Electronic Resources Directory

Welcome to the wonderful land of Study Aids!
[Average time to read: 5 minutes]

If you're new to law school or law-related study aids, you are in the right place! If you're not new, you're still in the right place, especially if you never received instruction on study aids. The time it takes to read this short introduction to study aids will more than pay off later, maybe even later today, because it will give you a much stronger understanding of study aids and how/when/why to use them.  

Should you use a study aid? It depends! Do you want to improve and deepen your understanding of a subject? Did you read your casebook or textbook and fail to clearly grasp a concept or judicial opinion? Are you looking for essay, short answer, or multiple-choice questions to test your newly acquired knowledge? Based on your learning style, does it help you to learn about the same concept or subject from multiple sources? If you answered yes to any of those questions, then study aids are for you! Even if you didn't answer yes, they're still probably for you, you just don't know it yet!

What is a study aid? Broadly, a study aid is anything—beyond your brain and the assigned text—that helps you with studying and understanding your assignments. For some people, that might be comfy socks. Or Wikipedia. Or exercise. Or pen and paper. Or listening to dubstep. And while those can be important, what we're focusing on here are informational study aids. That means textual or multimedia materials specifically designed for law students (or lawyers) to use to supplement their academic studies.

Where do I get a study aid? There are a LOT of choices out there! Most academic or large bookstores will have them available for purchase, as will publishers, if you would like to have a personal copy. Older editions can often be found at bargain rates, but you run the risk of those resources containing outdated legal principles. Further, if you want to get one or two study aids for each class you are in, that cost is going to add up quickly. Luckily, both the UBalt Law Library and the UBalt Law Office of Academic Success have resources available to help mitigate those costs.

Digital: The first two resources we offer our law students are digital study aids accessible through our databases, West Academic Study Aids and Aspen Learning Library, links to which can be found below. Both of these databases contain free-to-you digital versions of the latest editions of popular—and proven—study aids. Some materials in those collections are also offered in audio or video format, and/or have digital quizzes.

Print: Prefer items in print? The Law Library's Reference/Reserve collection, located on the 7th Floor (the Reading Room left of Circulation), consists of course reserves, reference materials, and other heavily-used items, including study aids! You are welcome to use the materials in the Reading Room or to check them out on an hourly basis. The Academic Success Resource Library—located on the 5th floor near Room 544—is available to current law students who are welcome to check out any book for a period of a few days, relying on the honor system. Regardless of where you borrow a print study aid from, and particularly for materials that have study questions/quizzes, please think of the other students and do not write in the book! 

Which study aid should I use? There are often many study aids to choose among for each subject, especially for common law school courses. Not all study aids are equally useful, nor are they one size fits all. The study aids that you choose should be ones that you are willing to use and that you find the most helpful for learning the relative material. Some prefer the humor and brevity that is common with Short & Happy materials; others might prefer the systematic approach of Examples & Explanations, also known as E&Es, and the related multiple-choice questions they provide that tests your newly acquired knowledge. Still others might prefer the extreme level of depth and detail offered by a hornbook or treatise—a hornbook or treatise is a material that focuses on one topic, or subtopic, and does so very thoroughly. A treatise might be exactly what a 2L or 3L—or practicing lawyer or law professor—needs, but it could potentially confuse a 1L. If you need help in selecting a study aid that is both relevant to your subject and accessible for your knowledge level and you do not find this guide to be helpful—analysis paralysis is real!—don't hesitate to ask a Law Librarian or the Office of Academic Success to help you select the right material for your task.

UBalt Law Library's provides access to digital study aids that can be used by current law students, faculty, and staff. That means that once a student graduates, they will no longer be able to access any of these materials, including the bar prep materials.
Using the links below will allow you to access these resources through our proxy URLs.

What is a proxy/proxy URL? A proxy URL is just a technical way of saying that a URL (a web link) has been configured to check whether a computer has permission to access the website/database located at that URL. Proxy URLs are used for any databases that are limited to specific users, such as those with UBalt or UBalt Law credentials. If you are on a campus internet connection you will barely notice the proxy. If you are not using a campus internet connection you may be prompted by the proxy server to enter your UBalt netID; that's a technical way of saying the computer is acting like a bouncer trying to verify your age before letting you into a bar or club (the database)—instead of giving a bouncer an ID card, you need to provide the proxy server with your UBalt netID. Once you do, you should have no issues! Note, some databases do require you to login using on-campus internet for the first time.

Quick Reference to Popular Study Aid Titles