In the beginning of your research, it's helpful to learn just enough about the topic to get a basic overview. If you were just getting started, where would you look for background information on the history of a case, topic, and the main issues around it?

• OneSearch is the main library resource, there you can search almost everything in the library at once- books, media, news sources, scholarly journals, and more.

• Library databases are smaller collections of scholarly articles, news sources, images, media and more on different topics.

• Google Scholar  is a resource for both scholarly and non-scholarly resources. If you are on campus, you will find links to scholarly articles in our databases [TIP: off-campus add the bookmarklet to see what's at UR libraries].

Search Tips:

• Brainstorm a few key words or phrases about your topic to help get you started.
• Use some of the reference sources like encyclopedias or short articles that will give you background and overview information.
• Think about the types of resources you are looking for (books, chapters, images scholarly articles, news, etc.), use appropriate filters in Onesearch to find these specific types of materials
• If you can't find an article or book you need, check out our service called interlibrary loan - we can request materials from other libraries if we don't have them at UR.

The library hold many scholarly journals specifically on topics in sexuality, gender, feminism, and law. The best way to locate these journals is by searching from the library homepage under the "journals" tab. Enter in search terms like "gender and law" and see what comes up. Below is a small sample:

• Feminist Legal Studies -  journal with an international perspective that focuses on feminist work in all areas of law, legal theory, and legal practice
•  Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice - a journal of feminist legal scholarship that critically examines the intersection of gender with one or more axis of subordination, including, but not limited to, race, class, sexual orientation, and disability
• Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law - explores the impact of gender and sexuality on both the theory and practice of law
•  Columbia Journal of Gender and Law - edited and published entirely by students, publishes interdisciplinary works rooted in feminist inquiry, critically engages multiple and varied forms of social hierarchy and power differentials and their relation to the law

When you find a website, always analyze it for potential bias. These are examples of credible sources of information.

• Cornell Center for Women and Justice

  The Women & Justice collection provides access to caselaw and legislation from around the world related to promoting gender justice and ending gender-based violence.

• United Nations Human Rights and Gender - United Nations and the Rule of Law

• International Justice Resource Center- Women's Human Rights