Spring has sprung: HLS Library resources for a new semester

The Harvard Law School Library is here for you as you prepare for a new semester! In this blog post, you’ll find key resources available to HLS clinicians and clinical students, including some new additions. If you ever have questions about library services and resources, email or call us at research@law.harvard.edu; 617-495-4516.  You can follow the HLS Library on social media at @hlslib on Twitter, @hlslibrary on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with news and events.   

Notes and Comments 

This spring, HLS Library will be hosting the annual Notes and Comments event, which pairs students either actively working on — or hoping to begin — writing projects with relevant faculty members. The Library is seeking faculty members to serve as writing advisors for the event; clinical faculty, please contact Lesliediana Jones (ljones@law.harvard.edu) if you are interested in participating. Please encourage any of your students working on writing projects to attend!  

Highlighted Resources: Political Databases 

• Politico Pro: Access via HarvardKey.
  Politico Pro is a policy news reporting service, with an in-depth, real-time, and archived policy newsroom. Politico Pro includes a library of primary source documentation, proprietary tools, legislative and regulatory trackers, and a graphic visualization library called DataPoint. 
• Leadership Connect: Access via HarvardKey. 
  The Leadership Connect comprises fourteen Leadership Directories, also known as the Yellow Books. This resource provides current contact information for the leaders of major U.S. government, business, professional and nonprofit organizations. Browse or search such well known directories as the Federal Yellow Book, the Congressional Yellow Book, the Judicial Yellow Book and the State Judicial Yellow Book. 
  Coverage: Information verified between 2 and 6 times per year on a rolling basis, with an 8-10 week window for updates after verifications are received. 
• Legistorm Pro: Access via Harvard Key. For questions regarding individual accounts please contact Research Services for further assistance. 
  Legistorm Pro contains information about Congressional legislators and staff including biographical information, contact details, staff position tracking and revolving door tracking. It also provides access to policy reports including CRS, GAO, CBO, and SAP, Executive orders, social media accounts, Congressional expenditures, salaries, and other disclosures. 
• Cook Political Report: Individual login required. Harvard authorized users please complete the Cook Political Report Access Request Form to request sign-in access to cookpolitical.com. and the weekly newsletter. Log-in credentials are distributed on Thursdays. The Cook Political Report is an independent, non-partisan newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns for the US House of Representatives, US Senate, Governors, and Presidents as well as American political trends. 

Guides  

The Library has over 80 research guides that may be of use to you this semester.   

• View all of the law research guides here.  
• The librarians can work with you to create an individual research guide for your clinic’s subject matter, such as this Tax Law research guide.   
• We even have a guide to the clinical library services! Find your clinic’s library liaison, check out the research training calendar, browse a list of selected teaching resources and blogs, and more.  

Videos  

• The Library’s YouTube channel has a variety of videos that may be of professional or personal interest. Check out introductory videos for topical research, such as Human Rights Research: An Introduction or Tax Law Research Sources; step-by-step guides on everything from How to Request State Statutes to How to Cite Online Sources; and highlights of treasures from the library including the Nuremberg Trial Documents and Medieval Manuscripts.  

More Resources:  

• Inside Philanthropy: Individual login required. Harvard users can create an individual account using their Harvard email address.
  Inside philanthropy offers in-depth analyses of foundations and major individual donors worldwide (but with a primary focus on the United States), along with updates on grants and funding trends. Also includes a foundation-related job center, and a tool for finding grants.
• Docket Alarm: For HLS affiliates only. Please contact HLS Research Services for access instructions. Docket Alarm allows for full text searching across millions of lawsuits, find motions, briefs, and opinions across hundreds of courts. The platform provides automated updates of litigation activity for federal, bankruptcy, state, and intellectual property specialty courts and law agencies. It also provides analytics of docket entries, docket metadata, and underlying pleadings to provide legal insights about lawsuits.3 
• Casetext: For HLS affiliates only. Individual login required. Casetext research is free to all current law school students, staff, and faculty. This free access does not include access to allsearch, practice guides, or co-counsel. To access and use the Casetext services, you will be required to register an account with Casetext by completing a registration form and designating a user id and password. 
  Casetext is a free legal research and writing platform for currently enrolled law school students. It allows for searching millions of cases, statues, and annotated analysis. It includes Federal case law, 50 state case law, published and unpublished cases, Federal and state statues, Federal regulations, select administrative agency decisions, a Federal briefs database, a case summary database, Black Letter Law database, attorney-authored legal analyses, and specialty court coverage. 
• HotShot: Sign up for your own account to Hotshot! This product offers courses on a range of legal and business topics, including Finance and Accounting, Civil Litigation Basics, Commercial Lending, Depositions and much more. Want to be an expert with Word docs?  View the 26-minute tutorial, Word Basics for Lawyers. Or learn about how to prepare for trial with their 17-minute video Preparing for Trial.    
  For HLS affiliates only. Individual login required. Please register for account access with your HLS email. http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990152154410203941/catalog  
• Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE): MCLE OnlinePass provides total access to a fully-searchable electronic database containing all of MCLE’s books, forms, live and archived webcasts and practice-area professional development plans.  It includes material for Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Access is controlled by HLS IP address and is limited to the Harvard Law School community. Off-campus access is controlled by HLS Account username and password. In order to access the lessons, please register on-campus.