Shh! Here's a Reference "Secret Weapon" Worth Your Bookmark
By Michael Saint-Onge
I’ve always loved spy movies, especially the suspense scenes when the hero appears to be in an impossible situation. The tension grows, “that” music swells, and you’re balancing on the edge of your seat. Just when you’re sure there’s no hope, out pops some secret weapon that ultimately saves the day.
While it’s a little less dramatic in real life, I also love relying on those secret weapons to get myself out of a reference “dead end.” You know the kind I am talking about? Let’s say an attorney asks you an impossible reference question, and yet you deliver the answer to him within the hour? I love that! As librarians, we’re trained to use whatever resources we can access to ferret out the answer to even the toughest reference questions.
(It would be interesting to poll law librarian colleagues to uncover their favorite secret weapon. Law-lib? Zimmerman’s Research Guide on LexisNexis InfoPro at www.lexisnexis.com/infopro/zimmerman? The local county law library? There are lots of wonderful resources available!)
I have a secret weapon when it comes to all things LexisNexis: It is the LexisNexis at lexis.com® Knowledge Base. This is the site our very own Customer Support Professionals use to answer questions, and you have access to it at http://support.lexisnexis.com/lexiscom. (Bookmark it now. I guarantee you’ll be back!) You can also link to the Knowledge Base from within www.lexis.com. Click the online Help link. The Knowledge Base link is at the top left.
If you’re looking for search assistance, this site has links to valuable search tips, organized by topic (including company & financial, public records, and reference & directories), as well as several areas of law. If you’re looking for common segment descriptions for case law, news, statutes, and those ever-challenging financial documents, you’ll find those here as well.
There is also a link to the searchable Directory of Online Sources (the Source Locator), where you can search for sources by area of law, type of publication, even by publisher. And there is a link to Lexis® Search Advisor, which will lead you to on-point case law, treatises and law reviews. If you need help explaining to a patron how to use the LexisNexis® Case Summaries and LexisNexis® Headnotes, there is a link here to a helpful outline.
In addition to searching, this site offers technical assistance. Having trouble with signing on—or with your password? The Knowledge Base offers help screens that will walk you through the processes. There are links to general Internet troubleshooting, including a step-by-step guide to clearing your browser’s cache memory, a description of error messages you might have received, and an outline of how to adjust your browser font or text size. It even has a link to a browser utility that can show you your current system’s settings and the version of software you’re running.
If you’re having trouble printing or downloading from lexis.com, check out the Document Delivery links. There’s even an outline on how to print the full text of legislative documents.
Or check out the link to the LexisNexis InfoPro Web site and an in-depth explanation of LexisNexis SmartIndexing Technology™, the controlled vocabulary that lets you zero in on relevant results. Talk about a secret weapon!
