How to Use this Guide
This guide will introduce you to Discovery, NYU Law Library's enhanced catalog search interface. Read on and view our short tutorial video to get started with your research.
What is Discovery?
Discovery is a new way to search many of the Law Library's physical and electronic resources in one centralized search box, rather than running multiple separate searches across different platforms for physical books, eBooks, databases, and journal articles.
Why should I use Discovery instead of the Law Library's old catalog?
Compared with the Law Library's traditional catalog (Julius), using Discovery in your searching has some extra benefits. These include:
- A single Google-like search box to broadly search the Law Library's traditional catalog (Julius) as well as individual articles in many of the Law Library's databases, online journals, and eBook packages.
- Filtering your search results on a wide range of categories.
- Saving results under your login, so you can easily manage your search results and research materials.
- Saving links to books and articles you want to revisit later.
What does Discovery not search?
- Despite the benefits above, please note that Discovery is not a 100% exhaustive search of every legal research source you have access to via the Law Library, as it does not index all our databases. For example, you will still want to log in to Bloomberg, Lexis, Westlaw, and other legal databases in the A-Z list to search for books and articles on their platforms.
- In addition, Discovery does not cover many of the broader resources across New York University as a whole, nor does it search other institutions' holdings. We recommend that you also consult the Law Library's Databases page and NYU Libraries' main catalog (search.library.nyu.edu).
- To recap, Discovery is a great place to begin your research as you browse and get a general sense of scholarship on your topic. As you refine your research, you will still want to consult other platforms. You can always reach out to the Law Library for personalized assistance.
When might I want to search directly in a legal Database instead of Discovery?
- If you want to conduct a focused search, the Law Library's curated A-Z Database List can be a helpful tool to browse for a database that suits your unique research needs (jurisdiction-specific, subject-specific, etc.). Similarly, the A-Z Database List is where you should look if you want to browse by the names of databases themselves (rather than the resources they contain).
Tell us what you think!
Your feedback is invaluable to the Law Library as we continue to refine and improve Discovery. If you have any thoughts to share while using this new search interface, we would greatly appreciate hearing from you! Contact us via your preferred method. We are trained legal research professionals, and we are here to help you succeed in your studies.
