How do I navigate the Law Library's Legal Research Guides?

The Law Library of Congress has created over 300 research guides to help users narrow their searches for resources on a wide variety of legal topics. The Law Library’s research guides are a useful source for beginning legal research, as they organize print and digital resources on specific research subjects in one place.

The collection includes guides for conducting basic legal research, such as Legal Research: A Guide to Case Law and Federal Statutes: A Beginner’s Guide, and guides to researching legal subjects that patrons often have questions about, such as Family Law: A Beginner’s Guide and Landlord-Tenant Law: A Beginner’s Guide.

There is also a collection of research guides dedicated to U.S. state and international research, the Guide to Law Online. The Guide to Law Online: The United States has guides for every U.S. state and territory, with links to resources for each branch of the state or territory’s government and to other legal guides for the jurisdiction. The Guide to Law Online: Nations of the World compiles legal resources for over 200 international jurisdictions.

To help researchers familiarize themselves with these resources, the Law Library has created a brief video on how to navigate the research guide collection.

Please contact us through Ask A Librarian if you have questions about this resource, or other Law Library of Congress collections.

You can watch the video here:

View Media

Learn More

Law Library of Congress

Established by Congress in 1832, the Law Library has a collection of over 2.65 million volumes spanning the ages and covering virtually every jurisdiction in the world.

Law Library Research Guides

View guides created for topics ranging from law basics to the Supreme Court.

In Custodia Legis

The official blog of the Law Library.

@LawLibCongress External

News and information from the Law Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

@Congressdotgov External

Tweets about Congress.gov, the U.S. legislative information system.

Additional Ways to Contact Us

Send written correspondence to:

The Law Library of Congress
101 Independence Avenue S.E.
Washington, DC 20540-4860

(202) 707-5079

Please Note

We cannot provide legal advice, interpretation, or analysis which could be interpreted as the practice of law; extensive bibliographies or legislative histories; or answers for student homework assignments.

Frequently Asked Questions: Law Library of Congress