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Free and Low-Cost Legal Research

Not everyone has the luxury of expensive legal database subscriptions. This guide will highlight alternatives for conducting legal research at a lower cost.

What can the Law Library do for you?

Even after graduation, the Law Library strives to provide the best services we can to help you become successful researchers in your legal careers.  Here's how we can help you:

Practicing away from Bloomington?

Provision of research materials:

  • Cases/articles:
    • For faxes - $1.00 per page, $5.00 minimum
    • For photocopies and scans - $0.25 per page + $5.00 handling fee + 1st class postage
  • Books we can mail at no cost unless special mailing is requested

Reference inquiries:

  • The Reference Librarians are available to answer your research questions via email, over the phone, or in person.
    • However, extensive research assistance is not provided.
  • The Reference Office is open Monday-Thursday, 8:30-5 and 7-10, Friday, 8:30-5, Saturday and Sunday 1-5.

Coming into the Law Library?

  • Full access to our print collection
  • Access to all electronic resources, except those limited to individual accounts
  • Circulation privileges
  • Photocopiers and scanners
  • In-person reference assistance

 

Exclusive Maurer Law Alumni Access: HeinOnline

HeinOnline's Alumni Access provides full-text access to Hein's large collection of law review articles. Fastcase’s case-linking has been incorporated into this subscription. Fastcase allows users to access cited cases by clicking hyperlinked citations within the footnotes of the text and to retrieve cases by citation using the Fastcase tab in HeinOnline.

To obtain log-in credentials, e-mail Michelle Botek (mbotek@indiana.edu) or call the Reference Office at (812) 855-2938.

More Alumni Access: JSTOR and Project MUSE

As an alum of the greater university, you can also access JSTOR and Project MUSE for access to an even broader array of academic journals.  Follow the link below to create a MyIU account; this will allow you to log into MyIU, where you can access JSTOR and Project MUSE, as well as many other alumni benefits.