Beginning last fall, we allowed them access to FIND and GET A DOCUMENT and also to SHEPARDS on Lexis. We felt this worked quite well and will do the same think next fall semester, although we'll use KEYCITE rather than Shepards. We feel that to allow them to use either or both citator systems would cause some unnecessary confustion so we'll take turns using them, which also treats the vendors equally. Cite checking really needs to be done electronically now, even by first-year students. Also, for legal periodical articles, they can use WilsonWeb. Otherwise, we still stick with the print tools because we feel they give the students a better research context. We teach a two-credit graded course in Legal Research. Legal Writing is a separate 3-credit course in the spring.
Fritz Snyder, Univ. of Montana Law Library.
----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth Robb
To: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 2:41 PM
Subject: academics - WL/LX question
Once again, in planning LRW for the fall, we are discussing 1L Westlaw and LEXIS access. In the past we've handed out passwords at the beginning of fall semester, but have limited them to Find and Get a Document. Our LRW faculty would perhaps prefer not to hand them out at all until the students get training in November. However, we have a few 1L profs who use TWEN, so the students need their WL passwords right away. (In the interest of fairness, I advocate handing out LEXIS passwords at the same time.) This year we are considering adding KeyCite and Shepards access. I'm curious if anyone out there has a strong opinion on this topic that they'd like to share with me. I can compile the responses and send to the group if others are interested. Thanks.
Elizabeth Robb
Computer Services/Reference Librarian
Hamline University School of Law
651-523-2063
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:36:33 PST