treated to a short introduction to tax research during the first part of class. The talk covered:

• Primary and secondary sources for tax, highlighted in our Tax Research Guide
• Hat tip to NYU Law Library’s Federal Tax Research for Beginners, with its useful descriptions of most primary tax sources
• Online research tools for tax
• Checkpoint (RIA)
• CCH
• IRS.gov
• HeinOnline
• VPN – required for many tax resources, and supported by UCI Law IT Services

Slides from the talk are available online. An electronic version of the tax research assignment will be available on the course TWEN page.

For students who are moving beyond legal research, here are some pointers based on recent Law Library presentations to students enrolled in Writing for Publication in the Law Review:

• Develop a research plan and keep detailed notes about your search terms. See a sample research checklist, but note that you will need to customize the plan to fit your topic.
• For help selecting databases particular to your topic, consult the Law Library’s Databases page, the “Databases To Get You Started Guide,” and subject-specific legal and non-legal research guides.
• Expect to see different screens in different databases, and for searches to behave differently as well. Whenever you are in a new database or catalog, use the Advanced Search function and read the Help or Search Tips pages before beginning to search.
• Zotero may be a helpful tool for managing your research. It allows you to save, annotate, and organize references to books, articles, and more. Zotero can also export those references into a bibliography using the Bluebook citation style. For additional information, see Georgetown Law Library’s Guide, “Citation Tools for Legal Scholarship.”
• Remember that you can always come to the Reference Desk for help and suggestions!

10 am – 2 pm
Updated room: Law Library Computer Lab
The half-day training will provide strategies for tackling new projects, a review of major research sources, a short session on using UCI Law databases while off-campus, and hands-on research practice. There will also be a lunchtime panel of lawyers and law librarians.

• Still thinking about it? Reserve your lunch, provided by Crowell & Moring. RSVP from the April 14 email or at ucilawbootcamp2011.cocodot.com.
• Already plan to be there? Help us tailor the session! Let us know where you’re working and whether you have any dietary restrictions in this Google form.

12:10 to 12:30 pm in MPAA 420
Designed to make you a more effective and efficient caselaw researcher, this session will cover topics such as dockets, advanced searching with segments and fields, and using Shepard’s and KeyCite to update and expand your research.
[Handout – Cases]