Online resources

Some student texts are now available as electronic books (ebooks) which can be downloaded and read on computers and other electronic devices. Companion websites providing updating services between editions, online access to individual or sample chapters of books and study advice are increasingly common and are a good starting point for exploring the style and contents of a particular book before buying it.

Most of the journals held by college and university libraries are also accessible online as subscription services. You are likely to have access to some of these via intranet or Internet portals (also known as gateways), but since the range of relevant journals will vary from one institution to another, all that can usefully be said here is that you should familiarise yourself with what is available to you.

Additionally, there are some online journals and information resources which are freely accessible to anyone with access to an Internet connection, as we will now demonstrate. However, we can do no more that give a brief taste of what the Internet has to offer. With this mind, and also having regard to the fact that the content of the Internet is rapidly changing, we will focus on websites and portals which are part of established academic projects, and are therefore likely to be available for some time.

One useful starting point is the Lawlinks website (available at kent.ac.uk/lawlinks), maintained by the University of Kent at Canterbury. This site is organised by subject headings and provides an annotated list of websites.

Although very few full-text journals are available free online, the Electronic Law Journals Project based at the University of Warwick does provide free access to two current titles. These are Law, Social Justice and Global Development Journal (available at www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/lgd) and the Entertainment and Sports Law Journal (available at www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/eslj). Both journals are peer-reviewed and full-text versions of articles published in them are available free to download and print.

Finally, two general points might be usefully made. First, one consequence of the fact that the best online resources are regularly updated is that links and URLs do not always endure in the same way as paper-based materials. Secondly, the accuracy of a great deal of information posted online is questionable. Taking these points together, you need, therefore, to consider keeping copies of valuable resources you discover online (in case they are gone when you next visit the site); and to develop a critical approach to using online sources. A useful resource for developing an effective and evaluative approach to online research is the set of interactive tutorials for legal research on the Intute website (available at www.vts.intute.ac.uk/he/tutorial/lawyers ).