A Mini-Review of WestlawNext Canada

My team has nearly finished with our project rolling out the new WestlawNext Canada platform. So far the response to the new site is positive. WestlawNext Canada has a lovely new feature along side the new all-in-one search box that will be interesting to Slawyers.

Folders

Within WestlawNext Canada a user can create folders to store information like full documents or snips from a WNC content (cases, legislation, texts and annotations as well as journal articles). Sharing a folder with colleagues within the firm is also available.

While I like the concept of sharing folders full of research bits with other WNC users in my firm, I am a bit surprised that this doesn’t have as much initial uptake as I expected. Perhaps my expectations were out of line with the reality of the learning curve for a new platform. While there is nothing terribly difficult, WNC does have a different philosophy underpinning the site than Westlaw Canada. With Westlaw Canada the philopsophy was browse or search within a collection. WestlawNext Canada is based on finding all kinds of relevant results regardless of the source type.

There are many shortcuts and advanced user processes that are available within every tool – WNC included. Perhaps once the learning plateaus, the functionality of organizing research in folders and sharing folders to collaborate with team members will catch on.

User guides are available for creating and sharing folders through the Carswell Customer Learning Centre for those interested in but not yet exposed to WNC.