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Spinelli's Law Library Reference Shelf

A collection of works, scholarly articles, and tools for librarians, faculty and students. Contains research guides, bibliographies, dictionaries, biographies, and more.

Searching

One-Box Search

The main search bar is stationary throughout HeinOnline. With the one-box search bar, users are able to enter a term, and search by full text, author, title, citation, or catalog. Click Search Help to view a knowledge base article on commonly used search syntax, including wildcard (*) searches for variations of a word, such as "school" and/or "schools".   

For example: Enter “Dictionary of Law” AND English and select the Just Search For option

Results can be refined using the facets on the left side of the page. Available facets include date, document type, location, title, organization, and person. 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 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.

screenshot of search results in Spinelli's Law Library Reference Shelf

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, title, creator/author, and description. For example, let's say a user wanted to search for cataloging publications that reference disabilities within higher education between the years 2000-2020. In the Text fields, enter disabilities and then "higher education". Select Cataloging Publications from the Document Type box. Input the desired date range in the Date field.

This search yields more than 100 results.

 

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Within the Cataloging Publications tab, users are able to directly search Library of Congress Subject Headings. Users can search for a specific subject and text within the LOC Subject Headings. For example, let's say a user wanted to research the subject of education and wants to see how disabilities fall under this subject. In the Subject fields enter education and in the Text field enter disabilities.

This search yields 67 results.

 

 

GreenSlips

The GreenSlips Bibliographic Service will allow researchers to search across the entire archive of bibliographic entries that have been distributed since 1994 via Hein’s GreenSlips service. Each entry or “slip” includes the ISBN, author, title, publisher, LC numbers, series information, price and other bibliographic information.

If you subscribe to the Electronic GreenSlips service, you will be able to search the database from within this library and then link directly to your account to utilize all the tools included in your full-service subscription. 

If you do not subscribe to the Electronic GreenSlips service, you will still be able to search across the database and view the bibliographic entries, but you will not be able to utilize the premium features available with the full service. 

For more information on the Electronic GreenSlips service and its features, please contact your sales representative or contact us at marketing@wshein.com.

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: education AND AALL AND disabilities. Results display a Venn Diagram illustrating the various combinations of the search terms and their respective results yielded throughout all subscribed 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.