Each topic page collects all the news, reference and archival information, photos, graphics, audio and video files published on topics ranging from Madonna to Myanmar[…]

Times Topics also includes links to key documents, speeches and reports.  You can find Topic pages by using the alphabetical index at the top of page, by clicking on hyperlinks within news stories or by entering terms in the website search bar. 

This is an excellent start for research on “more than 14,000 subjects.”  Some topics like the Credit Crisis, are covered more thoroughly than others like Organic Gardening; however all include links to archived news stories going back to 1981.

An executive summary can be viewed at the blog of Stanford’s Advanced Legal Research Instructors, Legal Research Plus, and the report can be viewed here: Law Librarians and LexisNexis vs. Westlaw: Survey Results. 

Sources used for the research include primary sources such as newspapers, books, etc., and “trusted references” such as  The Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition and The Historial Dictionary of American Slang, First Edition, according to the web site.

Thanks to David King, who wrote about it in an article published in the July/August 2008 Information Today, Fun Site Traces Origins of “Riding Shotgun,” p. 37.

The Lexis field restrictor atleast requires that your terms appear a minimum number of times in a document.  The following search will retrieve cases that mention the phrase “bad faith” five times: atleast5(bad faith).

For Westlaw, put your search terms in the search box and click on the Term Frequency button to the right of the search box.  A list of your search terms is displayed, each with a drop-down box listing an at least number.  Select the terms you want to restrict and the corresponding numbers.  Click here for Westlaw Term Frequency instructions and a screen shot.

At this time, you’ll only find Westlaw’s Term Frequency button in case law, news and secondary sources.  It’s not available in statutes, administrative codes, public records or pretrial documents such as briefs or pleadings.

Meanwhile, there are dozens of places to explore the many facets of search, but here are a couple you may want to check out: ResourceShelf and SearchEngineLand.

For more on the topic, check out this article from Scientific American, U.S. Lacks Plan for Digital TV Switch: Study.

The change, according to The Times, was that “many more readers started coming to the site from search engines and links on other sites instead of coming directly to NYTimes.com.  These indirect readers, unable to get access to articles behind the pay wall and less likely to pay subscription fees than the more loyal direct users, were seen as opportunities for more page views and increased advertising revenue.”

“What wasn’t anticipated was the explosion in how much of our traffic would be generated by Google, by Yahoo and some others,” said Vivian L. Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of the site, NYTimes.com.

So, Lexis or Westlaw may be perfect for searching across the archives of a number of newspapers at once, but if you are looking specifically for a New York Times article, check the NYTimes.com first.  You may just find it for free.

Another source to check is the New Jersey Court Guides at the web site of the New Jersey Law Journal.

Although these guides are not updated past the date of publication, they are based on interviews with the judges and include reviews of significant cases presided over by them.  A subscription to the New Jersey Law Journal is required for access.

Guide to the New Jersey Supreme Court, February 16, 2004

Guide to the Superior Court Appellate Division, March 15, 2002.

And don’t forget, information about their temperament and judicial philosphy can often be gleaned from the opinions they’ve written.   To find opinions written by a particular judge, select the appropriate court database in Lexis or Westlaw and use the following fields in your search:

Lexis:         writtenby(smith)

Westlaw:   op(smith)

If you have a membership cards for your local library, such as the Free Library of Philadelphia, you can access databases and services covering news, biographies, science, and more, from home or work. From the Free Library’s site, you may even download audiobooks and music to your pc and transfer to your MP3 player.  Click here for a list of databases available at the Free Library.  You are eligible for a membership card if you “live, work, pays taxes, or go to school in the City of Philadelphia.”  Click here to apply for a card, or check out your local libray today!

If you’re wondering what your Congressperson has been up to lately, you can spend hours poring over hard-to-find government databases. Or you can visit a brand new website, where it’s all in one place…

They discuss Thomas, the government’s source for congressional information, and how OpenCongress.org, differs from it, including the addition of an RSS feed to track changes to a bill.  Another excellent story from NPR, and worth a look or listen.

• Four Little-Known Google Tools from BatesInfo;
• Simply Google from Usability Views; and
• Google’s own Advanced Search screen.

If you want to pursue the history of a law to determine the intent of the legislature, the New Jersey State Library is the place to go.  Legislative histories back to 1998 are available online.  Histories prior to 1998 are available from the Law Library.

• GPO’s Catalog of US Government Publications
• Bankrate.com for finance and investing
• The Online Books Page for online books.

 Thanks to Librarian in Black for reporting on this one.