Aside from ABA requirements, retention of print materials influences
teaching. Do law schools still need to teach print research? Does an
understanding of print materials help one to be a better electronic
researcher?
Another issue concerns real practice. How many practitioners do not, or
will not, have access to computers, and thus need, or will need, to know
how to do print research? One might say that an attorney without access
to computers is likely to be in danger of malpractice (eg, because of
not having access to electronic Shepards). Yet how important are
computers for the everyday practitioner who deals with nuts-and-bolts
wills, dissolutions, etc.? Can an attorney survive in real practice --
with sufficient billings to make a living -- without access to
computers? Are electronic research and materials forcing a permanent
change in the profession?
Then there is the issue of information access. By eliminating paper,
would law schools contribute to the potential situation of only those
with access to computers being capable of practicing law? The 2000
Census tells us slightly over half of US households have computers, but
that means slightly under half of US households do not have computers.
[And you guessed it. Hispanic-Americans and African-Americans prevail
in the numbers of households without computers. What impact does this
have?] If law-related information was only available electronically,
how might this contribute to the widening gap between those with access
to information and those without such access? Do law libraries,
particularly state law school libraries, have a public responsibility to
retain print collections?
Laura
"Felice K. Lowell" wrote:
> Actually Cynthia, we are talking about that. If the info is available
> on Westlaw and all students and faculty have access to it what is the
> problem? The only paper sacrosanct as far as our reference staff is
> concerned is codes, etc. The rest is taking up a lot of space, gets
> less use each semester, costs an arm and a leg, takes endless
> processing, and decimates a forest daily. As academic institutions,
> our first priority is our students and faculty (or vice versa!)
> 1. Can we afford to support users beyond our immediate
> responsibility.
> 2. Is there a better way to insure "ownership" of the information
> than have everyone save the same paper copy?
> 3. Is elimination of hard copy going to impact library statistics
> title/volume count? (check all of the government documents which are
> no longer coming in paper, CD, or microform).
>
> To be honest, this memo was sent to spark some conversations on the
> topic. And we may only be talking about multiple copies, when all is
> said and done!
>
> Felice
>
> Cynthia Aninao wrote:
>
>> Felice, let us know what you find. You're not talking about
>> reporters
>> that are "required" by the ABA, such as F3d, etc? How are you going
>> to
>> deal with that? Cynthia.
>>
>> Cynthia Aninao, Acquisitions Librarian
>> University of Cincinnati Law Library
>> Clifton and Calhoun Streets
>> Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0142
>>
>> cynthia.aninao@law.uc.edu
>> 513-556-0156, Fax 513-556-6265
>>
>> On Thu, 13 Mar 2003, Felice K. Lowell wrote:
>>
>>
>> > Now that there have been several "surveys" on the acquisition of
>> > hard
>> > copy for Shepard's and digests, we'd like to know whether any
>> > academic
>> > law libraries have begun to evaluate their reporter subscriptions
>> > with
>> > the thought of relying solely on electronic access. We know there
>> > are
>> > some law firms doing just that. It seems a little radical for us,
>> > but
>> > budget issues are forcing us to be more creative than we have been
>> > in
>> > the past!!
>> >
>> > Thanx for your input.
>> >
>> > Felice Lowell
>> > Asst. Director for Technical Services
>> > Cleveland State University Law Library
>> > 216-523-7388
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:44:27 PST