Start your research with secondary sources (books, articles, etc.)
Reading books and articles early in a project provides an overview of the times, the issues, and the names of people and organizations associated with your topic.
The footnotes and bibliographies in secondary sources can also be a valuable shortcut to identifying the principle primary sources in your area of research.
Find primary sources
Special collection libraries and archival repositories at Harvard, Boston College, and elsewhere are a great source of unique and rare books, historical manuscripts, documents, photographs, maps, artifacts, and numeric data.
Focus on a place
There is a body of scholarship examining the history of specific law schools. Use these sources to focus your research on a particular place.
Who else cares?
What other organizations might care about your topic, or about law schools and legal education? Professional organizations, policy groups and accrediting bodies all produce reports, publications and directories that may give insight into the people and issues you are researching and document historical changes.
Go by the numbers
For some topics you may want to explore statistics and demographics related to law schools and law school faculty and students.
Don't waste time. Ask Us!
BC and Harvard law librarians are here to help. Schedule a research appointment, ask a question or chat with us.
