I recently asked the persons subscribing to this list to think
about and respond to the questions that I asked which were based
on quotes from a synopsis ("...a glimpse of the results...") of
the CALI/LEAP 1992 LAW SCHOOL SURVEY. I have received 10
responses to my questions and there seem to be no further replies
forthcoming. I will repeat the quotes and the questions and then
below each, I will summarize the responses that I have received.
I. Quote: "West and Mead are by far the biggest suppliers of new
equipment to the law schools."
Question: Has West or Mead supplied your school with computer
equipment 1) exclusively for purposes other than accessing their
CALR services, or 2) for purposes that include access to their
CALR services but also include other uses (word processing,
access to CD-ROMs other than West's proprietary CD-ROMs,
networking [LAN or WAN], other)? If the answer to part 1 or 2 of
the above question is yes, please elaborate.
SUMMARY OF RESPONSES: The quote above appears to be literally
correct, but the answers to my questions show considerable
limitations on the largess of West and MDC. MDC and West have
established "permanent learning centers" at almost all of the
libraries which answered my questions and have placed machines in
law review offices, moot court offices, and at other locations in
the schools. Establishment of these centers and placement of
other machines has not resulted in the transfer of title in the
equipment to the schools. Further, neither West nor MDC allow
use of their equipment for purposes other than using their
systems, with very limited exceptions. Two of my respondents
said that their students were allowed to use Word for Windows on
the "permanent learning center" machines after strenuous
negotiation with their local reps.. In a more common
arrangement, MDC allowed the law review or moot court at many of
the schools to use Word for Windows on the machines in those
offices. As a rule, the machines "loaned" by West and Mead must
be used solely to access their respective systems.
On the other hand, if MDC and West had not provided access to
these machines, the schools would have had to shell out major
dough to provide a similar number of machines or would have had
to get by with substantially less equipment available to their
students.
II. Quote: "West and Mead are the primary suppliers of printers
in the document centers, and the units are not necessarily
dedicated."
Question: Has Mead or West supplied your school with a printer or
printers that can be used for purposes other than handling print
requests initiated during a research session using the supplier's
CALR system? If yes, please elaborate.
SUMMARY OF RESPONSES: Let me preface this section with a
confession of error. The quote dealt with printers in "document
centers." My question ranged much wider than the quote.
Among my respondents, all of the printers placed by MDC and West
were "dedicated" to print jobs from the computers placed by the
respective vendors. West printers only printed jobs sent from
West computers and MDC printers only printed jobs from MDC
computers. If the computers allowed use of Word for Windows, the
printers would print Word for Windows documents. Since most of
the computers were restricted to use on the CALR systems, most of
the printers were restricted to producing printouts of CALR
session documents (cases, etc.).
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* Tom Hanley * Internet: hanley@udavxb.oca *
* University of Dayton * .udayton.edu *
* Law Library * Bitnet: hanley@dayton *
* 300 College Park * Phone: (513) 229-2444 *
* Dayton, OH 45469-1350 * FAX: (513) 229-2555 *
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* "Happiness is no laughing matter." *
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