Library Resources – HeinOnline
Library Resources – Rangefindr
Library Resources – vLex
Pinpointing Searches with Enhanced Faceting
Searching for something and not finding any answers is unfortunate, but finding too many answers can be just as frustrating.
Most of us are familiar with performing simple searches. If you need to know something, you can just open up your favorite search engine and ask it a question. If your search results come back with thousands or hundreds of thousands of results, chances are you’ll just look at the first few hits. If you’re desperate, you go to the second page. Part of the library’s work is finding ways to perform better, more efficient searches.
Luckily there are a couple of options to help narrow those results down and make them more relevant. One way is to include Boolean Operators to create a search string that limits the search in a very specific way. But what if your search string is too long and confusing, or you don’t how how to create one? Another option is to limit those results after the search. HeinOnline has made that even easier with new Enhanced Faceting.
Facets are a really helpful way to improve a search that gives too many results. Instead of starting with a complicated search, you can limit the search results afterwards to make the list smaller. This method is important because it helps you find what you need more accurately by customizing your search. It also saves time by avoiding the need to go through a lot of irrelevant or unnecessary results. After your search, you can select filters in various categories to focus on relevant aspects, or weed out unnecessary results.
The nice thing about the HeinOnline version is that it is done in real-time so you can see how the results will be filtered.
Try it yourself next time your searching in HeinOnline. If you ever need help finding something, or would like assistance in learning how to use this, or other databases, contact us at Library@Lawsociety.mb.ca.
New ‘Criminal Law Series’ Online Platform
Our collection of Emond’s Criminal Law Series has moved to it’s new home on the digital VitalSource platform. These eBooks are still available through the Library Resources section of the Member’s Portal, but they have been improved with a new reader interface.
Simply log in to the portal and, in the library resources section, click on the Criminal Law Series image to get started.
When accessing the new platform, users may be greeted with a log in screen. Simply choose “Continue without an account” to gain access to the collection
Navigate over to the “Explore” tab to see the entire Emond’s Criminal Law Series. Click on a title and the “Open book” option to start reading. A helpful pop-up will appear to explain the icons and features available when reading.
Members can also register their own account to save bookmarks, annotations, and preferences, or download the app on desktop or mobile for offline reading.
Free webinar on vLex and Vincent AI
There has been a lot of talk about AI programs in the news lately, and it may surprise some law society members to know that they have access to one of these powerful tools with vLex and the ‘Vincent’ AI.
The library will be hosting three online training sessions for vLex with instruction on how to use the platform and its features . These webinars will also cover vLex’s AI ‘Vincent’, explaining how this powerful tool assists with legal research, analyzes documents and automatically generates headnotes from decisions.
Sign up below and scroll down for more information.
Session 1 Vincent/AI Webinar: Tuesday May 30th at 1 pm CT
Register in advance for this webinar
Session 2 Navigating the vLex Platform with a focus on Irwin Law Webinar: Tuesday June 13th at 1 pm CT
Register in advance for this webinar
Session 3 vLex Platform Walkthrough Webinar (Vincent AI, Navigating the Platform, Irwin Law): Tuesday June 27th at 1 pm CT
Register in advance for this webinar
What is Vincent?
By combining human search behaviour with machine speed, Vincent enables you to go beyond traditional research methods. With its easy-to-use technology, this cross-jurisdictional assistant helps you to:
- Quickly interact with global legal information
- Save valuable research time
- Extract key legal issues from cases
- Access automatically generated headnotes on
- millions of cases
- Improve the quality of your work by ensuring no
- important documents are missed due to human error.
Importantly, Vincent recognizes legal documents from over 30 countries, in both English and Spanish. As well as finding all in-text references, Vincent also finds documents that are semantically similar, on the same points of law, and also in other jurisdictions, to help lawyers build better arguments using on-point cases and persuasive authorities.
Vincent AI Case Analysis
vLex has enhanced Vincent AI’s capabilities to include a new feature called Case Analysis. Vincent, using large-scale language models, can now read cases, extract key information, and automatically produce summarized headnotes – helping legal professionals understand the important issues addressed in a judgment at a glance.
Irwin Law E-Library
The Irwin Law e-book collection brings an innovative approach to legal publishing that does more than outline the current state of the law. Containing over 300 e-books, this collection analyses the complex issues of the day in a succinct and readable style, and in a manner that is probing and thoughtful. With a focus on Canadian law as well as some international topics, the Irwin law collection covers a wide range of practice areas.
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