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Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Law - Law librarian comments on the law student "search" mentality
The Houston Chronicle had a feature August 1st on DeCarlous Spearman, law library director at Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law. A quote:
Q: What is your goal as the TSU law library director?A: My goal is to bring the library truly to the next level, bring it truly into the electronic age. I want podcasts of classes and seminars and webcasts, too, so students can see the materials being discussed. In research, seeing the tools can be as important as hearing about how to use them.
First-year students expect the databases to do it all for them. I want them to learn that legal research is not like that.
Q: What do you miss? What has technology taken away?
A: What I miss is what technology's taken away from the students.
Students now want quick, fast answers — yesterday. But they have no idea how to get the complete answers, or what it takes to get the entire picture. Technology's taken that from the student body and even faculty members.
I call it the microwave age: If it can't go in and come out ready in five minutes, they don't want it. But that's not enough. Research isn't always quick. Complete research has to be comprehensive.
Sometimes one source won't do it. But today students want what I call Wal-Mart research — one-stop shopping. Students 12 years ago were more patient. They mixed book research with Lexis or Westlaw. I'm not OK with the quick answers.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 6, 2008 08:52 AM
Posted to General Law Related