On 12 Aug, Chris Graesser writes:
As it turns out, however, we're experiencing lawyer backlash against
automated research. Surveys and focus groups at our firm have revealed that
our attys strongly favor print versions of most material, except the lesser
used reporters. We're not a PC phobic firm, and we have many CDs; the
lawyers just don't feel they provide the same quality & breadth of research.
Chris Graesser cgraesser@goodwin.com Shipman & Goodwin, Hartford, CT
Mary Kole answers: Chris --
We have the same problem here. We're running out of shelf space in the
library and want to convert to CD-ROMs but are getting resistance from the
associates. 1 or 2 might be computer illiterate but mostly, they think it is
easier to run to a shelf, take a book and just "LOOK IT UP" rather than sit
down at a computer, find the CD-ROM, do a search and print it out. One Rep
informed me that different vendors have different search language for thier
particular CD-ROMs - that not all of them use universal search language.
We're having to store books that we hardly ever use in the basement to make
room for the reporters.
Mary Kole, Legal Library, American Farm Bureau Federation, 225 Touhy Avenue
Park Ridge, IL 60068, Phone: (312) 399-5832, Fax: (312) 399-5896, E-Mail:
maryk@fb.com
Mary and Chris, we hear a lot of the same thing. One day, electronic
research will be uniform and easy to use. Of course, by then CD-ROM will be
replaced by some form of on-line or computer chips. Meanwhile, the expensive
hardware keeps going obsolete faster than today's newspaper. I'm old enough
to remember when a 486, 66 megahertz was state of the art. (What?! That was
only last year?)
Rodger
National Law
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