Legal Internship Research Toolkit: Starting the search

Once you have come up with your search string, it's time to search!

Bear in mind that research is an iterative process! You won't always find what you're looking for so don't give up. Consider broadening your search if you don't get enough results, or narrowing it if you get too many irrelevant results. You can also use synonyms to find different results. 

Before you identify where to go to find what you need, it is important to first know what you're looking for. 

Here are some guiding questions that might be helpful:

1. Are you looking for primary or secondary resources? 
2. Are you looking for jurisdiction specific research? 
3. Are you looking for resources from specific topics?

The reason you'd want to ask these questions is because different kinds of information can be found in different resources. Singaporean legal materials for example, are best found on LawNet and Kluwer Arbitration contains lots of useful information (primary and secondary information) on dispute resolution.

If you're not sure where to find what, you can consider referring to legal research guides which compile useful resources according to topic or country. Some useful resources include SMU's law research guides, Globalex and Law Library of Congress.