LegalTrac is a resource which can be used to find legal publications. It provides indexing for more than 1,400 titles including major law reviews, legal newspapers, bar association journals and international legal journals, along with law-related articles from over 1,000 additional business and general interest titles. All articles contained in LegalTrac have been published between 1980 and 2012. Currently 1,635,213 articles can be found in LegalTrac as of April 1, 2012.
LegalTrac may be accessed through the Charlotte School of Law homepage by clicking on “Law Library”–>”Electronic Resources”–>”A-Z Index of Databases” tab, then locate “LegalTrac” under “L”.
To locate articles within LegalTrac you may begin with a basic search. This basic search allows you the choice of searching either by keyword, subject, publication title, or entire document. As you enter one or more words into the input box to begin a search, a “search assist” feature will make suggestions based on the text you type. You may further limit your search by checking one or more of the boxes below the input box. And it is that simple! Just click the search icon and the system will display your results, with the documents organized by type of content. You may further refine your results in the left-hand sidebar.
You may also choose to search for a publication by clicking on the “Publication Search” tab.
This screen allows you to search for a specific publication. You may either click on “List All Publications” above the search box which yields a list of all 2,757 publications in LegalTrac’s database, or you can type a search term to locate a relevant publication. For example, if you wished to find a publication on criminal law you would begin by typing “criminal law” into the search box. As you type this term search assist will begin populating relevant publications in a dropdown form as illustrated:
You may either select a publication which populates or finish typing your term then click on the search icon to receive a list of relevant publications. You may further refine your results to publications with full text and/or to peer-reviewed publications. It is important to know, as well, that not all articles are available in full text, but rather some articles found in LegalTrac are only available as citations or abstracts.
LegalTrac can be a valuable resource in a search for legal articles and publications. You will find the site is very user-friendly unlike some other electronic research resources.
~Emily Little, L’12~
