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UC Hastings College of the Law Library Implements New Online Search and Article Access
UC Hastings College of the Law Library is providing its faculty and students with expanded online article access and advanced search capabilities, including the ability to search and access articles from ProQuest, Google Scholar, and HeinOnline's Core Collections. The library has installed Encore Synergy to provide a single search interface to access over 40 million pages of legal history, more than 1,500 law and related periodicals, as well as the library's print collection.
Encore Synergy enables library patrons to search current scholarly and popular articles, local books, e-books, specialized digital collections, institutional repositories, and more. Users simply enter their search terms, and Encore immediately returns a list of books, articles, and other media relevant to the search criteria, complete with direct links to digital media available online.
"As far as searching features, the faculty wants a deep subject area search, whereas students generally want a broader view of 'what exists out there' in terms of a particular subject," said Marlene Bubrick, technical services librarian at UC Hastings College of Law Library. "Keyword searching is the route students take, and the new advanced search is a great tool for librarians."
Faceted search is a method of searching by applying multiple filters to narrow the parameters, a feature provided by Encore Synergy. "For all our users, faceting helps them drill down to what they need," said Bubrick. "Faceting for HeinOnline is particularly helpful because there are so many titles in that resource."
UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco serves more than 1,337 students. Founded in 1878, it was the first law department of the University of California. Its law library houses more than 650,000 volumes and includes an extensive collection of United States and international materials, as well as federal and California government documents.
UC Hastings College of the Law Library's implementation of Encore Synergy is available through the UC Hastings site. Further information about Encore Synergy is available at encoreforlibraries.com.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at leilameyer@gmail.com.