Explore Legal Resources with HeinOnline

Curious about Constitutional law?  Questions about quid pro quo? Head over to HeinOnline’s Government Politics and Law for Academics from our A-to-Z Databases page.

Screenshot of HeinOnline's database for legal resources

HeinOnline is the world’s largest fully searchable, image-based government document and legal research database. It contains comprehensive coverage from inception of both U.S. statutory materials, U.S. Congressional Documents and more than 2,300 scholarly journals, all of the world’s constitutions, all U.S. treaties, collections of classic treatises and presidential documents, and access to the full text of state and federal case law powered by Fastcase.

Browse databases by category or navigate directly to the collections included in HeinOnline.  Noteable collections include:

  • Fastcase – A comprehensive, nationwide law library, including case law, statutes, regulations, court rules, constitutions, and law review articles.
  • Code of Federal Regulations – The Federal Register is a primary source for United States federal government agencies’ proposed rules, final rules, changes to existing rules and notices, as well as executive orders and other presidential documents.
  • The Pentagon Papers – A United States Department of Defense history of the United States’ political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967
  • Gun Regulation and Legislation in America – Brings together periodicals, key compiled federal legislative histories, relevant congressional hearings, CRS Reports, Supreme Court briefs, and more dealing with this difficult and important topic.
  • U.S. Code – This collection includes complete coverage of the United States Code dating back to inception in 1925-1926.
  • U.S. Congressional Documents – features the complete Congressional Record bound volume set (1873-present) as well as its three predecessor titles: Annals of Congress (1789-1824), Register of Debates (1824-1837) and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873).
  • U.S. Congressional Serial Set – Records in this series include House and Senate Documents, House and Senate Reports, and much more. The reports are usually from congressional committees dealing with proposed legislation and issues under investigation. Spans two centuries and includes 17,000 bound volumes.
  • U.S. Supreme Court Library – Complete coverage of the official U.S. Reports bound volumes as well as preliminary prints, slip opinions, and books and periodicals related to the U.S. Supreme Court are included.
  • Democracy in America – A digital, interactive edition of Alexis de Tocqueville’s classic work describing his observations and reflections on democracy in America’s society.
  • And much much more

Searching in the full-text field will bring up articles, cases, ebooks, and more that can be filtered on location, organization, topic, title or date.  You can sort results by times cited by articles, cases, times accessed, and more.

Screenshot of article sorting options like Number of Times Cited By Cases, Scholar Check Rank, Date, Number of Times accessed

Full-text for articles constitute the digital version—complete with photos and formatting found in the original versions.  Each article result also includes tools for citation, saving, linking, and suggesting more articles by topic.

Screenshot depicting Topic suggestions and article saving tools

If you are just searching for case law, including Arkansas cases, use the Advanced Search feature under the tab “Case Law” to search Fastcase to search court cases by keyword, case name, court, date, state and more.

Screenshot of searching options for case law

NOTE: If you are looking the Arkansas Code of 1987 Annotated, please see the freely online version at https://portal.arkansas.gov/agency/bureau-of-legislative-research/service/arkansas-code-search-laws-and-statutes/

For more help using HeinOnline, see their Help menu for live chat, searchable knowledge base, and helpful Libguides that link you to more information by collection.  You can also browse their collection of training videos teaching you how to search and browse the database.

Have legal questions?  You should consult an attorney—librarians are not allowed to give legal advice.  But we can help you search HeinOnline or locate other sources of legal and scholarly information.  Just Ask Us!  It would be a crime not to…

On Trial

This month, the Ross Pendergraft Library is trialing many new databases up for purchase consideration for next year.  Now is the time for you to test drive and give your feedback on the resources important to you.

BizMiner – TRIAL EXPIRES OCT. 22

BizMiner produces industry statistical reports, offering industry financial analysis benchmarks for more than 5,000 lines of business and industry market trends on thousands more. … These financial and industry market trend reports are used by business valuation professionals, accountants, and business owners.

Have a business plan you need to write?  Use this tool to gather market information on thousands of industries at the national, state, and city-level.  Need to know what it takes to open a hamburger restaurant in Russellville?  Look up annual sales, market volume, employment, productivity and more:

Screenshot of Bizminer report for hamburger businesses in Russellville

Early American Newspapers, Series 1 (1690-1876) and Series 6 (1741-1922)

This trial includes full text, digitized access to nearly 1,000 titles including the Weekly Arkansas Gazette (1819-1876) and Arkansas Gazette (1987-1908).  Series 6 is currently the ONLY way to access earlier editions of the state’s newspaper without using microfilm.  This resource is valuable for finding primary sources to the historical events that shaped our country and region.  The database is searchable by keyword or users can browse by newspaper title, place of publication, article types, and languages.  Once a newspaper article is selected, users will view the original, digitized version of the newspaper (includes photographs, advertising, and more).

Screenshot of Weekly Gazette showing map of new Iron Railroad passing through Arkansas

Take a trip through Arkansas history with this important resource!  But hurry!  It expires October 31st, 2018!

English Reports (HeinOnline)

Looking for early English Law?  The English Reports delivers exact page images of the original bound reprint edition, containing more than 100,000 cases, together with the Indexes and Book of Charts. This series includes the nominate reports or common-law rulings from various courts in England from the Middle Ages to the 1860s. The reports themselves were published in the early 20th century and would fill multiple shelves.  However, you can access this entire collection online using multiple navigation tools, such as a Case Locator, Chart Tool, and an Advanced Search feature enhance the ease of access to specific cases. Also included in this collection is the Statutes of the Realm (1235-1713), along with Pre-1865 Law Reports.

Screenshot of English Reports interface

Review and judge this database until November 5th.

Seldon Society Publications and the History of Early English Law (HeinOnline)

This library includes the Selden Society Annual Series, Selden Society Supplementary Series and the Centenary Guide to the Publications of the Selden Society published in 1987. The Seldon Society dedicates itself to the study and publication of English legal history. It also includes more than 220 English Legal History Classics including abridgments, digests and dictionaries. Moreover, you will be able to access early English case law and link to other online publications in early English history.

Screenshot of title page of early English text

Perufe thif collection of fine Englifh legal hiftory before it expiref on November 5th.

Like them?  Hate them?  Make a case for these trial databases at askus@atu.libanswers.com.  You can also reach us via text, phone, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or in person at the Ross Pendergraft Library.   Remember, your feedback determines what resources we purchase and what we don’t.  So let us know!