Administrative Law Research Guide: Tips To ID Looseleafs & Databases

• Key publishers of looseleafs (& databases) are: Bloomberg BNA, CCH (a division of Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting), LexisNexis Matthew Bender & RIA (a division of Thomson Reuters Tax and Accounting).  
  • TIP #1: To view our library's holdings, conduct a keyword search in the BLS Library catalog, SARA, combining words from a publisher's name with a legal subject area.  To focus on databases in your search results, review catalog records that include the words: [electronic resource]        
    
    • Sample searches in SARA:
      
      • bna employment discrimination law
      • cch federal securities law
      • ria federal tax law
      • bender immigration law
  • TIP #2: If you are familiar with these publishers' products, below are links to their databases.
    • BLS researchers can access Bloomberg BNA's Law School Professional Information Center and CCH Intelliconnect databases on-campus, in BLS housing, or off-campus through the BLS proxy server (see Proxy Instructions).  Also, BLS researchers can create a Bloomberg Law account to access Bloomberg BNA materials. 
      
      • Bloomberg BNA's Law School Professional Information Center
      • Bloomberg Law (main screen)
        
      • CCH's IntelliConnect
        
        • CCH requires first-time users to create a user ID
          
    • BLS Library can provide a fixed number of passwords to faculty & staff to access Thomson Reuters Checkpoint [formerly known as RIA Checkpoint] (a tax database).
      • Faculty & staff log in to Checkpoint at: http://checkpoint.riag.com 
      • BLS students can register (from a BLS computer) for semester-long access to Checkpoint at: http://ria.thomson.com/cploginids 
        
        • After initial registration, students log in (from anywhere) to Checkpoint at: http://checkpoint.riag.com 

BLS researchers can access many sources pertaining to federal agencies through Lexis.com, Lexis Advance, Westlaw Classic and WestlawNext.  These materials include both sources published by U.S. agencies and sources published by vendors.  Examples of sources published by vendors: Lexis provides the LexisNexis Matthew Bender Immigration sources.  Westlaw provides selected Thomson Reuters [RIA] tax sources.  Tip: To identify databases of regulations, decisions & commentary arranged by legal subject area, use:

• Lexis.com: click tab: "Legal" > link: "Area of Law by Topic"
• Westlaw Classic, click tab: "Directory" > link: "Topical Materials by Area of Practice"
• Westlaw Next, click tab: "Topics"  Example: Then, if a researcher selects a topic such as: Tax, the researcher will see vendors' materials listed under "Tools & Resources" on the far right of the screen.
  

LawTRIO (single-user access within the BLS firewall) is another tool to ID looseleaf services (& databases).

• Tip: Access LawTRIO subscription database either on-campus or off-campus through the BLS proxy server (see Proxy Instructions).
• In LawTRIO, click left-frame link: Search LawTRIO
• Check a format, such as: Looseleaf
• Conduct a keyword search to identify looseleaf services.  Examples:
  • brownfields
  • disabilit*
  • "executive compensation"
  • "employee benefit" or erisa
• Note: LawTRIO identifies published sources.  It does not identify sources owned (or licensed) by BLS Library.  If LawTRIO provides a useful title, conduct a title search in SARA to determine whether BLS Library owns or licenses the source.