While there's certainly more than enough commercial DBs out there, there
are also alternatives to increment billing - most caselaw dbs are available
on a time or flat rate & in the case of CD format, the $$ has already been
paid.
It makes sense when considering the "time is money" factor, to print out a
case from the internet or CD or even from a DB flat rate account, rather
than contend w/ any
problem/condition which would make a simple document retrieval take longer
than simply printing from online.
I agree w/ you all in recognizing that each situation is different - in
many cases it's easier & *faster to just pull the book off the shelf but
sometimes the transfer from one media form to another takes longer than it
should. There isn't a set standard for all data, it depends on the
situation, not just the immediate retrieval cost. The fact is print/fax
isn't much more expensive than copier. Now that there are so many options,
it takes some coordination to know which is the most efficient for what. -
not all caselaw/worthwhile data come from overpriced DBs and it can't be
taken for granted that online data is always more costly to print than
copying from a book .
Just my HO.
Karen Mahnk
At 01:38 PM 6/17/1999 -0400, Graesser, Christine L. wrote:
>THere's an idea - charge the students for online research (because of course
>the vendors want them to have it free) and put the money toward augmenting
>the print collection!
>
>Chris Graesser
>Brown Rudnick
>Hartford, CT
>cgraesser@brfg.com
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Ron Huttner [mailto:rshutt@netspace.net.au]
>Sent: Thursday, June 17, 1999 11:37 AM
>To: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
>Subject: A Summer Associate Story
>
>
>Genie Tyburski's story reminds me of the question I used to put to the
>students in my computer-assisted legal research course, at the beginning of
>the very first lecture:-
>
>"What is the first thing you should always do before you switch on your
>computer to do any legal research ?"
>
>I used to get some amusing answers - eg "Make sure it's plugged in" etc -
>but
>virtually never got what I considered to be the correct answer, viz:-
>"Ask yourself whether you should be switching it on at all".
>
>It's truly extraordinary the number of students that try to do *all* their
>research on a computer - even when it takes them 4 times as long as it
>would if they consulted an appropriate book.
>
>There seems to be an attitude of "have computer, will use", rather than
>"have computer, will use when appropriate and more efficient". As I see it,
>this problem is virtually impossible to eliminate in an academic
>environment where students have unlimited free access to computers. Maybe
>if they had to pay even a nominal fee per online hour, they would very
>quickly become more aware of that other very useful research tool - the
>book !
>
>Ronald S Huttner LL.B.(Hons)
>Barrister And Solicitor
>Consultant And Trainer In Computer-Assisted Legal Research
>Lecturer In Computerised Legal Research (02.10.95 to 02.10.98)
>Internet Sites For Lawyers - http://www.viclf.asn.au/research.html
>Personal Home Page - http://www.viclf.asn.au/pers1.html
>
>
>
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