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Prestatehood Legal Materials

A database derived from the award-winning sourcebook Prestatehood Legal Materials, providing brief overviews of state histories from colonization to statehood.

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Main Search Bar Tips

  • The main search bar is stationary throughout HeinOnline
  • Once inside the Prestatehood Legal Materials database, the search bar will search only within this database, unless the Search All Databases box is ticked
  • Need something more robust? Click Advanced Search to perform a search using custom drop-downs
  • Need a refresher on how to construct a perfect search? Click Search Help for a quick reference guide to commonly used search syntax

screenshot highlighting one-box search and Search Help option in Prestatehood Legal Materials

 

Using the Main Search Bar

  • For example, enter the phrase "king george" inside quotation marks into the search bar
    • Select where you want to search for this phrase: as an Author, appearing in the Title of any document or article, as a Citation, or in our Catalog as a title. Want to see your search in any of these fields, or appearing in the full text of a document? Select Just search for

search for "king george" within Prestatehood Legal Materials database

  • Use the facets on the left side of the page to narrow your results
  • Terms matching the search query appear in bold text within the matching text page snippets
  • Sort search results by relevance, volume date, or title
  • Save to your MyHein account, email a result, display download options, or download a PDF using the icons on the right side of each search result.
  • Use the icons next to the sort-by bar to modify your current search, to search within results, to toggle all matching text pages, or to turn OFF infinite scroll

search results for "king george" in Prestatehood Legal Materials database with sort, refine, and share options highlighted

Using Advanced Search

  • Click Advanced Search to be taken to a page with custom facets to help maximize your research within this collection
  • Use the drop-downs to choose a variety of ways to search: Text, Title, or Creator/Author
    • Add another search field if three isn't enough
  • Restrict results within a date range and change how results are sortedadvanced search for text: "religious freedom" AND text: "england" in Prestatehood Legal Materials

search results for advanced search for text: "religious freedom" AND text: "england" in the Prestatehood Legal Materials database

About Venn Diagram Search

 

  • Venn Diagram Search offers a visual representation of how search terms interact with each other
  • Helps users both refine their current search terms and become better researchers going forward
  • Find the link to Venn Diagram Search on the Advanced Search page
  • Searches are constructed by stringing together multiple terms separated by the Boolean operator "AND," with phrases grouped together in quotation marks

 

 

venn diagram search results in Prestatehood Legal Materials for "provisional government" AND annexation AND colonists

  • Results on the right side of the page pertain to the search as we originally constructed it (represented by the red slice in the center of the intersecting circles)
  • Select Clear for the ability to hover over the different segments of the diagram and see all possible search term combinations from our original query.
  • In our example, we can see results for:
    • "provisional government" AND annexation
    • annexation AND "colonists"
    • "provisional government" AND colonists
    • the terms "provisional government," annexation, and colonists individually
  • Sort the results, save or export, turn to the specific page of a result, or start at the beginning of a given title