Classes Offered by the Law Library of Congress

The following is a guest post by Shameema Rahman, Legal Reference Specialist in our Public Services Division.

Do you know the Law Library offers two classes to the public: Orientation to Legal Research and THOMAS Orientation?

Orientation to Legal Research and the Use of Law Library Collections is a basic introduction to legal sources and research techniques.  This class provides an overview of statutes, regulations, and court cases and the relationships among them, as well as how to locate them.

The Law Library also offers a class on THOMAS Orientation. This class is designed to give a basic overview of the THOMAS website through lecture and hands-on exercises. Searching U.S. legislation, public laws or bills, and the congressional documents that pertain to the legislative process is the primary focus of the session. Specialized areas of the website, like the legislative process and status of appropriations, are also reviewed.

These classes are both taught monthly and free for anybody who wants to attend.  They are taught here at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The classes are designed to provide basic legal research skill to our researchers with no legal background.

To register for our Legal Research Orientation or THOMAS Orientation classes, please complete the seminar form for each class.