NOTICE: This guide is currently under review, with a new guide to be launched before Semester 1, 2025. In the meantime, please direct any queries or feedback about this guide to the Library's Digital Experience via our Enquiry and Feedback form.
Books are useful tools for legal research:
- tables of contents provide conceptual maps of a subject area
- detailed content on a specific subject
- reference/cite significant cases to support an argument
- use these citations to lead you to further relevant materials for your research - articles, cases, legislation
eBook User Limits
Some ebooks have a user limit (typically 3), although the Library endeavours to buy unlimited user licences wherever possible.
This means that only three people can read the ebook at the same time.
If you are using an ebook as a resource during exams, you should download chapters ahead of the exam time in anticipation that the ebook will be in use during the exam period.
You can check whether there is a user limit on the ebook.
Access the ebook using Library Search.
Read the Availability statement for the ebook:
Search for eBooks
Step 1: Search by title
Step 2: Filter results - Check box for Available Online
Step 3: Filter results - Check box for Books
Step 4: Click on APPLY FILTERS
Library Search
The Library Catalogue includes online and print material and online resources.
Note: For most law journals, journal titles - not article titles - are included in the Catalogue.
You will also need to search the specific law databases by subject and for articles by title
Your task: Use the Murdoch University Library Search to find books on "contributory negligence" published since 2020.
Step 1: Access Library Search.
Library Search can be used to search by Keyword, Title, Author, Subject, Call Number.
Step 2: Type "contributory negligence" into the Library Search box
Click on the SEARCH box
Note: As you are searching for a phrase, use quotation marks for results where the two words appear next to each other
Step 3: Filter the results by:
CONTENT TYPE: Books
PUBLICATION DATE: Add 2020 in the From field
Click on APPLY FILTERS button
Step 4: The Results list includes print and ebooks relevant to "contributory negligence"
Let's look at the title Torts by Martin Davies
From the Results list entry, you can learn:
* the number of copies of this book
* bibliographical information: title, author, edition, publisher, year (elements required for citation)
* location, Dewey/call number and status/availability
Click on the title in the Results list for more information about this title.
Note the the search terms contributory negligence in the Subject Headings.
Two very helpful features of the catalogue record are the Dewey number (part of the Call Number) and the Subject field.
A Dewey number represents a concept.
This means that should a book you are seeking not be on the shelf, a book with the same or similar Dewey number will be on a similar subject matter.
You will notice that the Law Library only contains books in the 340s.
340 is the Dewey number for Law.
You can see an example of a Dewey number in the record - the Dewey number for this book is 346.30994.
The Subject field is also a way of finding books on a similar subject.
The Subject field contains information about subject headings that librarians assign to the book when they catalogue the book.
Similar to Dewey, subject headings group similar books together based on the subjects they discuss.
In the example given here, selecting the subject "Torts -- Australia" from the catalogue record will take you to other books in the Library on the same subject.
You can also use Library Search to search for journal articles, by changing the CONTENT TYPE from Book to Articles.
Be aware, however, that journal articles contained within the Lexis Advance, Thomson Reuters Westlaw, Westlaw Australia and CCH databases will not be retrieved or be accessible by Library Search.
You must conduct separate searches within each individual database.
What if the book you want isn't available?
If the book is unavailable, is not on the shelf, or is out on loan, you can find similar books by:
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Going to the shelf where the book should be and checking on the shelf at the same or similar Dewey numbers to locate similar titles.
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Looking at catalogue records and clicking on the subject headings which are the closest match to the material you are researching. This may give you some alternative books and different shelf numbers in the Library.
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Searching other University Library Catalogues
If a particular book, journal article or other resource is not held in the University Library, you can request it from another library using our free services:
- Document Delivery - allows you to request material from other libraries
- In person - borrow books from other university libraries in Western Australia
Borrow From Other University Libraries
WA Reciprocal Libraries
Murdoch students can become reciprocal borrowers at other WA Universities.
Borrowing From Other Libraries explains how to borrow books from them.
If the book is not available in the Murdoch Library you can click on the ECU, UWA or State Library search options in the Catalogue to see if it is available elsewhere.
You will need to physically go to the reciprocal library to collect and return the book.