Legal & Public Records

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

Formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library
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 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.

Name change:  See Gale Legal Forms

Replaces Lexis Nexis Library Express. 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. 

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

Home sales business licenses foreclosures and bankruptcies. 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Preserves US historical documents and manages federal records.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. Now using the Westlaw Next interface. 

UPDATED 8/26/20--Westlaw is allowing users to apply for personal logins that provide 20 hours of access over 14 days. Details here.