REFERENCE RESOURCES

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This page contains links to people and source finders, general and legal reference resources, and how-to guides for legal materials. It is divided into four sections: Finders and Investigative Resources; How-To Legal Resources; Legal Reference Resources; and Reference Resources. The Fast Access Table of Contents [below] contains clickable links to each of the four sections.

FINDERS AND INVESTIGATIVE RESOURCES

DENTON COUNTY JUSTICE INFORMATION SYSTEM
(Conduct searches of Denton County's criminal and civil judicial records [since 1988] and Sheriff's Bond and Jail Records; from Denton County, Texas)

FIND YOUR FEDERAL AND STATE ELECTED OFFICIALS
(Identify your federal and state elected officials through entering your zip code; includes contact information; from Congress.Org)

FIND YOUR INCUMBENT
(Searchable database for determining elected officials and districts for the Texas Senate, Texas House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives [Texas Delegation], and the Texas State Board of Education. Search by street address, zip code, county, or city; display elected officials by district type, district number or member name; also includes district and statewide demographic reports and district composition information; from Texas Legislature Online)

INTERNET OPEN RECORDS PROJECT
(Includes ability to conduct searches of the Texas Sexual Offenders Database (by name or city or zip code), Dallas County Voting Records, Texas Insurance Complaints, and Consumer Complaints)

KNOWX
(Millions of public records from official sources organized in searchable databases; addresses, assets, business records, owners & officers, professional licenses, etc.; fee-based)

THE NATIONAL POLITICAL INDEX
(Links to political and governmental information, including directory information for Federal, State, and Local Officials, Federal, State and Local Party Groups and Candidates, and Political Parties and Groups; includes links to Online Political Magazines, Federal, State and Local Government Agencies, State Initiatives and Referendums, and Bill Tracking)

PUBLICDATA.COM
(Fee-based; contains seven searchable databases - TexasDriverSearch, which contains Texas Driver's License Information [searchable by name or number]; TexasTagSearch, which contains Texas License Plates Information [owner information; searchable by plate number]; TexasParoleSystemSearch, a database of paroled convicts from the Texas Dept. of Corrections; TexasVoterSearch, a registered voter roll database - with electoral information on each voter - for the entire state of Texas; TexasTravisCriminalSearch, a database of disposed criminal misdemeanor records since 1988 and felony records since 1992 in Travis County; TexasDallasCriminalSearch, a database of criminal records by name in Dallas County since 1980; and TexasSexOffenderSearch, a database of registered sex offenders in Texas [searchable by name or zip code])

SEARCHSYSTEMS.NET
(Features over 8379 free searchable public record databases; arranged geographically)

SWITCHBOARD
(Free nationwide residential and business directory; searchable by name only, or name/city,state or name/state)

TEXAS BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS
(Includes information on obtaining copies of birth and death certificates, verification of marriage and divorce, and the Central Adoption Registry)

TEXAS CONVICTIONS AND SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION DATABASES
(Fee-based; registration required; searchable databases of convictions records and sex offenders; from the Texas Department of Public Safety)

TEXAS LAW HELP.ORG
(Online resource for free and low-cost civil legal assistance in Texas.; get answers to common legal questions, find free and low-cost legal assistance in your area, get help with non-legal problems from local organizations)

TEXAS LAWYERS CENTER ONLINE
(Legal directory for Texas; locate attorneys/law firms alphabetically by name or practice area; divided into Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Statewide [other cities]; includes links to legal products/services and resources)

THE VIRTUAL GUMSHOE
(Investigative resources on the Web; wide selection of searchable databases of membership records, official government records, locator resources, etc.; formerly Webgator)

HOW-TO LEGAL RESOURCES

HOW-TO LEGAL-RELATED SITES
(Links to legal reference resources and how-to legal guides on the web, such as Bartlett's Quotations, Basic Legal Citations, Brief Guide to Citing Government Publications, Dictionaries, Elements of Style, Enforcing Legal Judgements, Evidence, Legal Citations, Negotiations, and Robert's Rules of Order; from GSA's Fedlaw)

INTRODUCTION TO BASIC LEGAL CITATION
(Step by step guide to the elements of legal citation; from Peter W. Martin of Cornell Law School)

LEGAL RESEARCH USING THE INTERNET
(Introductory guide to conducting legal research on the Internet, with many links to useful resources; from Lyonette Louis-Jacques)

TEXAS LEGAL RESEARCH INDEX
(Focuses on the specifics of conducting legal research using Texas source materials, with lengthy explanations of historical background/content of major sources; includes a section containing a vast compilation of links to Texas Legal Research Internet Sites; from Lydia Brandt of The Brandt Law Firm)

LEGAL REFERENCE RESOURCES

COURT STRUCTURE OF TEXAS
(Hyperlinked diagram of the court structure of Texas; from the Texas Judicial Server)

FINDLAW: YOUR SOURCE TO LAW ON THE INTERNET
(Impressive array of links to legal information on the Internet)

FREE ADVICE.COM
(An easy to use site for legal information, containing overviews of legal topics in layperson's terminology, written by attorneys; also has a directory of lawyers)

INTERNET LEGAL RESOURCE GUIDE
(Categorized index of 2600 select legal websites in 238 nations; keyword searchable within individual categories or for entire site; aim is comprehensiveness for Internet law/legal profession sources on the Internet)

LAW LISTS SEARCH PAGE
(Search engine for locating legal electronic mailing lists [listservs] and usenet newsgroups on the Internet, using keywords; returns name of list or group and subscription information; from the University of Chicago Law Library)

THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS IN TEXAS
(Detailed explanation of the legislative process in Texas; includes a diagram; from Texas Legislature Online)

THE NATIONAL POLITICAL INDEX
(Links to political and governmental information, including directory information for Federal, State, and Local Officials, Federal, State and Local Party Groups and Candidates, and Political Parties and Groups; includes links to Online Political Magazines, Federal, State and Local Government Agencies, State Initiatives and Referendums, and Bill Tracking)

WASHLAW WEB
(Links to a wide variety of legal resources, arranged by topic; from the Washburn University School of Law)

THE WORLD WIDE WEB VIRTUAL LIBRARY - LAW
(Links to government and legal resources, by subject or type; from Indiana University)

REFERENCE RESOURCES

CATALIST
(Catalog of listservs [Internet email discussion lists]; search by keyword, or view lists by host site, country, those with over 10,000 subscribers, those with over 1,000 subscribers, or in alphabetical order)

DESKREF: QUICK REFERENCE LINKS
(Vast selection of links to reference resources on the Web; accessible by type of resource, such as Maps, Government Manuals and Statistics, History, Dictionaries, Patents, Biographies, Encyclopedias, etc.; from Library Land)

THE ELECTRIC LIBRARY
(Searchable database of full-text articles from more than 1,000 magazines, newspapers, and journals; free trial offer, then cost is a flat fee of $9.95 per month)

FEDSTATS
(Impressive compilation of links to statistical information from over 70 federal government agencies; browse alphabetically or by agency or program, or search by keywords/phrases; also has a section of regional statistics)

THE HANDBOOK OF TEXAS
(Definitive sourcebook of Texas history; browsable or searchable by keyword; articles are also accessible alphabetically; from the General Libraries at The University of Texas at Austin and the Texas State Historical Association)

LINKS TO STANDARDS AND CODES
(Links to standards and codes in a wide variety of areas, promulgated by official standards organizations; arranged alphabetically by name of standards organization; from Michael Leshner of P.E. & Associates)

LISZT
(Comprehensive directory of Internet mailing lists [listservs]; search by keyword, or browse by topic; includes subscription instructions)

ONLINE NEWSPAPERS
(Compilation of links to newspapers on the Internet; international in scope; divided into U.S. and Other Countries; arranged alphabetically by state/title of newspaper or alphabetically by name of country)

QUICK REFERENCE RESOURCES
(Dictionaries, Fact Books, Statistics, Reference Sources; from the General Libraries at The University of Texas at Austin)

RESEARCH-IT
(Quick and efficient search engines for looking up definitions from Webster's Dictionary, synonyms from Roget's Thesaurus, quotations from Bartlett's, acronyms, etc.)

TEXAS COUNTY HIGHWAY MAPS
(County highway maps of Texas, listed alphabetically by name of county or searchable by name of county or place; site includes a clickable state map of Texas; maps are those issued by the Texas Dept. of Transportation and offered online by the General Libraries of the University of Texas at Austin)

TEXAS NEWSPAPERS
(Links to Texas newspaper websites; listed by city/title of newspaper, in alphabetical order; includes a section of links to Texas magazines, and a link to a website containing a compilation of links to Texas Radio and TV Stations; from the Texas State Library)

TEXAS REFERENCE LINKS
(Quick links to a wide variety of reference and historical information related to Texas)

TILE.NET
(Directory of listservs [Internet email discussion lists]; search for listservs by keyword, or view lists by name, subject, description, host country, or sponsoring organization)

TRAIL: TEXAS RECORDS AND INFORMATION LOCATOR
(Search and locate information from over 150 Texas state agency web servers; conduct simple keyword searches, or advanced boolean, phrase, or truncation searches; from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission)

YAHOO: REFERENCE SOURCES
(Yahoo's listing of links to a wide assortment of general reference resources)

YEEHA! TEXAS WEBSITES & RESOURCES
(Vast compilation of links to Texas websites & resources)