I have just received the 3d edition of Discovering Westlaw. As I expected,
this book contains a chapter on natural language searching. I have had
a sort of ongoing skirmish with the West representatives and trainers about
the value of WIN and the need to explain its limitations when teaching
students about it. At the end of these exchanges, the reps nearly always
state that they do indeed discuss the limitations of WIN. I had hoped
(although not realistically) that the chapter in the new Discovering
WESTLAW would at least say that WIN is not comprehensive and that its
primary usefulness is to help a researcher get started. It does nothing
of the kind. There is not one word in the chapter about the fact that
two different searchers asking the same question in slightly different
terminology are likely to get two completely different lists of 20
cases. There are no words reminding researchers to follow up a WIN
search with either more online searching using terms and connectors
or with more manual research using traditional tools.
I have not made up my mind about whether I want to distribute the
new edition of Discovering Westlaw or to rely instead on Winning
Research Skills which does not yet discuss WIN. I am very much afraid
that turning students loose on WIN without discussions of its limitations
is akin to encouraging students to quote from headnotes without following
up by reading the cases.
Mary Brandt Jensen University of South Dakota
Director of the Law Library School of Law
Professor of Law 414 E. Clark St.
MJENSEN@CHARLIE.USD.EDU Vermillion, SD 57069-2390
(605) 677 6363 Fax (605) 677 6357
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 03/09/00 PST