Hello fellow law listers....
As I've been reading the issues (and responding to a few
posts) regarding these newest publishing tools, I have come
to realize a few things that I have not considered
before so I thought I'd share them w/you all. Sorry if this
drones on a bit......
CDROM technology is still in its infancy. New technologies
come to us so quickly now that we all forget just how
complex these technologies really are. We see an exciting
new product and due to the industry hype-spinners, we try
and embrace these new technologies with optimism - only to
have our preconceived notions (fueled by those drs. of
spinology) shattered by a few lousy products riding the
hype and some poorly represented pricing structures -
especially when the communication between vendors and their
customers is NOT clear and NOT concise and with very little
statistical justification to back the vendors
pricing.
When a truly excellent product finally
comes our way (yes I know - we're all waiting) - or even a
fairly good product, of which there are a few, the
benefits over hard-copy publishing will be enormous.
Hypertext searching and data linking are in pre-infant
stages at this time and as programmers get better at
providing truly powerful links between sources - and
multitasking between different resources links various
hypertext capacities together to access different
information on the same subjects and all related fields -
well, the benefits will be enormous to everyone - not just
our profession, but to the public at large.
As the CDROM industry grows and evolves I can only predict
that the information industry will be drastically changed by
these products. One of the constant, ongoing battles we all
have is space consideration - shelving availability. I know
how much trouble we all go through to constantly manipulate
our libraries to facilitate new materials and shifting
collections. The technology is close to the point where the
whole Federal Reporter series will be available in a
networked, multi-user access WITH cite linking to other
reporter series to support most common cites linkage. In
other words, pretend you are looking at a case in F.Rep 2nd
and there is a cite to a bankruptcy reporter case - you
highlight the cite, press enter, and bang - a hypertext link
to that case!
OK - so this is all well and good. How does all society
benefit? Think of how many libraries subscribe to these
reporters around the country. Think now of the forests,
petroleum products (glues and synthetics used in
publishing), and other resources that are destroyed or
over-extended on a daily basis, due to, not only the legal
industry, but every industry has similar informational
needs. The environmental impact - for once changing towards
a positive shift - will be enormous.
The library shelving space issues,
photocopying expenses, etc... will all be changing
drastically in the future due to these new technologies BUT
and this is a big but - the technologies that
are in their infancy now will soon be growing up at an
alarming rate. Not only CDROM's but other, far more
powerful storage devices are just around the corner with
capacities that equal supercomputer access speeds and
storage capacities that far surpass our largest file
servers. In the library fields, we have the potential for
directing some of that change as it relates to the
business community so lest we all sit and complain
retroactively about this product or that (though it's fun
to flame vendors I agree!), I put forth the suggestion that
we use our collectives (AALL, Norcall, etc...) to pull
weight and make sure that the future belongs to real world
decisions and not the spin drs. The fallacy that we need
both paper and electronic versions of information is
terribly misguided.
For the proposed paperless office envisioned decades ago, I
think that libraries, especially the legal and medical
libraries that utilize materials that are always updated and
propagate with the speed of hyperactive rodents, are ripe to
direct and benefit from these changes.
So.... what do YOU think?
Laurence W. Davidson Information Specialist
Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison ldavidson@brobeck.com
One Market Plaza - Spear Tower (415) 979-2747 (Ph)
San Francisco, CA 94105 (415) 979-2966 (Phax)
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