Hay in a Haystack

One of my colleagues, found a colourful way to describe his growing disconnect with finding legal information on his own: “It’s like trying to find a piece of hay in a haystack.”

A Law Librarian blog post offers an excellent visual representation of this concept:

Created by Jessica Hagy, author of Index

These two haystack comments make me think of teaching legal research. The topic has been on my mind a lot lately. And recent debate here at Slaw about sources of legal material tells me that others are likely thinking about it too.

On the weekends, I am a farmer. There is no hay on my property only straw…but the analogy is similar. I have some chickens and there is straw in their habitat. There are many different lengths of straw, some pieces are wider than others, some shine, some are flat, some have grain attached. The chickens like the straw with the grain attached the most.

I am working on a new plan for teaching legal research. I think that the major focus will be on finding straw with grain attached.