Legal & Public Records

Family history data, census information, immigration, etc.

Look up public records in northern Illinois across communities quickly by personal or business name. Part of Public Records Online.

Reference eBooks on biography, business, environment, history, law, literature, medicine, multicultural studies, nations/world, religion, science, social science, and more. See also Access My Library app.

Thousands of Illinois legal forms for personal, business, real estate, litigation, etc. (MS Word or PDF). See also Access My Library app.

Find articles videos and forms on legal topics as well as obtain referrals to free and low-cost legal aid offices.

Designed to assist the general public in legal matters of all kinds. Includes exclusive full text for many top consumer legal reference books, as well as thousands of legal forms. Learn how to create a search alert here.

An interactive platform that gives business owners step-by-step, customized directions to complete 50+ legal essentials in advance of working with a lawyer. It can save owners significant legal fees and 60+ hours.

From Lexis Nexis. Legal sources (federal/state statutes/cases), business directories, news/magazine/journal articles and much more. Directory listings from Company Dossier can be downloaded for mailing/contact lists. Topic-specific training videos  available.

NOTE: Nexis Uni has introduced a new interface. Learn more here or register for a free webinar.

7/7/24: Nexis Uni having login problems. 

• If you get an error message with a blue button to "Go to My Start Page," click on that button and you will go through to the product. 
• If you are prompted  to "Continue and Sign In...," click on the sign in message, but DO NOT try to fill out the sign-in form. Instead, return to the Nexis Uni on our databases menu and click on that link again. Then click on "Go to My Start Page," as above.

U.S. citizenship preparation course from the makers of the Pronunciator language-learning product.

Illinois home sales business licenses foreclosures, mortgages, bankruptcies and more. Now includes access to CheckIllinois (quick searching by personal/business name, across communities and record types).

Preserves US historical documents and manages federal records. Of use to genealogists, historians and legal researchers.

Illinois appellate court cases, annotated statutes (Illinois & federal) and selected analytical materials with the Westlaw Next interface. NOTE: Westlaw has updated their video tutorial (link below).