What a tumultuous year 2016 turned out to be! Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States surprised the world; many entertainment icons passed away, including actor Gene Wilder, actress Florence Henderson, singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, legendary musician and performer Prince, and psychic Miss Cleo, among many others. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia also died suddenly, leaving a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court that has yet to be filled.

Meanwhile, HeinOnline has been steadily adding new databases and new content to existing modules, as well as developing helpful tools designed to improve research experiences for both advanced searchers and new users. Here’s a brief review of what HeinOnline accomplished in 2016!

New Databases

1. National Survey of State Laws 7th Edition & Database

The new edition and database version of National Survey of State Laws provides an overall view of some of the most sought-after and controversial legal topics in the United States. The book and database are presented in chart format, and both versions allow users to make state-by-state comparisons of current state laws. The database also enables users to compare laws among specified states and previous editions. The database will be updated at least twice annually, ensuring up-to-date and accurate information. The first update was already released over the summer and included a brand-new chapter on Civil Shoplifting, an update to the Marijuana chapter, and two chapters removed between editions were updated and permanently reinstated. Read the original product announcement, or check out this recent (and excellent) Law Library Journal review of this product.

2. Cataloging Legal Literature 4th Edition & Database

The 4th edition of Cataloging Legal Literature and its companion database, released in August, describe the authors’ understanding of current cataloging and classification practices for legal materials. The new edition reflects the latest Resource Description and Access (RDA) Standards and is designed to help law catalogers deal with the ambiguities of 21st century cataloging. The resource is divided into two parts.

• Part 1 covers the most common and troublesome legal publication questions regarding rules and uniform titles, with an emphasis on electronic resources. The contents are divided into 8 chapters with subchapters, including numerous links to other cataloging resources. The subject chapters contain many descriptive examples and cataloging recommendations, and also includes examples of genre/form terms.
• Part 2 consists of an alphabetical listing of legal terms, genres, and subject headings with definitions, RDA cataloging instructions, LC subject and genre/form guidance, classification tips, examples, and some historical information.

Melody Lembke and Melissa Beck, the editors of the book and database, presented the product to standing-room only audiences at the 2016 AALL Annual Meeting and Conference in Chicago, and the final product has been incredibly well-received!

3. UNC Press Law Publications

In May, HeinOnline reached an agreement with the University of North Carolina (UNC) Press to include nearly 150 law-related publications both within their own unique database and throughout existing collections. UNC Press was the first university press in the South and has earned national and international recognition for excellence in publishing. The collection, which became available in September, includes both current and historical titles, with many available as full-color, image-based PDFs.

BONUS: This collection was added to all U.S. Core HeinOnline subscriptions completely free of charge.

4. Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law

In October, HeinOnline did something unprecedented: offered free global access to a brand-new resource, Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law. This monumental, unique, and culturally significant collection brings together a wealth of legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world, including every statute passed by every state and colony, all federal statutes, all reported state and federal cases, and hundreds of books and pamphlets on this subject. The collection, which will continue to grow, now contains nearly 1,200 titles and 870,000 pages, including the prestigious Judicial Cases concerning American Slavery and the Negro by Helen Tunnicliff Catterall. Tools unique to this database include a Slavery Quick Finder, which enables users to select publications based on their position on slavery, document type, jurisdiction, and topic. These categorizations also apply to searching, so it’s simple to refine search results using facets.

Read the full introduction from this collection’s editor, Paul Finkelman, here. Register for free access, view a demo of the database, get a complete list of titles, or download the quick reference guide at home.heinonline.org/slavery.

5. Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases

HeinOnline once again partnered with the American Bar Association (ABA). The ABA’sPreview of United States Supreme Court Cases, which provides comprehensive expert analysis of all cases argued before the United States Supreme Court, is now available online exclusively via HeinOnline’s fully searchable, user-friendly platform. Released in October, this database includes the complete archives as well as the most current material. 

In addition, the database version of this title features a case locator, access to exact replicas of original case briefs, full print transcripts of cases, links to audio transcripts via Oyez, and citation and summary information for each case. Learn more from this detailed blog post about this database!

6. Provincial Statutes of Canada

Also released in October, this new collection includes nearly 100 titles and 1,500 volumes of public and private acts passed by Canadian provincial governments. Current, revised, and historical coverage is available for Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario. Revised and historical material only (material not under Crown Copyright) is available for Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.

All text and metadata are fully searchable. Browse material using the convenient map view or HeinOnline’s standard browse options.

BONUS: This material was added to all Canadian Core HeinOnline subscriptions completely free of charge.

7. Brennan Center for Justice Publications at NYU School of Law

Publications from New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice were made available in October. The Brennan Center is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that seeks to improve the systems of democracy and justice in the United States. The Center’s work focuses on a wide range of issues, including voting rights, campaign finance reform, racial justice in criminal law, and constitutional protections in the fight against terrorism. The Center considers itself to be a think tank, public interest law firm, advocacy group, and communications hub. Its law and policy scholarship addresses many issues, is largely written by attorneys, and is extensively peer-reviewed by both scholars and legal practitioners.

BONUS: This collection was also added free of charge to U.S. Core subscriptions.

Click here to find out why HeinOnline’s staff didn’t get much sleep in October.

Other Notable Content Additions

Since January 2016, HeinOnline has added:

• More than 16,000,000 pages, bringing the total page count to 143,108,213!
• 117 new journals. There are now 2,343 journals in the Law Journal Library, all available back to inception!
• 1,209 new legal classics, for a total of 7,970 titles in this collection.
• 20,128 congressional documents. There are now 51,465 hearings, 20,894 CRS reports, and 5,013 Committee Prints in addition to complete coverage of the Congressional Record and its predecessor volumes!
• 125 new compiled legislative histories were added to the U.S. Federal Legislative History Library
• 75 new titles and more than 1.4 million pages were added to State Reports: A Historical Archive

Session Laws Indexing has also continued. All states have been indexed to the chapter or act level from 2005 to date. The following states have this indexing applied from 1995-2004:

New titles and new content for existing titles continue to be added, including:

• 50 legal dictionaries from Georgetown’s prestigious collection are in the process of being added to Spinelli’s Law Library Reference Shelf. To date, this collection contains more than 250 legal dictionaries!
• Buddhism, Law & Society, a new journal published by William S. Hein & Co., Inc., is the first interdisciplinary academic journal to focus on the relationship between Buddhism and the legal world. Buddhism and its many social and legal manifestations are a central area of interest for the journal, as are the state’s legal relations to Buddhist actors, institutions and texts. This title is part of Hein’s Current Content Model.
• The New York State Comptroller Opinions archive was completed, so coverage of this title is now from inception to current.
• Historical Martindale-Hubbell Law Directories were added to all U.S. Core subscriptions at no additional cost!

New Tools

Our tireless development team continues to work daily to improve the speed and functionality of HeinOnline. In addition to content updates, server upgrades, and enhanced database redundancy:

• A brand-new Android platform app was released, along with a completely updated iOS platform app. Learn more about the app here.
• A new ranking metric and sorting option was integrated into HeinOnline’s Author Profile Pages, which allow users to view an author’s list of articles and ScholarCheck rankings, as well as additional biographical information at authors’ discretion. The new metric counts the number of times an author has been cited by articles written only within the past 12/24 months. This currency factor enhances rankings by considering what’s most relevant today, in addition to the other metrics, which account for quantitative author influence.
• Collection-specific Quick Reference Guide links were added to breadcrumb trails when available.

• A new search option was added to the U.S. Federal Agency Documents, Decisions, and Appeals database. Thanks to a suggestion from a customer, users can search by agency using the Advanced Search link located beneath the main search bar. From there, use the Agency drop-down menu and select the desired agency.

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Now that 2016 has drawn to a close, we would like to thank our loyal customers for their support and suggestions throughout the year.  We will only get better in this year, so keep your feedback coming! For questions or for help using HeinOnline, contact our dedicated support team at (800) 277-6995, email us, or chat with us! We wish everyone a happy and healthy new year.