Secondary sources: top ten.

Publication: Legal Information Alert

Publication Date: 01-MAR-05

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Secondary sources are a legal researcher's best friend. They are a great place to begin researching a new topic as they provide a framework for understanding the subject. Not only will a good secondary source provide researchers with a way of approaching the topic, but it will also introduce beginning researchers to the language of the subject. Secondary sources also contain expert analysis, references to primary law such as cases, statutes, and regulations, and will also include such other resources as governmental reports, statistics, and other secondary sources. While secondary sources are an incredibly valuable research tool, they can offer such a wide array of options that researchers become overwhelmed with the sheer number of choices. This can strike anyone, even a fairly experienced researcher. Librarians, too, can become overwhelmed, especially when faced with teaching law students about the value of secondary sources and how to harness their power.

The Lists and How They Came To Be

While I was team-teaching an advanced legal research course this past fall, the students in the class commented that they would find it valuable to have a list of secondary sources that are often used in practice. They complained that a partner would sometimes recommend a resource and would expect them to know what they were talking about. Unfortunately, this was not always the case, and the student would either gather the courage to ask for clarification or spend a considerable amount of time trying to figure out what source was meant when the partner used the kind of shorthand that all attorneys are guilty of using. Students wanted me to create a list of secondary sources that they could take with them to try and make sense of those "shorthand" instructions they are often given.

I thought this was an inspired suggestion and wanted to incorporate it into my upcoming session. However, it turned out to be a bigger project than I expected. I wanted to create a list that would be, most importantly, useful when students went into the "real world," but also something that would be short enough for me to explain in an hour's lecture. I considered making a "Top Ten" list a la David...

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