Colleagues:
I have read the article in Wired Magazine and Christopher Wren's
response. Mr. Wren made some statements in his letter that I felt needed
a response.
He is quite correct in pointing out the distinction between pagination
and citation, but he is too quick to dismiss the usefulness of public
domain case and statutory information. I have worked as a reference
librarian for over ten years, and rarely a day goes by that I don't deal
with non-lawyer patrons who could be much better served by having access
to this type of information. The advent of widespread public access to
the internet, and the availability of search software on both personal
computers and through various internet sites means that users no longer
need to purchase both the search engine and the raw data from the same
vendor in order to use it effectively.
Leaving aside the technical issues, there is a more fundamental issue:
how does one value the right and/or need of ordinary people to have ready
(inexpensive) access to the statutes, regulations, and case law that they
are expected to follow? I believe that assuring widespread access to
these materials should have a higher 'value' than whatever value is added
by West Publishing when they paginate them. The emergence of new methods
for delivering information offers an opportunity to address the legal
information needs of persons outside the legal profession, but only if we
are willing to re-examine existing attitudes about ownership and
valuation of information.
Christopher Noe
Associate Law Librarian for Public Services
College of Law Library; University of Idaho
NOE@uidaho.edu
voice (208) 885-6521 fax (208) 885-7609
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