Legal textbooks provide in-depth, expert commentary and analysis of areas of law. To find relevant books on your topic, go to the Library homepage at www.library.ubc.ca and on the menu bar, use the "Search Collections" pull-down menu to select "Books & Media (Catalogue)" link.
Keyword searching is a good way to begin your search. In the library catalogue search screen, select "Keyword (use AND,OR, NOT, or 'a phrase')" from the box on the right. Try combinations of words that might be used to describe your topic or that might appear in the title of a book. Enclose phrases in quotation marks, and use the word and between terms to narrow your results.
Examples:
world and trade and organization and law
"world trade organization" and "dispute resolution "
international and business and law
Guided Keyword Search tab: A guided keyword search allows you to specify where you want your search terms to appear. (e.g. in the author, title or subject fields)
Example: nafta (in title field) and arbitration (in subject field)
Once you find books on your research topic, be sure to go to the full record. The record will give you a complete call number and indicate where the book is shelved. The full record of a book also lets you expand your research and find more books on the topic, simply by clicking on the subject heading(s) used to describe the book. From the listing of key texts that you locate, browse the Tables of Contents; search the indexes using keywords; read footnotes and follow bibliographic references to locate other useful resources.
