IALS Library runs a number of free training sessions that all IALS Library academic members (student or teaching staff) are welcome to attend. In autumn 2021, we are running a mix of online and socially distanced face-to-face training sessions.
The autumn training programme is designed to introduce you to the library and its resources and to give you the opportunity to learn about some of the key databases for legal research in the UK. We encourage all new students to attend the Westlaw and Lexis Library sessions, the Introduction to OSCOLA and any others that are relevant to your research.
Anyone who is an IALS Library academic member can take part in the training, regardless of affiliation or level of study. If you have not joined IALS Library yet, you can find out how to register Access for Academic Users page of our website. All of the training listed on this page is free.
What does this session cover?
This 30 minute presentation will introduce you to the collections, service and facilities available in the Library. We will also explain how to access online databases for legal research. The talk includes:
Who is it for?
All postgraduate law students and academic researchers with a current IALS Library card or SAScard. Provisional library cards are also acceptable.
Where / when does it take place?
All of the autumn 2021 term sessions have taken place.
What do these sessions cover?
Lexis Library and Westlaw are the key databases you need to master for effective legal research in the UK. We run two introductory online sessions, one covering cases and legislation and the other covering journal articles and foreign & international materials. We highly recommend attending both of the sessions as you are very likely to need to be able to locate all of these materials during the course of your study or research. Alternatively, we are running some face-to-face training sessions in our library training room, which combine the content from both of the online sessions into a single "hands-on" class.
At these introductory sessions you will learn how to:
Who is it for?
All postgraduate law students and academic researchers with a current IALS Library card or SAScard. Provisional library cards are also acceptable.
Where / when does it take place?
Cases and Legislation (60 minutes)
All of the autumn 2021 term sessions have taken place.
Journal articles and Foreign & international materials (60 minutes)
All of the autumn 2021 term sessions have taken place.
Hand-on sessions (90 minutes)
The hands-on sessions combine everything that is covered in the above two webinars into a single practical session held in the IALS Library Computer & Training Room. Each attendee will have use of a PC and will be given the opportunity to put into practice what they have learnt with practical exercises.
All of the autumn 2021 term sessions have taken place.
What does this session cover?
OSCOLA stands for the Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities. At this session you will learn the basics of citing your references usingOSCOLA. This includes how to:
Who is it for?
All postgraduate law students and academic researchers with a current IALS Library card or SAScard who need to use OSCOLA to cite their work. Provisional library cards are also acceptable.
Where / when does it take place?
All of the autumn 2021 term sessions have taken place.
For more help with OSCOLA see our
What does this session cover?
This session will prepare you for researching public international law documentation. At this session we will explain how to:
Who is it for?
All postgraduate law students and academic researchers with a current IALS Library card or SAScard. Provisional library cards are also acceptable.
Where / when does it take place?
All of the autumn 2021 term sessions have taken place.
What does this session cover?
In this introductory session you will learn how to use legal databases to find legal journal articles. The session will help you to:
Who is it for?
All postgraduate law students and academic researchers with a current IALS Library card or SAScard. Provisional library cards are also acceptable.
Where / when does it take place?
All of the autumn 2021 term sessions have taken place.
For more help with Finding legal journal articles, see our finding legal journal articles tutorials