Thank you to the many (law) students who completed the Library’s online survey recently. We hope to improve reference (and other) services, based on your input. One interesting take-away from the survey was the fact that many students are not familiar with several key computer-assisted legal research services, although those polled use either Westlaw or Lexis (ideally both at times, we hope) nearly on a daily basis.
Many students had at least heard of low-cost (or free with various bar membership) services such as CaseMaker and FastCase. Using these two databases can help you maximize your firm’s Lexis or Westlaw subscription, even if your firm has a “flat-rate” contract with either Lexis or Westlaw. (Alas, CaseMaker, FastCase, and Bloomberg’s B-Law do not offer incentive “points” to law students.) FastCase teamed up with HeinOnline in 2013 to provide its users with more in-depth secondary sources (law review articles). Many students are familiar with HeinOnline due to their cite-checking duties for student-edited journals, but an alliance with FastCase gives Hein (one of the few survivors of a major consolidation of legal publishers over the past decade or two) access to primary law, which is much needed for Hein to offer a more comprehensive legal research service.
Many students reported knowing neither about the BloombergBNA website and email services, nor CCH Intelliconnect. These are two major subscription resources provided by the library. This was interesting because the library was under the impression that a couple of law school classes actually require students to sign up for BNA email newsletters in areas such as criminal law or U.S. federal cases (including the Supreme Court). BloombergBNA offers specialized newsletters on a myriad of topics, such a Daily Executive Report, Environmental Law Reports, Toxic Torts Newsletters, and many other topics. BloombergBNA also offers specialized, topical “libraries” that may be a very efficient way to start research on health law, labor law, intellectual property, and tax. Here is additional information on BloombergBNA.
While students may not know about the BNA website and/or emails, they are likely to know that they are able to use Bloomberg’s B-Law research platform for free during the summer, “even for work” and for several months after graduating. Subsequently, Lexis has matched or exceeded this offer, starting in the summer of 2014, according to our Lexis representative.
Similar to BloombergBNA, CCH Intelliconnect offers integrated and targeted primary and secondary legal research resources on topics such as securities and business law, labor law, tax, and health law. CCH started out, before widespread use of computers, offering their topical “looseleaf” services in which new matter was interfiled at the appropriate “paragraph number” to allow the researcher to keep up to date on a known topic. Intelliconnect represents a translation of this “looseleaf service” model of updating to an online platform.
Another service many survey respondents had never heard of is FDSys, the Federal Digital System of the United States Government Printing Office (GPO). FDSys replaced GPO Access as a one-step shop for free, authenticated government documents, such as the U.S. Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, and the Federal Register. Selected federal cases are also available on FDSys.
While the GPO does not have the advertising budget, reward points, or in-school support of a Lexis or Westlaw, the GPO’s printed handout describes its best features: free government information from approximately fifty sources; historic and current content; easy or advanced, yet also precise, search capability; trustworthy, dependable and permanent information; and online help. Government information is available via online publications, such as the U.S. Government Manual and the Congressional Directory. Most government agencies also have robust websites, which are a handy tool when searching a specific agency, such as the EPA or the SEC.