Training
Additional training sessions will be posted as they are scheduled. Please check this page regularly for changes or updates.
Training on Electronic Resources
Every Third Thursday of the Month, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
(January 17, February 21, March 21, April 18, May 16, June 20, July 18, August 15, September 19, October 17, November 21, December 19, 2013)
Please join the Interior Library staff for a regular training series on the many electronic and online resources available through the Library's website. Every third Thursday of the month from 1 to 2 pm, the Library staff will review features of the website, including features and basic search techniques for online databases available to DOI employees at their desktops. Databases such as HeinOnline, Westlaw, JSTOR, ProQuest Congressional, and ProQuest National Newspapers will be covered at the request of attendees. The Reference Staff will also be available to answer other specific online research related questions you may have.
Schedule
Federal Legislative History Research Using Library Resources
Wednesday, May 29, 2013, 10:00 am - 11:15 am
In order to find the legislative intent of a bill or public law, researchers need to compile reports, testimony, debate, and other materials related to that piece of legislation to find keys as to what Congress hoped to accomplish by passing the bill. The final compilation of all these materials provides the researcher with a "legislative history" of the bill or law in question and hopefully will answer the question of what Congress intended with this legislation. Attendees will learn how to use print and electronic resources available in the DOI Library to conduct legislative history research. Included will be a look at how to put together a legislative history using Library resources such as the Congressional Information Service indexes, U.S. Congressional Serial Set (print and online editions), Congressional Record, HeinOnline, and the LexisNexis Congressional Hearings and Research Digital Collections. This program will be conducted by Reference Librarian Jennifer Klang.
Introduction to WestlawNext
Wednesday, June 5, 2013, 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
Thomson Reuters WestlawNext online legal research service permits users to search for legal, legislative, news, and business content without first selecting a database, allowing one to click checkboxes to select the jurisdiction and nature of material wanted. Its new search algorithm, referred to as WestSearch, is perhaps the world's most advanced legal research engine, executing a federated search across multiple content types. Users can enter descriptive terms or Boolean connectors and select a jurisdiction. Search results are ranked by relevance. WestlawNext also supports retrieving documents by citation, party name, or KeyCite reference. An overview page enables users to see the top results per content type, or to view all results for a particular content type. Filters can also be applied to refine the result list even further. On the results page, users can also see links to related secondary sources relevant to their research. WestlawNext also provides folders for storing and sharing portions of the research selected by the user. Attendees will be taught by a Thomson Reuters trainer how to maneuver through this new, user-friendly platform to find the search results they need.
Please Note: This class is also being offered to remote users as a simultaneous online webinar via Web Ex. Please contact the DOI Library by e-mail at library@ios.doi.gov for information on how to register for WebEx access to the class.
The National Technical Reports Library: Introduction and New Features
Tuesday, June 25, 2013, 10:00 am - 11:15 am
The National Technical Information Service's National Technical Reports Library (NTRL) offers online access to hundreds of thousands of technical reports collected by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) from a wide variety of federal government agencies over the past 60 years. The NTRL currently offers searchable access to 2.5 million official, federal government scientific and technical reports, with over 600,000 of these available in full-text as PDF files. Attendees will learn how to effectively search through this database to locate official government reports, including many published by Interior Department bureaus and offices. This program will be conducted by a National Technical Information Service trainer.
Compiling a Federal Legislative History – A Step By Step Example for Beginners
Tuesday, July 9, 2013, 10:00 am – 11:15 am
In order to find the legislative intent of a bill or public law, researchers need to compile reports, testimony, debate, and other materials related to that piece of legislation to find keys as to what Congress hoped to accomplish by passing the bill. The final compilation of all these materials provides the researcher with a "legislative history" of the bill or law in question and hopefully will answer the question of what Congress intended with this legislation. Those inexperienced with legal research in general but interested in learning the process involved in compiling a federal legislative history will find this program invaluable. A specific Public Law will be the focus of a step-by-step piecing together of a legislative history, using print resources such as the U.S. Statutes at Large, Congressional Record, and U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Online sources of federal legislative history information will also be highlighted. This program will be conducted by DOI Law Librarian Maureen Booth and Reference Librarian Shyamalika Ghoshal.
Advanced Legal Research on Lexis Advance
Thursday, July 18, 2013, 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
This program builds on the techniques presented in the “Lexis Advance: Introduction and New Features” class, emphasizing time-efficient and cost-effective searching. Legal researchers attending the class will be shown new methods that can be used to obtain supporting caselaw, statutes, law review and newspaper articles, as well as federal and state administrative materials. Participants will learn about advanced search techniques to make their research more efficient and hear about recently introduced services. The class will also cover choosing appropriate search types, Boolean operators and search syntax, and refining search results with limiters and search edit options. Instruction includes general search construction as well as techniques and options unique to the Lexis Advance platform. Attendees will discover new tools to help them keep track of their research and monitor developing areas of law. This program will be conducted by a LexisNexis trainer.
Please Note: This class is also being offered to remote users as a simultaneous online webinar via WebEx. Please contact the DOI Library by e-mail at library@ios.doi.gov for information on how to register for WebEx access to the class.
Introduction to Congress.gov
Wednesday, August 7, 2013, 10:00 am – 11:15 pm
Congress.gov, the successor to THOMAS.gov, is the new online resource for accessing free, fact-based United States legislative information. It is a collaborative effort by the Library of Congress, Senate, House of Representatives, and the Government Printing Office. Researchers can now search across all of the content in the system, refine their results, quickly see the status of a bill on a timeline, and view the new Member pages with sponsored and co-sponsored legislation. Additionally, the system is designed to dynamically fit any size screen being used, mobile, notebook, and/or computer. For many, a key feature is the use of durable URLs assigned to specific documents found in the database. Congress.gov is presently in the beta stage, so information from THOMAS is being migrated over in stages. The Congressional Record and the detailed list of Congressional actions per legislative bill were recently added. Other data, such as committee reports, nominations, and treaty information from the Senate Foreign Relations committee will be incorporated over time. When the migration is complete in late 2014, the older, more fragile THOMAS.gov will be retired. Please join Pamela Barnes Craig, Senior Legal Reference Librarian at the Law Library of Congress, for an introduction to the new Congress.gov website, its current and planned resources, and tips on how to best navigate this valuable online legislative service.
Searching Through the Invisible Web: Finding Hidden Resources on the Internet
Thursday, August 22, 2013, 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
It has been said that searching on the Internet today can be compared to dragging a net across the surface of the ocean; a great deal may be caught in the net, but there is a wealth of information that is below the surface and therefore missed. Most of the Web's information is buried far down on dynamically generated sites, and standard search engines do not find it. Traditional search engines cannot "see" or retrieve content in the “Invisible” or “Deep” Web – those pages do not exist until they are created dynamically as the result of a specific search. The Invisible Web is several orders of magnitude larger than the surface Web. This class will examine the type of information available on the mysterious "Invisible Web," how to access it, and why it is important. Learn why some information is inaccessible to web search engines and what might be overlooked in researching the Internet. Search techniques and recommended sources will also be covered. This program will be conducted by Reference Librarian Jennifer Klang.
Legislative History Research on WestlawNext
Thursday, September 5, 2013, 10:00 am – 11:15 am
Thomson Reuters’ WestlawNext online legal and legislative database has quickly become one of the primary online legal research services for lawyers and legal professionals in the United States. WestlawNext allows users to access tens of thousands of databases featuring full-text case law, state and federal statutes, administrative codes, newspaper and magazine articles, public records, law journals, law reviews, treatises, legal forms and other information resources. Attendees to this training program will learn how to use WestlawNext to find materials needed to complete a legislative history. These include materials like the Statutes at Large, Congressional Record, and House and Senate Reports, all used to find the intent behind a piece of legislation. This class will be taught by a Westlaw representative.
Please Note: This class is also being offered to remote users as a simultaneous online webinar via WebEx. Please contact the DOI Library by e-mail at library@ios.doi.gov for information on how to register for WebEx access to the class.
The ProQuest Congressional Database: Introduction and New Features
Wednesday, September 18, 2013, 10:00 am – 11:15 am
The ProQuest Congressional service (available to DOI employees at their desktops through the Library’s website), provides users with efficient, targeted access to a comprehensive online collection of historic and current congressional information. This collection includes the full text of congressional publications, finding aids, a bill tracking service, and the full text of public laws and other research materials to enable both novice and experienced researchers to complete many types of research projects using a single, user-friendly interface. Attendees to this class will learn how to access and use digitized collections of these materials; featuring searchable access to current and historic Congressional reports, Congressional hearings, Congressional Research Service (and earlier Legislative Reference Service) reports, as well as Congressional Committee Prints. They will also learn search techniques that can be used to locate digitized copies of these materials essential in conducting thorough legislative history research. This program will be conducted by a ProQuest trainer.
Please Note: This class is also being offered to remote users as a simultaneous online webinar via WebEx. Please contact the DOI Library by e-mail at library@ios.doi.gov for information on how to register for WebEx access to the class.
Compiling a Federal Legislative History – A Step By Step Example for Advanced Researchers
Wednesday, October 2, 2013, 10:00 am – 11:15 am
In order to find the legislative intent of a bill or public law, researchers need to compile reports, testimony, debate, and other materials related to that piece of legislation to find keys as to what Congress hoped to accomplish by passing the bill. The final compilation of all these materials provides the researcher with a "legislative history" of the bill or law in question and hopefully will answer the question of what Congress intended with this legislation. Those familiar with legislative history research who are interested in learning advanced processes used in compiling a federal legislative history will find this program invaluable. A specific Public Law will be the focus of a step-by-step piecing together of a legislative history, using print resources such as the U.S. Statutes at Large, Congressional Record, and U.S. Congressional Serial Set. Online sources of federal legislative history information will also be highlighted. This program will be conducted by DOI Law Librarian Maureen Booth and Reference Librarian Shyamalika Ghoshal.
HeinOnline: Introduction and New Features
Tuesday, October 22, 2013, 10:00 am – 11:15 am
HeinOnline is Hein’s premier online research product with more than 90 million pages of legal history available in an online, fully-searchable, image-based format. HeinOnline bridges the gap in legal history by providing comprehensive coverage from inception of more than 1,600 law and law-related periodicals. In addition to its vast collection of law journals, HeinOnline also contains the Congressional Record Bound volumes in entirety, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754, famous world trials dating back to the early 1700's, all United States Treaties, the Federal Register from inception in 1936, the CFR from inception in 1938, and much more. HeinOnline provides exact page images of the documents in PDF format just as they appear in the original print. This means that all charts, graphs, tables, pictures, hand written notes, photographs, and footnotes appear where they belong! What makes HeinOnline unique aside from its image-based PDF content is its historical value and the availability of titles back to their inception. This class will introduce the holdings of the HeinOnline database and offer searching tips and techniques to help the user find information held in its many library collections. This program will be taught by a William S. Hein Company trainer.
LexisAdvance: Introduction and New Features
Wednesday, November 6, 2013, 10:00 am – 11:15 am
Lexis Advance delivers an unmatched set of legal, news, business and analytical content that professionals trust. Content is delivered within a single intuitive interface that includes: pre- and post-filters, folders for storing and sharing, research history, alerts and 24/7 customer support. Lexis Advance includes exclusive tools such as integrated results from the open Web where users can search the open Web along with content from Lexis simultaneously; a visual and intuitive Workplace Carousel interface that enables the user to store search history, save recent and favorite filters, access work folders, set up alerts and access customer service; and a Legal Issue Trail that allows users to find and cite connections between cases that may not be obvious. Lexis Advance also includes a graphical depiction of prior research history as well as a Shepard’s Graphical feature showing the history of citing decisions in an easy visual grid or map format. Attendees will be taught by a LexisNexis trainer how to maneuver through this updated, user-friendly platform to find the search results they need.
Please Note: This class is also being offered to remote users as a simultaneous online webinar via WebEx. Please contact the DOI Library by e-mail at library@ios.doi.gov for information on how to register for WebEx access to the class.
Useful Federal Resources on the Web
Thursday, November 21, 2013, 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm
While the Internet can be a great resource for federal documents, it is often difficult to know what trustworthy sites to go in order to find the official materials that you are looking for. Many websites proclaiming themselves to be an authoritative source for federal government information actually have out of date or just factually incorrect information. Finding those that are relevant and reliable can often be a difficult task. Join Interior Library Head of Reference Services Jennifer Klang on this tour of valuable and reliable sources of federal information on the Internet. Websites from the Library of Congress, the Government Printing Office, the University of Oklahoma, and the U.S. Census Bureau will be among those featured in this course. Designed for both the beginning and advanced searcher, attendees will learn about resources for scientific reports, legislative documents, statistical information, Native American documents, and other useful items.
WestlawNext: Introduction and New Features
Wednesday, December 4, 2013, 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm
Thomson Reuters WestlawNext online legal research service permits users to search for legal, legislative, news, and business content without first selecting a database, allowing one to click checkboxes to select the jurisdiction and nature of material wanted. Its new search algorithm, referred to as WestSearch, is perhaps the world's most advanced legal research engine, executing a federated search across multiple content types. Users can enter descriptive terms or Boolean connectors and select a jurisdiction. Search results are ranked by relevance. WestlawNext also supports retrieving documents by citation, party name, or KeyCite reference. An overview page enables users to see the top results per content type, or to view all results for a particular content type. Filters can also be applied to refine the result list even further. On the results page, users can also see links to related secondary sources relevant to their research. WestlawNext also provides folders for storing and sharing portions of the research selected by the user. Attendees will be taught by a Thomson Reuters trainer how to maneuver through this new, user-friendly platform to find the search results they need.
Please Note: This class is also being offered to remote users as a simultaneous online webinar via WebEx. Please contact the DOI Library by e-mail at library@ios.doi.gov for information on how to register for WebEx access to the class.
EBSCOHost’s Academic Search Premier Database: Introduction and New Features
Tuesday, December 17, 2013, 10:00 am - 11:15 am
EBSCOHost’s Academic Search Premier is a multi-disciplinary database originally designed for academic institutions but also now commonly seen in many federal libraries. With a large collection of peer-reviewed full-text journals, the database offers information in nearly every area of academic study including: computer sciences, engineering, biology, history, physics, chemistry, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, ethnic studies, and many more. More than 8,000 journals are indexed and full text is provided for more than 4,500. Most are peer reviewed, offering critical information from many sources unique to this database. Searchable cited references are provided for selected titles. Attendees to this session will be introduced to the Academic Search Premier database by an EBSCOHost trainer, learn about the resources included in the database, and will be taught searching tips and techniques that allow the user to efficiently find the information that he or she requires.
Please Note: This class is also being offered to remote users as a simultaneous online webinar via WebEx. Please contact the DOI Library by e-mail at library@ios.doi.gov for information on how to register for WebEx access to the class.