Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/87421
Generational Divides: Paper and Electronic Resources exclusively, those were wrapped into the firm's overhead, and clients saw the cost as part of the billable hour. When online research became the norm, the cost of research was often passed back to the clients and itemized on their bill. With many clients, that's a nonstarter. Some attorneys prefer to keep copies of materials in print rather than dealing with the costs of itemizing research and possible objections from the client about the bill. • Most important, some resources are still simply better in print — more easily absorbed, easier to read and easier to cross-reference. It's easier to understand spatial relationships in print sources. For instance, the length of a chapter or how much of a treatise is devoted to one subject. If an attorney needs to absorb a lot of information on a subject area in one go, a print book is a much better choice than an online resource. Often, when offered online materials in this kind of situation, attorneys will just print out the whole section they need to read, even if it's half the book. Best Practices for Any Age The best practices for transitioning to a primarily online or electronic library differ from firm to firm, and they always include close consideration of how print resources are used in your office. Generally speaking, moving case reporters to online- only first is a good choice — judicial opinions are available online for free in many cases and are fully indexed on Lexis and Westlaw. Legal periodicals are often archived online as part of your subscription cost (i.e., there's no need to keep the old paper copies). Keep in mind, however, when you stop subscribing to a periodical, you could lose access to the archive, whereas you'd have access to hardcopy back issues forever. Statutes and regulations are areas where attorneys at my firm really prefer to have copies in print. For the most part, secondary sources (legal treatises) are easier to use in print, but the electronic version might be a better value for the firm if they're only consulted once or twice a year. Remember, often you can get these materials through interlibrary loan as well. A comprehensive training program for attorneys (both older and younger) can be helpful in getting them to transition their research habits. We have instructed our attorneys to use the free Internet while they are formulating their legal research question. This gives them ideas for alternate language, gives them some free resources to start their research and demonstrates due diligence (the court expects attorneys to know anything about their subjects that can be found with a simple Google search). The next step is picking up in-depth knowledge of a legal subject area. If the attorney needs to get a deep background in an unfamiliar area of law, that's best accomplished with print resources. The final and most exhaustive step is to use a paid online resource to get background information and additional cases, and to use a legal citator such as Shepard's or Keycite to check the law's currency. This is the last step because it's the deepest dive and the easiest on which to lose track of time. As hyperlink leads to hyperlink, it's easy to lose track of your original question. It's best to use these sources when you have a solid idea of what you still need to complete your research. Giving attorneys these best practices gives them more confidence in their research process. Attorneys learn how to use new resources, and firms provide continual training, but they rarely revisit how to approach a legal research question from top to bottom — many of them haven't done so since law school. I believe this is the root of the generational divide in preferences related to legal research and seeking information. As a result, it's necessary to focus the training on the research process as a whole in order to bring everyone's skills in line. AALL/ILTA White Paper 57