A study of information seeking in lawyers

The IEEE Technical Committee on Digital Libraries Bulletin has a paper by Stephann Makri, titled “Studying Academic Lawyers’ Information Seeking to Inform the Design of Digital Law Libraries.” The paper is available online.

There are some fascinating findings in the study about what the lawyers actually believe about Lexis and Westlaw, and how they approach the two systems.

I particularly like the three systems or source knowledge that were identified.

We identified three broad types of system and information source-centred knowledge that academic lawyers held: awareness knowledge (which resources exist to help locate certain materials), access knowledge (whether they have access to certain materials and, if they do, how they might go about doing so) and usage knowledge (how to use the electronic resource). Faulty knowledge and misconceptions were rife across all types of knowledge that were identified. 

This study can help law librarians gear their training towards the areas where attorneys may need the most help. Focusing training on helping attorneys/law students/whoever know about the various resources that exist, what they have access to, and how to use those resources, specifically, would help make a great training series or orientation.

Thanks to Law Librations for pointing this out.