PRINCIPAL POSTING: LAW-LIB
COLLATERAL POSTINGS: AIL-L LEGWRI-L
LAWLIBREF-L PRIVATELAWLIB-L
LEGALSTUDIES
I am posting an announcement released by Adams & Ambrose
Publishing about _Using Computers in Legal Research: A Guide to
LEXIS and WESTLAW_, a book my wife, Jill, and I recently finished
writing. I thought this publication, which will begin shipping
on January 6, might interest subscribers to this list. The
announcement, which appears below, provides more detail about the
book.
Thanks for your attention, and my apologies to those who
subscribe to more than one of the foregoing lists and receive
multiple copies of this message.
Chris Wren
Madison, Wisconsin
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* * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
* BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT *
* *
* * * * * * * * * * * *
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 5, 1994
Contact:
Joyce Harrington
(608) 257-5700 -- voice
adams_ambrose@acm.org -- e-mail
ADAMS & AMBROSE PUBLISHING ANNOUNCES PUBLICATION
OF AN INNOVATIVE NEW GUIDE TO LEXIS AND WESTLAW
Adams & Ambrose Publishing announces the publication of _Using
Computers in Legal Research: A Guide to LEXIS and WESTLAW_, by
Christopher G. Wren (J.D., Harvard Law School) and Jill Robinson
Wren (J.D., Boston University School of Law). This unique new
guide sorts out the vast array of LEXIS and WESTLAW features and
documents by showing where and how these elements fit into a
legal research project. Unlike other explanations of computer-
assisted legal research, _Using Computers in Legal Research_
organizes essential information according to the steps
researchers take in carrying out a research project. This
practical, easy-to-apply, task-oriented approach simplifies the
researcher's job of incorporating computers into a comprehensive
strategy for gathering facts, and finding, reading, and updating
the law.
With _Using Computers in Legal Research_, researchers don't
need to know or remember the names of LEXIS or WESTLAW features
or databases. Instead, researchers need only know what they want
to accomplish -- gather facts for a research project, find the
law, read the law, or update the law. By turning to the book's
explanation of each of these stages of legal research,
researchers will learn which database features and documents to
use to accomplish a desired research activity, how to make the
best use of those materials, how the database materials compare
with printed legal research tools (or whether no comparable
printed resource exists), and how to choose between using a legal
database or a printed resource (if a choice exists).
This framework that _Using Computers in Legal Research_
introduces for understanding computer-assisted legal research
helps researchers avoid the distraction of bells-and-whistles
changes to LEXIS or WESTLAW. The Wrens' guide identifies the
fundamental (and unchanging) characteristics that govern the
operation of LEXIS and WESTLAW. Then, by presenting information
about LEXIS and WESTLAW (and about database searching in general)
in the context of the research process of gathering facts and
finding, reading, and updating the law, the Wrens' guide helps
researchers recognize that cosmetic changes to the databases do
not affect what researchers can accomplish with a computer in
legal research.
MORE BENEFITS THE GUIDE OFFERS
Along with explaining how to gather facts online, and how to
use LEXIS or WESTLAW to find, read, or update the law, _Using
Computers in Legal Research_ teaches the dialects for searching
LEXIS and WESTLAW (Boolean logic and natural language) and offers
valuable guidelines (including little-known ones) for formulating
and modifying search requests most likely to direct the computer
in a successful search for the desired information. The guide
also offers a helpful checklist of techniques for keeping a
record of a LEXIS or WESTLAW search session, and makes
suggestions for determining when to stop an online search
session.
The guide's Detailed Table of Contents provides a
comprehensive, step-by-step overview of using LEXIS or WESTLAW
(as well as databases of nonlegal information) in a legal
research project. For researchers who want to look up an
explanation of an aspect of LEXIS or WESTLAW by its name, a
detailed index makes that information easily accessible.
Throughout, _Using Computers in Legal Research_ summarizes key
points in convenient Quick Guides researchers can use while
searching LEXIS or WESTLAW. And, because the chapters on
finding, reading, and updating the law online serve as a task-
oriented user manual for both LEXIS and WESTLAW, researchers can
easily pick and choose just those parts of the book bearing on
the legal research task they want to learn how to perform.
For teachers who don't have time to cover all the essentials
of using LEXIS and WESTLAW, the book will prove a valuable
resource they can have students use on their own as the need
arises outside the classroom to perform additional research tasks
independently. The guide operates as a self-contained teaching
tool: the screen reproductions from LEXIS and WESTLAW and the
accompanying explanations let researchers simulate searching
LEXIS or WESTLAW and learn computer-assisted legal research at
their own pace without being connected to a database service.
Researchers who log on to LEXIS or WESTLAW to perform a
research activity after reading about it in _Using Computers in
Legal Research_ can take better advantage of LEXIS and WESTLAW,
can search more efficiently, and can avoid incurring unnecessary
online charges to familiarize themselves with the operation of
the database services. Even experienced database searchers will
learn new techniques for improving the usefulness of their search
results.
GUIDE PROVIDES INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENT OF LEXIS AND WESTLAW
_Using Computers in Legal Research_ serves a second, equally
important purpose in addition to teaching the nuts and bolts of
how to use LEXIS and WESTLAW (including tips not found in other
guides): the Wrens' book offers a clear-eyed, independent
assessment of both LEXIS and WESTLAW that enables researchers to
evaluate what computers can -- and cannot -- do for them. In
this way, researchers acquire an understanding of when database
searching offers unique benefits, and when books can serve as
more effective research tools.
To illuminate what researchers gain and what they give up when
they use a computer in legal research, _Using Computers in Legal
Research_ provides an orientation to basic principles of database
searching and how, in general, a computer responds to search
instructions. The guide explains how the characteristics of
computers affect online legal research, how database searching
resembles researching in books and how it differs, and clarifies
the pitfalls of database searching (and what to do about them).
With the information in _Using Computers in Legal Research_,
researchers will be able to knowledgeably answer questions
critical to the effective and efficient use of online databases:
Should I use a legal database? At what point in my research
project? Which database should I use -- LEXIS or WESTLAW? When
can I benefit by using both? Would a legal database provide
flexibility, speed, or convenience in my research, improve the
comprehensiveness or timeliness of my results, or save me money?
By referring to the guide's Epilogue, researchers can also
explore the effects computer-assisted legal research can have on
access to the law, on the law itself, and on legal researchers
themselves.
Characterized by Professor S. Blair Kauffman, Law Library
Director at the University of Wisconsin, as "a textbook with
long-term reference value," _Using Computers in Legal Research_
helps legal researchers get the most out of database searching in
a way that no other book on the subject does. The guide offers
unique insights, coherence, and practicality by setting LEXIS and
WESTLAW (and nonlegal databases) in their essential context of
the steps of gathering facts, and finding, reading, and updating
the law -- steps that remain constant whether researchers use
computers or printed tools. Researchers will come away
understanding how to successfully incorporate LEXIS, WESTLAW, and
printed resources into a comprehensive legal research strategy.
# # #
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA
Title: _Using Computers in Legal Research:
A Guide to LEXIS and WESTLAW_
Authors: Christopher G. Wren and Jill Robinson Wren
Publisher: Adams & Ambrose Publishing
Dept. I
1220 South Park Street
P.O. Box 9684
Madison, WI 53715-0684
608/257-5700 -- voice
adams_ambrose@acm.org -- e-mail
ISBN: 0-916951-21-9
LC #: 93-40352
Length: 771 pages + 44-page index (paginated separately)
Format: 6 x 9 paperback, perfect bound
Price: $19.95 plus shipping, payable in U.S. funds
(Wisconsin state sales tax added to orders
sent to Wisconsin addresses)
Shipping
charges: For orders shipped to United States addresses:
$3.00 for the first copy to a single address
$1.50 per copy for each additional copy
For orders shipped to addresses outside the
United States, contact Adams & Ambrose Publishing
for shipping charges
Availability: From major bookstores and wholesalers, or
directly from the publisher
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS OF
_USING COMPUTERS IN LEGAL RESEARCH:
A GUIDE TO LEXIS AND WESTLAW_
Christopher G. Wren is a graduate of Harvard Law School, a
member of the Massachusetts and Wisconsin bars, and a former law
clerk to a federal judge.
Jill Robinson Wren is a graduate of Boston University School
of Law, a member of the Wisconsin bar, and a former law clerk to
two state court judges.
The Wrens are also the authors of _The Legal Research Manual:
A Game Plan for Legal Research and Analysis_, described by the
_Journal of Legal Education_ as "an excellent, well-written
introduction to legal research," as "the simplest and most
readable book in the field," and as an "intellectually fresh
approach." _Legal Information Alert_ has designated _The Legal
Research Manual_ one of the "50 most useful reference sources for
law libraries." In _Using Computers in Legal Research_, the
Wrens bring to their explanation of computer-assisted legal
research the same approach they brought to explaining book-based
legal research in _The Legal Research Manual_, for which their
new guide serves as a free-standing companion volume.
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