At 12:25 PM 12/17/97 -0600, Jack, Bill wrote:
>"Search Pros May Need to Search For a New Line of Work" says the
>headline of Troy Corley's article in the Monday, December 15th, 1997
>"Los Angeles Times." The article states that the Internet is turning
>the "venerable profession [librarians] upside down."
>
>I am curious to find out how Law-Lib list members respond to this
>article. It's online at:
>
>William Jack
>Law Library
>Dorsey & Whitney LLP
>220 South Sixth Street
>Minneapolis, MN 55402
I found the piece mildly amusing. True, the internet has provided us with a
wealth of information (and I love it), but it takes a "Search Pro" to cut
through all the fat and grizzle to get to the meat and potatoes. We as
professional librarians, information specialists, information managers, etc.
with all of our specialized training and expertise still require assistance
at times with research on the net, law-lib is a testimonial to this, so
please, mere access to the net does not a "search pro" make! Articles like
these remind me of the daily experiences I have with the bar association's
patrons. Just because lawyers have desktops with access to commercial
databases, cd-roms, and the internet do not by a long shot make them capable
researchers. Almost on a daily basis, after a frustrated attorney comes to
me and asks for help, after spending a lot of wasted time trying to research
an issue, I can usually find just what they need in mere minutes(whew). The
exclamation is always the same, "how do you do it"? My reply is always the
same, "this is my profession and what I have been trained for, I do not
interpret the law and you do not find it". :>) Below are a few quotes about
libraries that I am fond of:
"Be a little careful about your library. Do you forsee what you will do
with it? Very little to be sure. But the real question is, What it will do
for you? You will come here and get books that will open your eyes, and
your ears, and your curosity, and turn you inside out or outside in". Ralph
Waldo Emerson
"What is more important in a library than anything else-than everything
else-is the fact that it exists". Archbald MacLeish
"A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of knowledge; it
blossoms through the year. And depend on it that they who are so fond of
handling the leaves, will long for the fruit at last". Richard Brinsley
Sheridan
and lastly, but not (leastly :>)),
"A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture
that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber room of
his library, where he can get it if he wants". Sherlock Holmes
Happy & healthy holidays,
Eric :>)
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Eric M. Kaufman, Senior Reference Librarian
New York County Lawyers' Association
14 Vesey Street, 3rd Floor
New York, N.Y. 10007
(212)267-6646, ext. 204
Fax: (212)791-6437
Email: ekaufman2@mindspring.com
"Any opinions expressed are my own and not thoses of my employer"
The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't
do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back. -
Abigail Van Buren
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