MyHein, A Personal Research Tool for HeinOnline

HeinOnline is one of several legal research databases available at the Harris County Law Library. Its digitized collection of law journals is the very best source for comprehensive, up-to-date, full-text legal scholarship. It's an excellent resource for a number of other publications as well, including United States Congressional documents, federal legislative histories, state session laws, legal classics, treaties and agreements, restatements, and so much more. If you haven't used HeinOnline, we'll be happy to help you navigate the available content and to take advantage of all the database's best features, including a relatively new tool called MyHein.

MyHein is a personal research tool that allows you to bookmark articles, save search queries, and set up eTOC alerts. The MyHein User Guide is a four-page document that details (1) how to set up your MyHein account and (2) start using it to create personal libraries of saved content for later access and retrieval. Content includes any of the articles, documents, books, reports, or journals available in HeinOnline. That means the entire database is yours to bookmark, track, and save. Additionally, MyHein is portable, meaning that you can log on to your personal account at any subscribing institution and still have access to your bookmarked items and saved search queries wherever you are. If you've dowloaded the HeinOnline app for your iPhone or Android device, you can even access the database -- and your MyHein account -- remotely. 

To gain remote access to HeinOnline via the HeinOnline app, first download the program to your device. Click here for Android or here for the iPhone. Then, visit the Harris County Law Library to authenticate your device through our HeinOnline subscription. Once IP authenticated, your device will be able to access the database from any location for 30 days. At the end of that period, visit us again to re-authenticate and never be without access to MyHein and HeinOnline!

December is Small Business Resource Month

Today is the first day of Small Business Resource Month at the Harris County Law Library. Throughout December, we will highlight resources, tailored for solo and small firm attorneys, who own, operate, manage, or advise small businesses. The following are just a few of the featured resources available in our collection:

• Small Business Toolkit from the Texas Young Lawyers Association
• Advising Small Business / Steven C. Alberty, West, 2014 (Call No. KF1659 .A94)
• How to Manage Your Law Office / Mary Ann Altman & Robert I. Weil, Matthew Bender, 2014 (KF 318 .A758)

Additional resources for small businesses can be found online at the links below.

• Texas Secretary of State Business Basics website
• U.S. Small Business Administration website
• University of Houston Small Business Development Center website, where you can download a free copy of the Guide to Starting a Business in Texas.

Legal Resources and Services for Veterans

Veterans Law Resource Month at the Harris County Law Library is coming to an end. All month long, we've featured legal research materials throughout the Law Library, including the following:

• Federal forms for veterans
• Code of Federal Regulations (Title 38: Veterans Affairs) 
• 2017 Veterans Benefits Handbook from the Department of Veterans Affairs 

We've also spotlighted a few of our online resources including the Veterans Legal Aid Portal from TexasLawHelp.org and military law titles available through HeinOnline.

All of these research tools will continue to be available in our collection and online. In addition, veterans can find a variety of services from organizations such as Lone Star Legal Aid, the Texas Veterans Commission, the Texas Legal Services Center, the State Bar of Texas, the Houston Bar Association, and the Texas Veterans Legal Assistance Project.

Updated Legal Research Guides

When conducting research in an unfamiliar area of the law, one of the best resources for getting started is a pathfinder or resource guide. The Harris County Law Library has a number of helpful guides on a variety of legal topics in the most commonly practiced areas of the law: Family Law, Probate, Real Estate, Labor and Employment, and Civil and Criminal Litigation.

Two additional Research Guides -- Law Practice Management and Attorney Networking Resources -- were created specifically with solo and small firm legal practitioners in mind, and yet another guide, Recursos en Español, was written just for Spanish speakers. 

To access all of these Research Guides, please visit our dedicated webpage where links to all ten of the guides are posted. Open each link to view a full-page, printable PDF of every title in the collection. For help locating any of these resources in print or online via our Westlaw, Lexis, HeinOnline, and O'Connor's legal database subscriptions, please stop by the Reference Desk for assistance from our friendly staff. 

Legal Tech Institute CLE: Finding & Formatting Legal Forms

Please join us for the next Legal Tech Institute CLE, Finding & Formatting Legal Forms, on Thursday, October 26th at 12:00 noon. Presenters will guide attendees in using three of the most popular legal databases -- Westlaw, Lexis, and O’Connor’s -- to locate legal forms. In the second part of the program, presenters will edit one of the forms found in one of the three legal research databases to demonstrate the use of various formatting features in Microsoft Word.

PLEASE NOTE: The location of this CLE has changed. It will be held in the Conference Room on the 17th floor of Congress Plaza at 1019 Congress, Houston, TX 77002. Please see the announcement for further details and to register for this program.