This guide will help you use periodical indexes and other sources to identify articles on legal topics and to find the articles in the law library.

The Library's Periodical Collection

The law library subscribes to law reviews, bar journals, newsletters and legal newspapers. Nearly all are indexed in one of the indexes listed below, or have their own indexes.

Some of our periodicals are shelved alphabetically by title, and some are on microfiche filed in cabinets near the circulation desk.  Many titles are split between paper and microfiche.  Our online catalog (called ANSWER) can provide locations.

A few periodicals are shelved by call number in the book collection, and ANSWER provides the call number.

Recent legal newspapers are on a rack by the library entrance, while older issues are in closed stacks or on microfiche. General circulation newspapers such as the Lansing State Journal and The New York Times are available at the Library of Michigan. The current issue of many newspapers is posted on the Internet.   

Do not hesitate to ask the staff for help in finding what you need.

Searching ANSWER (the online catalog)

To find out whether the law library subscribes to a certain periodical, such as the Michigan Law Review, search for its title in ANSWER. If you are not sure of the exact title, try a keyword search.

Periodical Indexes Available at the Law Library

LegalTrac

Access this index via the Michigan eLibrary (MeL) at www.mel.org/index.html. After logging on, you will see MeL Databases by Topic; scroll down to LegalTrac in the right-hand column. Hundreds of law reviews, bar journals and legal newspapers can be searched by subject, keyword and author, among other things. The coverage of many titles goes back to 1980. Your search will retrieve article citations or abstracts, and you will find many of the articles in our library in print, on microfiche or online. For articles we do not have, our reference staff can try to obtain a copy for you from another library.

Index to Legal Periodicals

This is a print index whose coverage begins in the late 19th century, and our holdings extend through August, 1994. You can search for article citations by subject, author, case name or (since 1980/81) name of statute.

Nonlegal Periodical Indexes

Visit the MeL website at www.mel.org/index.html to access periodical indexes covering fields such as business, education and health, as well as those of general interest. For articles we do not have, our reference staff can try to obtain a copy from another library.

Other Sources of Article Citations

Statutory Codes

When using the United States Code Service, the United States Code Annotated, the Michigan Compiled Laws Service, the Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated and other annotated statutory codes, look for article citations among the annotations. 

Case Digests

Case digests such as West's Michigan Digest 2d and LexisNexis' Callaghan's Michigan  Digest provide citations to relevant periodical articles along with the case summaries.

Shepard's Citators

Shepard's case and statute citators include legal periodicals among the citing sources. For example, Shepard's Michigan Citations includes citations to the Michigan Bar Journal, law reviews from Michigan law schools and other selected law reviews. The law library provides access to all Shepard's citators online via Lexis Public Access Plus.

Updated 02/09/2005