|
COPYRIGHT 2006 Alert Publications, Inc.
If only we librarians had a nickel for every time we heard "isn't everything available on the Internet," we would all be able to retire to our own private islands. However, we know that is not the case, and even if all of the information anyone ever needed were available on the Internet, users would still face obstacles in finding the exact answer they require using online sources. This is where a librarian's expertise in searching and retrieving information can be used to assist users with online legal research.
Law librarians know that lawyers are using the Internet for research. They also know that frequently research requests start with "I was looking for this on the Internet and could not find it, can you help?" The "2004-2005 American Bar Association Legal Technology Survey Report," conducted by the Legal Technology Resource Center, showed increased use of online sources for research by attorneys, and also reported that attorneys respond positively to training from in-house employees. Training employees on how to use better search techniques establishes librarians as partners in successful information retrieval.
In this article, I will examine when attorneys are conducting online research and what sources they are accessing electronically. I will also look at how training can boost search results and, finally, I will offer suggestions for managing the output generated by online legal research. In order to highlight firms that would be more likely to employ library staff, the statistics quoted in this article are from the "2004-2005 American Bar Association Legal Technology Survey Report Online Research" volume, for attorneys in offices with 50 or more attorneys.
Survey Results
The survey showed attorneys have an almost universal comfort in using the Internet, with 95 percent indicating that they read news and current events online. Just as large, at 96 percent, is the number of attorneys conducting any type of research online. When attorneys were surveyed about who performs legal...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
