ElectronicDatabases
The Internet may be viewed as one enormous database, and Lexis and Westlaw aggregate an extensive amount of legal material in databases. These range from federal and state cases, to statutes and administrative material, to secondary legal authorities such as the Restatements and treatises to services that are essentially case finders like ALR and Am Jur. But there is a wide range of premium material that is not available in these sources, or at least not available in a user-friendly way.
For example, neither Lexis nor Westlaw goes back before 1980 in law reviews, and the law review articles they do publish are difficult to read in electronic format. Not so with HeinOnline, which reproduces articles from every imaginable law review from the beginning, exactly as they appeared in print. SSRN and Bepress offer yet-unpublished scholarship, as well as past articles, usually in pdf or Word format. These and other sources may be found on our Journals page.
This is only the tip of the electronic iceberg. The Rodino Library subscribes to a variety of such electronic resources for your use, most of which are available without a password from within the building; but are also accessible (albeit password required) from anywhere in the world.