We hope you will join us in September for the next offering of our Orientation to Legal Research webinars, focusing on U.S. federal statutes, followed by the next entry into the Lunch and Learn webinar series focusing on using secondary resources to conduct legal research. The September webinars will finish with another entry in the Orientation to Law Library Collections webinar. It will cover digital resources available through the Law Library’s website as well as those available on-site. Within this webinar, there will be a guest presentation as part of the 50 State Outreach Project by staff from the Texas State Law Library. Amy Small, executive director, will present from the Texas State Law Library during the webinar. Amy notes that
[o]riginally established in 1854 as the library for the Texas Supreme Court, the Texas State Law Library split off as an independent judicial agency in 1972. Since then, our focus has been to serve the people of Texas as well as the high courts and state employees. Today, the great majority of people we help on a daily basis are ordinary folks navigating legal issues on their own. Only 32 of Texas’s 254 counties have a law library that is open to the public. With this in mind, our library has placed an emphasis on providing truly statewide service. In 2015, we launched an innovative remote access program whereby anyone in Texas could sign up for a library account to access high-quality legal databases and e-books. We have continued to maintain and expand this program, allowing Texans to research legal issues from anywhere in the state, even during COVID. We strive to keep Texans informed about their legal rights by continually updating and adding to our collection of Legal Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and research guides, which contain information about the law itself along with plain-English explanations.
We hope you will join us for these informative and interesting webinars!
Orientation to Legal Research: U.S. Federal Statutes
Date: Thursday, September 4, 2025, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EDT
Content: This webinar is designed to give a basic introduction to legal sources and research techniques. This entry in the series provides an overview of U.S. statutory and legislative research, including information about how to find and use the U.S. Code, the U.S. Statutes at Large, and U.S. federal bills and resolutions.
Instructor: Ann Hemmens – Senior Legal Reference Librarian. Ann holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois and earned her J.D. and Master of Science in library science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Register here.
A Lunch and Learn Webinar: Using Secondary Sources in Legal Research
Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2025, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EDT
Content: This webinar will provide an overview of secondary sources such as legal encyclopedias, treatises, and dictionaries. In addition, the webinar will provide examples of how these resources are used in practice. The presentation will demonstrate how secondary sources are an important step in the legal research method and how they can guide researchers to primary sources. Many of the materials and content for this webinar have come from the Law Library’s research guide, Legal Research: A Guide to Secondary Resources.
Instructor: Olivia Kane-Cruz. Olivia Kane-Cruz is a legal reference librarian at the Law Library of Congress. Olivia holds a B.A. in political science from Humboldt State University (Cal Poly Humboldt), a J.D. and a master’s of environmental law and policy from Vermont Law School, and an M.L.I.S. from the University of Washington.
Register here.
An Orientation to Law Library Collections Webinar featuring the Texas State Law Library
Date: Thursday, September 18, 2025, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EDT
Content: The Orientation to Law Library Collections (OLLC) Webinar is designed for patrons who are familiar with legal research and would instead prefer an introduction to the collections and services specific to the Law Library of Congress. The purpose of the State Law Libraries Outreach Project is to strengthen the ties between the Law Library of Congress and state law libraries by sharing information about our collections, products, and services with one another and with the public. This project involves providing a guest spot for state law librarians, or their designees, to discuss the collections and services they offer during our OLLC Webinars.
Instructors: Sarah Friedman. Sarah Friedman is a legal reference librarian at the Law Library of Congress. Sarah holds a B.A. in English literature and criticism from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law.
Register here.
To learn about other upcoming classes on domestic and foreign law topics, visit the Legal Research Institute. Please request ADA accommodations at least five business days in advance by contacting (202) 707-6362 or [email protected].
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