[LAW-LIB:54999] RE: DIALOG DATABASES on WESTLAW

From: Bush, Paul (Paul.Bush@friedfrank.com)
Date: Thu Mar 13 2008 - 07:55:00 PDT

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    CourtExpress was sucked up into Wexis (Westlaw)
    http://courtexpress.westlaw.com.

    Paul M. Bush
    Electronic Services Analyst
    Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP

    Founder and Manager
    Legal Dockets Online
    http://www.LegalDockets.com

    -----Original Message-----
    From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On
    Behalf Of Storck, Mariann (USACO)
    Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 10:04 AM
    To: O'Connor, Linda Karr; law-lib@ucdavis.edu
    Subject: [LAW-LIB:54998] RE: DIALOG DATABASES on WESTLAW

    And along that same line of disappeared resources, whatever happened to
    CourtExpress?

    All opinions included herein are my own and do not represent that of my
    employer in any way, shape or form.

    Thank you,
    Mariann Storck
    Library Manager/Legal Information Expert U.S.A.O.
    1225 17th Street, Ste. 700
    Denver, CO 80202
    TEL: 303-454-0100
    FAX: 303-454-0403
    E: mariann.storck@usdoj.gov

    -----Original Message-----
    From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On
    Behalf Of O'Connor, Linda Karr
    Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 2:30 PM
    To: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
    Subject: [LAW-LIB:54994] RE: DIALOG DATABASES on WESTLAW

    On February 29 I was preparing for a two day training the following week
    which made extensive use of DIALOG databases. All my handouts showed
    database availability on both Westlaw and through our university library
    providers. We had just rechecked our handouts in late January, and so
    was surprised when, in checking my exercises, none of the Westlaw DIALOG
    databases worked. A colleague called Westlaw customer service. After
    consulting with supervisors, she was told the databases had just been
    taken off that day. Our Westlaw rep had been here that day and did not
    mention anything, though he is well aware that I use these databases, so
    perhaps even he did not know.

    I have been around enough long enough that I remember when academic
    libraries were first offered, and then forced to accept, access to
    DIALOG at a higher subscription price. It certainly would have been
    nice, along with all those announcements of databases I don't use, to be
    informed of this significant decrease in our service. While I can now
    get all these databases through our university resources, Westlaw
    offered the ability to do more complex searches, and I did use them to
    illustrate effective searching of non-legal scholarship. At the last
    minute, I had to change all my handouts and revise my training scripts.

    Westlaw customer service reps never understood, nor did the browser
    software upgrades very well support, the Westlaw databases, and I got
    the impression over the years that once Westlaw got the news databases
    to compete with Lexis that they very much wished they were not there. I
    could get the feeling when talking with them or our rep that I was the
    only person in the whole world using them. But since Thomson now also
    owns DIALOG, one wonders why. In any case, I am glad I checked before
    this training. Normally I would not have done so only a month after a
    complete recheck, but it would have been embarrassing to first discover
    this during my training sessions. A broad alert should have been issued
    to academic subscribers. To date I have received none.

    Linda Karr O'Connor
    Director, Scholarly Support and Research Assistant Program UCLA Law
    Library Box 951458, 1106 Law Building Los Angeles, CA 90095-1458
    (310) 794-5407 voice
    (310) 206-3680 fax
    oconnor@law.ucla.edu

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