Monday, February 27, 2012

Trial Access to International Encyclopaedia of Laws Online

For one week only, the Duke community can test out online access to the International Encyclopaedia of Laws via Kluwer Online. Scroll down to the list of available topics in order to access the full text. The trial will be active until Friday, March 2; up to 10 users may be logged in at one time.

As described in the library’s research guide to Foreign & Comparative Law, this large set of looseleaf volumes is divided into particular topics. Each topical set is edited by practitioners in the field, and provides a general overview as well as country-specific monographs which describe individual nations’ legislation and case law on the subject. The library currently receives 20 of the 25 available topics in print (see the list in the online catalog), including Intellectual Property, Commercial and Economic Law, and Constitutional Law. The online trial provides access to all 25 titles in the set (details about each title’s contents can be found without logging in to the trial at http://www.ielaws.com/). Chapters are available for download in PDF format.

If you’d like to share your feedback about the online version, you may send it to Foreign & International Law Reference Librarian Kristina Alayan. Your input will be considered in the library’s decision whether to purchase a subscription to the electronic version in the future. If you are reading this after the trial window closes on Friday and need to conduct some foreign & comparative research, don’t fret – the print versions are still available on Level 1, shelved with the other materials on their topical area.

The other libraries at Duke often test-drive electronic resources in order to make purchasing decisions. Check out the running list of current trials at the Duke University Libraries.