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State Law Library of Montana

Ask A Librarian

Local (406) 444-3660
In State: (800) 710-9827

    COMPUTER ACCESS

    Library Computers
    Wireless Network
    Databases

    Library Computers

    • Access
      The Law Library has six computers available for use by members of the public. Five of these computers are available on the first floor of the library and one wireless computer is located on the second floor. All of these computers are equipped with Microsoft Office products, free Internet access, and various databases that are available to library patrons. (Click here for more information on the databases available on library computers). During peak times of high use, you will be limited to a reasonable amount of computer use time, which will likely fluctuate to accommodate the needs of all of our users. If a patron needs to use a computer for legal research, we reserve the right to remove you from the library's computer if you are using it for non-legal research purposes. Computers are available from 8 a.m. until 4:55 p.m.

    • Printing
      All of the computers on the first floor are configured to print to the printer on the West wall near the main bank of public computers. Your first 5 pages of printing are free, and further printing costs $.10 per page. Please only print those pages that you intend to take with you and pay for. Please pay for printing charges at the Circulation Desk. Please be environmentally friendly and recycle all white printer paper in the recycling bin below the printer stand. If paper or toner is not available, contact the Circulation Desk.

    • Library Computer Rules and Policies
      • DO NOT DISCONNECT ANY LIBRARY HARDWARE in order to use your personal hardware (or for any other reason).
      • Only authorized software that is licensed by the library is permitted on the workstations. DO NOT LOAD YOUR OWN SOFTWARE OR DOWNLOAD SOFTWARE onto the library's computers without the prior permission of library staff.
      • DO NOT SAVE your work on the computer's hard drive. The library periodically cleans the hard drives of our computers and unauthorized files will be deleted. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOUR WORK IS LOST. We strongly advise you to save all of your work on personal diskettes or CD-Roms. If you need a diskette, please ask the Circulation Desk.
      • Please close all documents and applications upon leaving the computer. Do not leave computers with documents in progress, expecting to return at some future time.
      • Please respect the rights and sensibilities of all library users. Some Internet sites are inappropriate for viewing in a public setting. Users should refrain from the use of Internet sounds and visuals that may disrupt the ability of other library patrons to use the library and its resources.

      You may use the library's computers only for legal purposes. Examples of illegal uses include but are not limited to the following:

        • Display of obscene materials;
        • Harassment of other users or violation of their privacy;
        • Libeling, slandering or maliciously offending other users;
        • Violation of copyright laws or software licensing agreements;
        • Attempting to crash, degrade performance or gain unauthorized access to the State of Montana's network or to other computer systems and networks;
        • Damaging equipment, software or data belonging to the State of Montana or other users.
      Violations of these policies may result in the loss of Internet and/or library privileges. Illegal use of the computers also may be subject to prosecution by local, state, or federal authorities.

    Wireless Network

    • General Information
      The State Law Library is proud to offer free wireless internet access to any member of the public who brings in their wireless-enabled laptop computer. In addition, the law library has available two wireless network PC cards for checkout to patrons whose laptops lack wireless adapters.

      The law library's wireless internet service is configured to allow your computer to automatically detect and use the link without need for a password or any configuration of your computer. You will need to enter a user name of your choice and a telephone number. No other information is required. However, you will be required to sign an agreement acknowledging that you have read and understand the law library's wireless network policy before you will be allowed to connect to the service. These agreements are available at the Circulation Desk.

    • Authorized Use Policy
      In order to access the law library's wireless connection, you must agree to abide by the State's Authorized Use Policy. This policy will be displayed on your screen when you log in. If you would like a print copy of the policy, please ask and we will provide one.

    • Confidentiality
      The law library's wireless internet connection is not password protected and the information that you exchange with the network is not encrypted. Thus, your information could potentially be intercepted by users with malicious intent. If you have a firewall built into your system, you are strongly encouraged to enable it while connected to the law library's wireless network.

      Use of this wireless connection is entirely at the risk of the user and the library expressly disclaims all liability for loss of confidential information or damages resulting from that loss.

    • Using the Law Library's Wireless Cards
      In order to borrow a wireless card, you must leave your driver's license or state identification card at the Circulation Desk. It will be returned to you when you return the wireless card. To use one of the law library's wireless cards, you will need to install software onto your computer. Each wireless card comes with an installation CD and a short printed instruction sheet. More extensive instructions are available on the CD.

      The law library expressly disclaims all liability for any loss of data or damage to your laptop that may occur as a result of your installation of the wireless card or your configuration of the requisite software for your laptop.

    • Printing
      Printing is not available via the law library's wireless network. If you need to print, please save to a disk or email files to your web-based email, then use a library workstation to send your print jobs to the printer. Normal printing charges apply (first 5 pages free, $.10 per page thereafter). If you need a blank floppy disk for this purpose, please ask.

      Use of floppy disks provided by the law library is at your own risk.
      External Floppy drive is available for check out at the Circulation Desk.

    • Security
      We have laptop lock available for checkout. Again, you will need to leave a piece of identification with the Circulation Desk in order to borrow these items.

      The law library is not responsible for lost or stolen laptops, personal computers, their components, or any other items.

    Databases

    The Law Library subscribes to several online commercial databases that are available on the Law Library's computers. The following provides a brief introduction to these databases. For more information on the library's subscriptions, please contact the Reference Librarian.

    Library Catalog
    Free Public Westlaw
    Lexis Shephard's Online
    HeinOnline
    LegalTrac
    RIA Checkpoint
    Lexis Nexis State Capital Universe

    • Library Catalog
      Like the old card catalogs that libraries used to own, our online catalog allows you to find information about the books, documents, journals, sound recordings, and videos that the Law Library owns. Our catalog also links to many online resources as well.

      You can either search our catalog or browse it like you would scan the shelves in the library. The most popular ways to search or browse the collection are by title, author, or subject. You can search all of these at the same time by doing a "words and phrases" search instead. (Note: if you simply enter keywords in the searchbox and click "Enter," you will be performing a words and phrases search of the catalog). For each item in the catalog, you will be told where it is located in the library, its call number, and whether it is currently checked out.

      Because the State Law Library is part of the Montana Shared Catalog, a consortium of over 50 libraries throughout the State of Montana, you can also search the catalogs of the other member libraries through the link above. Just choose the libraries that you want to search from the drop-down menu in the search area.

      Please Note: Although our catalog can tell you whether we own a particular law review or legal journal, it cannot tell you what articles are included in that journal. For example, if you search our catalog for the Montana Law Review, you will see that we own Volumes 1 through 66 (1940-2005) of that journal. You will not be able to find out the titles or authors of the many articles in each of those 66 volumes. In order to find law review articles, you will need to use a different tool called an index to legal periodicals, such as HeinOnline or LegalTrac.

    • Free Public Westlaw
      The Law Library's computer workstations, as well as the public workstations in the 18th Judicial District Law and Justice Center in Bozeman and the 11th Judicial District Law and Justice Center in Kalispell, offer free, limited Westlaw access to our patrons.

      Through this program, you have access to databases containing:
      • All federal and state cases
      • All federal and state statutes, including historical statutes
      • All federal regulations and all available state regulations including the ARMs)
      • Selected administrative and executive materials
      • All state and federal court rules
      • All federal and state attorney general opinions
      • Selected legislative history materials, including the Congressional Record and U.S.C.C.A.N.
      • Selected journal and law review articles
      • American Law Reports (A.L.R.) 2d-6th and Fed/Fed2d
      • American Jurisprudence (Am. Jur.2d)
      • Restatements of Law
      • Corpus Juris Secundum (C.J.S.)
      • West Legal Bulletin (a current awareness tool)

      In addition, you have access to certain specialized libraries related to particular areas of law. These libraries contain various primary and secondary materials, including treatises and formbooks. The following subjects are included in the program:

      • Taxation
      • Environmental Law
      • Insurance Law
      • Social Security Claims
      • Real Property
      • Construction Law
      • Products Liability
      • Municipal Law
      • Medical Malpractice

    Westlaw also provides access to certain popular books, including:

      • Federal Procedure and Federal Procedural Forms
      • Couch on Insurance 3d including the Forms volume
      • Employment Coordinator and Employment Discrimination Coordinator
      • Merten's Law of Federal Income Taxation
      • Casey's Federal Tax Practice
      • Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice 2d, as well as other Norton bankruptcy publications.

    You can use Westlaw to search these libraries and books, to find documents by citation, to read or print those documents (printing charges may apply - for printing charges in the State Law Library, click here), or to update your research using KeyCite.

    To access Westlaw, double-click on the Free Westlaw icon on the Law Library's public computers. After you enter your search terms, you will be required to agree to a click-through user agreement. PLEASE READ THIS AGREEMENT CAREFULLY. According to our agreement with West, you may only read or print the items that you find on Westlaw. YOU MAY NOT DOWNLOAD OR EMAIL THE DOCUMENTS TO YOURSELF.

    • Lexis Shephard's Online
      Lexis Shephard's Online allows you to update your research by locating cases, opinions, statutes, and regulations that cite to the legal materials that you are relying on. Ask At Circulation for ID and Password.

    • HeinOnline
      HeinOnline is a database that contains five collections of full-text, digitized legal resources.
      • Law Journal Library: Contains full-text articles from over 650 academic legal periodicals (with licenses to work with over 1000 journals in the future), beginning with Volume 1 of each publication and working forward in time. At this time, HeinOnline is the only source for these early articles in digital format. Plus, all articles in HeinOnline are in .pdf format. As a result, each page appears exactly as it does in print format, with footnotes at the bottom of the page and with graphs, charts, and pictures in tact.
      • Federal Register Library: Provides full-text of the Federal Register from its inception in 1936 until 2005. This is the only source for early (pre-1980) regulations in digital format. This library also includes the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents.
      • United States Supreme Court Library: Contains United States Reports (1790-2002), recent Preliminary Prints and Slip Opinions, and the Guide to the Early Reports of the Supreme Court of the United States, a secondary source that covers U.S. Reports Vol. 1-90.
      • Treaties and Agreements Library: Hein claims that this library contains "all U.S. Treaties and Agreements, whether inforce, expired, or yet-to-be published." Also contains various secondary sources, including Treaties in Force, the Guide to the United States Treaties in Force, and the Current Treaty Index.
      • U.S. Attorney General Opinions Library: Contains the Official Opinions of the Attorneys General of the United States (Vol. 1-43, 1791-1982) as well as the Opinions of the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice (Vol. 1-20, 1977-1996).
      • Legal Classics Library: Contains the full-text of over 125 classic legal texts, including Blackstone's Commentaries; Bouvier's Law Dictionary and General Encyclopedia; Felix Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law; and the Writings of John Marshall.

    You can search the articles in HeinOnline by Author, Title, or Full-Text only. You can access HeinOnline by double-clicking on the icon on the Law Library computer's desktop. No password is necessary.

    • LegalTrac
      LegalTrac is an online index of post-1980 articles from all major law reviews, legal newspapers, specialty law publications, bar association journals and thousands of law-related articles from general interest publications. LegalTrac generally provides only a citation to materials; however, some entries contain abstracts of articles and selected full-text articles are also available.

      You can search articles in LegalTrac by Title, Author, Subject, and Keyword, among others. You can also search for a particular journal to see if it is indexed in LegalTrac. Because LegalTrac is an Index that includes subject headings for articles, you should be able to find more relevant articles and eliminate from your search results the many irrelevant articles that you would find doing a full-text search. In other words, you should find fewer, but better, articles. Plus, LegalTrac's coverage dates back to 1980 and pre-dates the time span that most law reviews are available on Westlaw and LexisNexis.

      To search LegalTrac, double-click on the icon on the Law Library computer's desktop and then enter the password, "state_log".

    • RIA Checkpoint
      RIA Checkpoint is an online tax service used by many tax practitioners. Checkpoint contains the RIA loosleaf services Federal Tax Coordinator and United States Federal Tax Reporter. It includes primary tax materials such as the Internal Revenue Code and final, temporary, and proposed regulations. It also provides access to the following:
      • Tax Court Decisions
      • Tax Court Memorandum Decisions
      • IRS Revenue Rulings
      • IRS Procedures
      • IRS Private Letter Rulings
      • IRS Actions on Decisions
      • IRS Notices
      • Journal of Corporate Taxation
      • Practical Tax Strategies
      • Journal of Taxation
      • United States Tax Treaties in Force

    You can access RIA Checkpoint by double-clicking on the RIA Checkpoint icon on your desktop. Ask At Circulation for ID and Password.

    • Lexis Nexis State Capital Universe
      Lexis Nexis State Capital Universe enables you to search various state government materials from all 50 states at once, or any combination of states that interests you. You can start by viewing the state legislative calendar for any state. If you know the document that you are looking for, you can find bill tracking reports, bills, statutes, administrative rules, and state register entries by citation. If not, you can search the following databases using keywords:
      • Bill tracking reports
      • Full-text of bills
      • Statutes
      • Martindale-Hubbell Law Digest
      • State Constitutions
      • Regulatory reports
      • Proposed regulations
      • State registers
      • Administrative codes
      • State Net Capitol Journals (for public policy analysis)
      • National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) LegisBriefs
      • NCSL State Legislatures Magazine
      • NCSL State Legislative Reports
      • State Newspapers of Record
      • State Legislative Directory

      You can access this database by double-clicking on the State Capital Universe icon on the Law Library computer's desktop. No password is necessary.