Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
This reporter had no axe to grind. Thought this was a nice piece on the next generation of law students, who are tomorrow’s practitioners. You need to read the full article.
I quote without comment
A component of Pitt Law’s foundations of legal research class sends first-year students flipping through the wood pulp for legal information. Called “scavenger hunts” or “search and destroy” for their effect on the library stacks, this exercise requires law students to learn cross-referencing methods in the profession’s most antiquated medium.
First-year student Yvonne Messeih added, “If you are working for someone who is old-fashioned, they may not trust the Internet.”
“I do the majority of legal research for the partners at [Bassi, McCune & Vreeland] and the only time I am not using Westlaw for my research is when our Internet connection is down,” he said by e-mail.
I’m wondering just what the point of this story is. It talks about this legal research course on using books, but then undermines the focus by having primarily negative comments from students who have taken the course. The average reader probably would wonder why that librarian is bothering…
Of course, we know better, but who is pointing it out to the students?
My thought in posting it was the tone of the piece, and how fusty oldtimers were in using books – and the terrifying attitude of the students in accepting that the web had won in every respect, and that we can just demolish print.
We will be in a multi-channel research universe for the professional life of anyone reading this posting.