Information about Tutorial and Short Classes

Information for Instructors
Information for Students

The S.J. Quinney Law Library offers Legal Research Short Classes to the University of Utah community at the request of a faculty member or instructor. Other groups may request Short Classes as time and scheduling allow. The Legal Research Short Class gives an overview of the basic legal research sources (Statutes, Court Opinions, Regulations and Secondary Sources) and how to find them. The Short Class consists of a web-based tutorial, lecture and optional walking tour of the Quinney Law Library

Information for Instructors

Short Classes

The Web-based tutorials are designed as a precurser to the Short Class and to accommodate different learning styles. The tutorials will familiarize students with core legal terminology and the basic structure and formats of legal materials to enhance their understanding of the Short Class lecture. The tutorial is also a free-standing resource that students can turn to when they have questions about various legal materials. Students are expected to have completed the tutorials before coming to the Short Class.

Students should also bring copies of the handouts that will be referred to during the lecture. The handouts can be found in the Information for Students section of this page.

Tours

If you would like an introduction to the S.J. Quinney Law Library and you do not have a legal research component to your class, we can arrange a Tour for you class. The Tour will take approximately 15 minutes and will cover all of the major parts of our collection. If your class has specific information needs the librarian arranging the Tour can work with you to modify the Tour to suit the focus of your class.

Requesting a Short Class or a Tour

If you are a faculty member or instructor and would like to request either a Short Class or a Tour please click on the appropriate link below.

Click here to request a Short Class

Click here to request a Tour

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Information for Students

The Legal Research Tutorials are designed to be a basic introduction to the structure and function of legal materials. The Legal Research Short Class is an intensive and information packed lecture. The class focuses more on research techniques and strategies and assumes a baseline understanding of basic research sources. Past experience has shown that students are generally not able to complete a detailed legal research assignment based solely on attendance of the Legal Research Short Class.

In addition, the Tutorials are designed to be a freestanding resource that you can use at your convenience to clarify any questions you may have concerning sources of law and legal materials.

Handouts

Please print out a copy of each of the following documents and bring them to class with you. You will need to refer to them during the lecture.

Overview of Sources of Law (use the back button to return to this page)

Using Academic Universe (use the back button to return to this page)

Understanding Legal Abbreviations (use the back button to return to this page)

Deciphering Citations (use the back button to return to this page)

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