Business and Legal Research Library Resources

Anatomy of a Library of Congress Subject Heading

 

Useful for the Bishop Library online catalog (iLink), AccessPA, and WorldCat. Most college and university libraries are based on LC classification and subject headings.

 

Main Heading (left most terms in the subject heading before the first --)

-- Topical Subdivision e.g. "Law and legislation

-- Geographic Subdivision e.g. "United States"

-- Chronological Subdivision e.g. "20th century"

-- Format Subdivision e.g. "Popular works"

 

Bailments -- United States.

Bankruptcy--United States--Case studies.

Bankruptcy--United States--History--20th century.

Business.

Business -- Law and legislation.

Business enterprises--Finance.

Business enterprises--Law and legislation--United States -- Popular works.

Business ethics.

Business logistics--Moral and ethical aspects.

Business Management.

Businesswomen -- Interviews.

Consumer protection.

Corporate governance--Moral and ethical aspects.

Corporations--Finance.

Corporations--United States--Finance--Case studies.

Discrimination in employment -- Law and legislation -- United States.

Eminent domain -- United States.

Estate planning.

Executives--United States--History--20th century.

Finance, Personal.

Income tax -- United States.

Income tax -- Law and legislation -- United States -- Popular works.

Industrial relations -- United States -- Case studies.

Inheritance and transfer tax--Law and legislation--United States.

Insurance.

Insurance, Business.

Labor laws and legislation -- United States.

Labor productivity -- United States -- Case studies.

Management--Moral and ethical aspects.

Partnership--New York (State)--New York -- Case studies.

Partnership--United States--Popular works.

Property -- United States -- History.

Right of property -- United States.

Small business--Law and legislation--United States -- Popular works.

Social responsibility of business.

Success in business--United States--History--20th century.

Taxation -- United States.

Taxation of personal property.

Women employees--Promotions.

Women executives -- Interviews.

 

Useful LC Classifications

 

H – Social Sciences

 

 

K – Law

 

Business Databases

 

Business databases at the Bishop Library are available from 5 major database vendors.

 

·        EBSCOHOST

·        FirstSearch (produced and maintained by OCLC)

·        LexisNexis

·        Mergent Online

·        NetAdvantage (produced and maintained by Standard and Poor’s)

 

All of these databases require the user to be authenticated. Access from off campus is available by going to http://www.lvc.edu/library/databases.aspx and logging on with your college user ID and password.

Finding Journals

The Bishop Library subscribes to over 800 journals either in print or electronic formats. Additionally, over 25,000 journals are available as part of the numerous full-text databases subscribed to by the library. The easiest way to determine if the library owns or has access to a specific journal is to use the EBSCO A-to-Z.

This service also offers a subject listing of journals. Select the “Social Sciences” menu option to display Business and Economics journals.

Full text newspaper articles can be searched and displayed by using Newsbank.

 

Legal & Public Affairs Online Databases

Legal databases at the Bishop Library are mainly available via LexisNexis. Note that LexisNexis uses guided search forms employing keywords with selectable limiters. No subject term searching is available.

·         Ensuring that a case has not been overturned, criticized, or distinguished by subsequent court decisions.

·         Finding additional cases that stand for the same legal principal, or address similar legal issues. Shepard's helps you add relevant cases to your legal bibliography.

·         Verifying that a legal citation is formatted properly.

 

Finding Journals

The Bishop Library subscribes to over 800 journals either in print or electronic formats. Additionally, almost 24,000 journals are available as part of the numerous full-text databases subscribed to by the library. The easiest way to determine if the library owns or has access to a specific journal is to use the EBSCO A-to-Z.

This service also offers a subject listing of journals.

Full text newspaper articles can be searched and displayed by using Newsbank.

 

LexisNexis command syntax

Words - Defined for Searching the LexisNexis® Services

Within a search through the LexisNexis services, a word is a single character or group of characters, alphabetical or numeric, with a space on either side.

bank

one word

233

one word

123.456

one word

The LexisNexis services search for the specific words indicated in the search. To ensure comprehensive results, allow for alternative terms in your search. For example, to find articles about doctors

Enter:
doctor or physician or md or m.d.

Hyphens, slashes, and parentheses are treated as spaces. For example:

co-operative

two words

401(k)

two words

20/20

two words

There are some words on the LexisNexis services that are not searchable, such as noise words and reserved words.

Connectors

Use connectors when you use the Terms and Connectors (Boolean) method of searching. Connectors are characters that establish logical relationships between words and concepts. The LexisNexis® services do not look for connectors themselves in documents--just for the actual search words. You can use multiple connectors in one search request.

When you use multiple connectors in a search, the LexisNexis services process the search according to a priority order that works much like an algebraic equation. Connectors operate in the following order of priority:

1.        OR

2.        W/n, PRE/n, NOT W/n

3.        W/S

4.        W/P

5.        AND

6.        AND NOT

When you use two or more of the same connectors in a search, they normally operate from left to right. When a search contains multiple W/n or PRE/n connectors, however, the connectors operate in numerical order with the smallest number first. Generally, the W/S and W/P connectors cannot be combined with W/n or PRE/n connectors.

OR

Links synonyms, alternative forms of expression, acronyms, and so on.

Example: doctor or physician--finds either doctor or physician.

W/n

Links search words and phrases to create concepts. The letter n stands for a number from 1 to 255. W/n does not specify a word order.

Example: doctor w/5 malpractice--finds doctor within five or fewer words of malpractice, regardless of which word appears first.

PRE/n

Requires both words to appear in the document with the first word preceding the second word by n or fewer words. Use this connector when a different word order would change the meaning.

Example: southwest pre/2 air or airline--finds Southwest Air or Southwest Airlines.

NOT W/n

The first word is required to appear in the document. The second word may also appear; however, it cannot be within n words of the first word.

Example: rico NOT W/5 puerto--finds at least one instance where the term RICO appears separated from the word puerto; however, Puerto Rico can appear elsewhere in the document.

W/S

Looks for documents with search words in the same sentence.

Example: doctor w/s malpractice--finds doctor in the same sentence as malpractice.

W/P

Looks for documents with search words in the same paragraph.

Example: doctor w/p malpractice--finds doctor in the same paragraph as malpractice.

AND

Links words or phrases that must both appear anywhere in the same document.

Example: doctor and malpractice--finds both doctor and malpractice anywhere in the same document.

AND NOT

Excludes documents that contain certain words or phrases. Use this connector with caution, because it can exclude relevant documents. We recommend using this connector at the end of your search in most cases.

Example: doctor and not malpractice--finds the word doctor anywhere in the document, but the system does not retrieve any documents that contain the word malpractice anywhere in the same document.

Searching Phrases (Boolean)

Adjacent words (tax free, dog bite, automobile accident, first class, etc.) are searched as individual words appearing in the specific order entered--you do not need to enclose them in quotation marks. For example, to search for articles with the phrase first class, enter first class.

If the phrase you are searching for contains a reserved word, such as AND or OR, replace the reserved word with a space when you enter your search. For example, to search for articles with the phrase black and white, enter black white.

When you search for phrases that contain a noise word, such as of or the, replace the noise word with a space when entering your search. For example, to search for articles with the phrase Terms of Endearment, enter terms endearment.

When you want to search for the plural and singular form of a word, use the plural or singular command to restrict your search. For example, to search for articles with the phrase Johns Hopkins, enter plural ( johns hopkins ).

Using Parentheses to Group Concepts

When you use more than one connector in a search, sometimes the priority in which connectors operate has an unintended effect on your search request. Use parentheses to group your concepts for proper retrieval.

For example, you might think the following search will find documents about Bill Clinton or George Bush:

bill w/3 clinton or george w/3 bush

The LexisNexis® services, however, interpret these search terms in the following priority:

1.        clinton or george

2.        bill within three words or fewer of clinton or george

3.        bush within three words or fewer of clinton or george, that is also within three words or fewer of bill

Use parentheses to force the names to stay together in two separate search concepts. For this example, you would enter the following search string:

( bill w/3 clinton ) or ( george w/3 bush )

The parentheses override the normal priority of the connectors, allowing each concept to be interpreted separately. This search finds articles about Bill Clinton or George Bush.

Hyphens, Slashes, and Parentheses

Hyphens, slashes, and parentheses are treated as a space, so a hyphenated word or terms containing slashes or parentheses are seen as multiple words. When searching terms or phrases that include these characters, replace the hyphen, slash, or parenthesis with a space.

Examples:

·         co-operative is read as 2 words: co operative

·         401(k) is read as 2 words: 401 k

·         20/20 is read as 2 words: 20 20

 

Wildcards ( * and ! )

The asterisk ( * ) and the exclamation mark ( ! ) are special characters, called wildcards or universal characters. Use them to find variations of a word or different spellings of a term.

Asterisk ( * )

Use the * to replace a letter or letters in a word. You can use more than one * in a word, and you can use it anywhere in a word except for the first letter.

bernst**n

finds the "ei" or "ie" spelling of the name

wom*n

finds "woman" and "women"

bank***

finds any word beginning with "bank" and which has no more than three letters after the k; will pick up "banker" and "banking," but will not pick up "bankrupt" or "bankruptcy"

 

Exclamation Mark ( ! )

Use the ! to replace an unlimited number of letters following a word root. You can use only one ! in a word and it must be at the end of the word root.

litigat!

finds variations of the word litigate (litigator, litigated, litigation, litigating)

acqui!

finds variations of the word acquire (acquired, acquiring, acquisition)

book!

finds book or bookkeeper, but does not find book-keeper or book keeper because these are read as two separate words

NOTE:

Words that work best with ! are those that are unique in their truncated form. For example, if you search for fir! (thinking that you want to find fired, firing, or fires), your results will also include first, firm, and so on.

ATLEAST Command

A command used to require a word or words to appear a minimum number of times in the document. For example, to find documents that contain an in-depth discussion of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA):

Enter: atleast10 ( cercla )

This search requires CERCLA to appear in every document at least 10 times. You can use any number from 1 to 255 with the ATLEAST command.