ok, y'all,
Lexis/Nexis has not revolutionised "the way law libraries store, access, and
share information".
Lexis/Nexis in a database that "resides" in one location. Any entity with a
Lexis/Nexis account, be it a law library, law office, individual professor,
academic department in a university / research centre "subscribes" to the
right to access this "fixed-location" database -- hence the fees for online
connect time. Simultaneous use is facilitated by multiple terminal with
telecommunication capability. "Sharing" is technically on target only in the
sense that several people can browse the same database at the same time.
Jamie, the reason that libraries have policies against general public access is
that database searching is only meaningful when "onliners" know what they're
doing to the end that they actually retreive the desired information. When
you're paying by the minute for someone who has not been trained in search
engines, it could be very expensive -- a nightmare for the typical underfunded
library.
Interesting that now you've become a West PR agent in the heat of this new
twist to the discussion.
With that, I think I'll head for the Bermuda Triangle
Cheers
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 03/09/00 PST