Funny you should bring this up, Jim, since yesterday I "went
ballistic" over this very issue with one of our online vendors.
It seems to me that by questioning our own motives in
wanting to control the type and quality of exposure that our
students and faculty get to online services we are blaming
ourselves once again for a situation instead of wondering
whether online reps _should_ be involved in this type of
training. They work for WESTLAW and LEXIS (or whatever service,
I don't mean to pick on WESTLAW and LEXIS necessarily). WE
work for our faculty and students. It is in their interest to
encourage the use of online services. It is in our interest to
teach the efficient and intelligent use of all legal research
methods, not just online services. They have managed to
portray their services as more "fun" or more "comprehensive"
or whatever (I've never been at one of their pitches to deans
or faculty, naturally) and have grabbed the attention away
from those plodding boring methods that we teach and
encourage. They then move on, leaving us to repair the
damage and take the heat from law firm librarians. I know that
we are all understaffed and that it is really a help when a
_competent_ vendor's rep is willing to teach CA legal research
to our students and faculty and supply us with paper and ink
and all those dandy t-shirts and mugs. I also know that given
our usual lack of influence with TPTB (The Powers That Be) it
is unlikely we can change things by ourselves. And I am
encouraged by the number of students and faculty who
eventually turn up to admit that computer assisted legal
research doesn't give them everything they need and could I
please help them find something and get a handle on their
research? But sometimes I wonder whether letting online
reps teach legal research isn't a little like letting
medical supplies salespeople into the hospital operating
room. They know how to use their own suture to sew up the
patients, but do they know where to cut without killing them?
Well, gotta go...the third floor copier's out of paper
again...Professor X's book is overdue at the main library...
some third year needs to know what USC means...
-- C. A. Corcos CWRU Law School Cleveland, OH 44106 USA cac2@po.cwru.edu
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