Interdisciplinary Practice with Grandparent Families Clinic

You may contact Jenny Smith, the course law library liaison, for research-related questions at jsmith@law.umaryland.edu.

Secondary Sources: Journals, Books | Statutory Materials | Judicial Materials | Administrative Materials | Related Websites

Getting Started

This research guide is created for the Interdisciplinary Practice with Grandparent Families Clinic of the University of Maryland School of Law. The guide is directed to provide the student attorney in Maryland with a starting point for practice-oriented legal research, with special emphasis on the collaborative practice with the School of Social Work and the School of Nursing at UMB.

With any project, unless you are already knowledgeable about the topic area, it's best to start with secondary sources and then to consult primary sources. Secondary sources such as handbooks, guides, and manuals, as well as sample forms and other practice materials, provide an attorney with rules and guidelines for law practice within certain jurisdictions. Articles and books can provide you with an overview of your topic and help you think of search terms you might not have thought of otherwise. They also cite primary authorities such as statutes and cases. You can use the primary sources cited in secondary sources as a jumping off point to find other primary sources in several ways:

  • Shepardize or KeyCite them to see what other sources have cited them (visit the Shepard's Citation Service tutorial or the KeyCite tutorial for more information);
  • Read cases to see what other sources they cite (jump to Judicial Materials);
  • On Westlaw or in West Digests (for example, the Maryland Digest), look up the topics and key numbers in the cases you've already read to find other cases that address the same issues;
  • On Lexis, use "More Like This" to find other sources with wording or citation patterns similar to the document you started with;
  • Read annotations to statutes to find cross references to cases that have analyzed them or regulations that have been issued under their authority (jump to Statutory Materials).

Back To Top

Secondary Sources

The two main indexes to law journals are LegalTrac and Index to Legal Periodicals & Books (which includes books as well). These indexes include references to many journals not included in Westlaw or Lexis databases and in some cases provide access to the full text electronically. Each of these two online indexes has a parallel print version: the Current Law Index (K33 .C87), and the Index to Legal Periodicals (K9 .N32) are shelved near the print journals on level 1. The Index to Legal Periodicals is particularly helpful if you need to find articles published prior to 1980. For additional help on finding articles, link to Finding Articles in Legal Journals and Law Reviews.

Most print journals are shelved on level 1 of the library, in alphabetical order by journal title. To find out if the library has a particular journal title in electronic format, use the e-journals link on the Library web page or ask a librarian for help.

Subscription Databases

Brief Bibliography

The following is a partial list of the Interdisciplinary Practice with Grandparent Families Clinic related materials available in the Thurgood Marshall Law Library. The material is listed by main entry with the title and/or author information in bold type.

Periodicals:

Books and Treatises:

Back To Top

Primary Law: Statutory Materials

Judicial Materials

Administrative Materials

Back To Top

Related Websites

This Course Research Page was created by Jenny Smith.

Back To Top

501 W. Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-1768 PHONE: (410) 706-6502 FAX: (410) 706-8354

Copyright © 2008, University of Maryland, School of Law. All Rights Reserved