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Session Laws Library

This library contains the session laws of all 50 U.S. states as well as Canada, Australia, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and the D.C. Register.

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Session Laws Quick Locator

To quickly retrieve a chapter, act, or page, use the Session Laws Quick Locator tool that can be found either on the Session Laws Library homepage or within a particular state. Simply select the state and plug in the year and chapter/act information to retrieve the document. 

This tool will take users to the exact page where the chapter begins.

One-Box Searching

The one-box search bar is stationary throughout HeinOnline. After entering the Session Laws Library database, you will be able to search within this database only. Click Search Help for a quick reference guide to commonly used search syntax.   

For example: Enter “economic development” AND California and select Just search for

Results can be refined using the facets on the left side of the page. Available facets include date, document type, title, state published, location, person, and organization. Terms matching the search query will appear in bold text within the matching text page snippets. Sort search results by relevance, volume date (oldest first or newest first), or document title. Find cited-by information and tools, such as an instant PDF download, 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.

 

Advanced Search

Click the Advanced Search link located beneath the main search bar to perform a more specific search. Users can search various metadata fields such as text, description, state, and title. For example, let's say a user wanted to search for Session Laws about Health and Safety in New York State. In the State field, enter New York. In the Text field, enter "Health and safety". Select State Session Laws from the Document Type box.

This search yields 868 results containing New York Session Laws relevant to health and safety. Users are able to further refine these results with the facets on the left-hand side by date, location, person, and organization.

 

Using the Venn Diagram

Located within the Advanced Search tool is the Venn Diagram Search feature. Use the tool to visualize the results yield of various keywords and better refine a search. After selecting the tool, users will be redirected to a page with a search bar, instructions for its use, and a few example searches. With the Venn Diagram feature, users can simply search for multiple terms separated with the Boolean operator "AND."

Users will be redirected to a page with a search bar, instructions for its use, and a few example searches. For example, let's search using the terms: California AND water AND shortage. Results display a Venn Diagram illustrating the various combinations of the search terms and their respective results yielded in the Session Laws Library databases. The original search combining all three terms will appear by default, visually represented by the red intersection of all three circles in the diagram.

Select the Clear button above the diagram to be able to hover over the various options. Users will then see all possible search term combinations and their results as the cursor hovers over them. Click one of these highlighted circles or intersections to explore the results.