As anyone who has had to do research in a specific area of law can tell you, a significant amount of time can be spent on the task of gathering up all of the sources at your disposal. A search through the library’s catalog may result in a full listing of what’s available. However, there is no easy way of searching a library catalog that will result in finding, say, only primary materials or only reference materials. Researchers would have to take the further step of looking at each listing to determine how they should categorize it.
That’s where LibGuides come in. LibGuides are research guides on various topics that have been compiled by Wheat Law librarians. These guides are a one-stop shop for what’s available to faculty, staff and students on topics ranging from administrative law to the Uniform Commercial Code, and they contain references not only to books on our shelves but also to electronic databases, both free and proprietary, that cover the subject.
For example, our Agricultural Law LibGuide contains citations to reference materials (e.g., agricultural statistics and Agricultural Law Digest), texts and treatises (e.g., “Animals and the Law: A Sourcebook,” “Litigating Animal Law Disputes”), government documents, Kansas and Missouri materials, periodicals (Drake Journal of Agricultural Law, Midwest Agricultural Law Journal), and online resources. Each one is tabbed for easy use.
So check out the Wheat Law Library’s LibGuides at http://guides.law.ku.edu/ and take a look around.
— W. Blake Wilson, Head of Instructional & Research Services