Further comments re: "Real Practice".
I hear time & time again from attorneys who state that they can determine a
case's value more quickly, and at less cost, by looking at the head notes
in the books than by going on line. In "Real Practice" time is money.
What will the new associate do when a Partner tells them not to use
electronic services on a project due to cost concerns?
An other "Real Practice" issue is reliability of electronic access. What
does the attorney do when access is down and they are on a tight deadline
for a filing?
To fully prepare students for the world of "Real Practice", they need to
know how to use both the electronic and paper versions efficiently.
Nick Worthington
Librarian
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
San Francisco Library
415.882.1005
"Laura E. Ray"
<laura.ray@law.cs To: "Felice K. Lowell"
uohio.edu> <felice.lowell@law.csuohio.edu>
Sent by: cc: Cynthia Aninao <aninaocf@law.uc.edu>,
owner-law-lib@ucd "law-lib@ucdavis.edu" <law-lib@ucdavis.edu>
avis.edu Subject: Re: Academic law libraries - Reporters
03/14/2003 08:12
AM
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
(See attached file: laura.ray.vcf)
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