New blog offers research tips

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Welcome! The genesis of this blog was a conversation I had with two fellow law librarians. With the new design of the Wisconsin Law Journal website, we discussed the importance of librarians sharing their knowledge with those attorneys and legal professionals who do not (yet) have a librarian on staff. Fortunately, the WLJ thought it was a great idea as well. So, here we go! The focus of this blog will be “Research and Resources.” My goal is to introduce quality websites and search tips to improve your online research experience. There are thousands of online resources, both free and fee-based, to be discovered! Ultimately, I want everyone to become more efficient and effective searchers.

I hope to bring you websites and resources that are new and/or valuable. The best place to start is with one of Wisconsin’s greatest treasures — the Wisconsin State Law Library. The librarians there have put a lot of effort into their website and it shows. It is a great launching point for online research. It would be impossible to discuss all the features in just one post, but here are two of my favorites:

1. Wisconsin Municipal Ordinances – this page provides an alphabetical listing of the Wisconsin city, county, town municipalities that keep their codes and ordinances online. This “gateway” offers links to the information. As an added benefit, notes are included if only select portions of the ordinances are actually online.

2. Legal Topics A-Z is the place to find online reference materials, statutory direction, forms, and much more for over 400 topics. As an example, for the topic of “Open Meetings” — the page provides links to the appropriate Wisconsin Statute and the U.S. Code sections. There are also links to the Wisconsin Open Meeting Compliance Guide and other helpful documents.

Bookmark the State Law Library’s webpage, you’ll use it often.