Cases are decided by courts and are reported chronologically in sets of books we call Reporters. Reporter sets are numbered by volume and series. When a Reporter series reaches a high enough number of volumes a new series starts over at volume one.
You are standing near the Southern Reporter. It is a regional reporter in its third (So. 3d) series, covering the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The Southern Reporter, like all regional reporters, only includes state cases.
When you're researching an issue the controlling law in your jurisdiction might have been decided in a case eighty years ago. How do you find out about an eighty year old case buried deep in the Reporters? Digests.
Digests are a type of finding tool which allows you to quickly discover relevant cases, no matter when the case was decided. However, West does not publish a digest for the Southern Reporter. Instead, you will need to use a state digest. The state materials are all located on the first floor in alphabetical order by state name. Most of the state materials are no longer up-to-date, due to online availability.