From Class: How do citizens, law students, lawyers, and judges seek information?
Citizens- Most get their info from "strong ties" or the internet
- Things people want access to online: renewing driver's licences, access to NIH, info on candidates' voting records, legislation commentary
- "If the digital divide cannot be bridged, resources should not be predominantly devoted to technology based resources"
- One library made a "citizen's advice bureau" within the library. It brought in different clientelle
Law Students- Need up to date legal material, need information to be readily accessible
- They are pessimistic, prefer to work on their own, and tend to use paper sources
Lawyers- Sources: Office files, electronic sources (like westlaw), people
- Novice lawyers need to learn to think in terms of how information can be used and applied to their cases
Judges- Sources: Facts of the case, law clerks, statutes and laws, other judges, their own history
- They need: knowledge of current statutes and laws; and current trends in cases
SynthesisLaw professionals need current information above all else because statutes continually change. They rely a lot on personal/interoffice files, but they might need help organizing them. They mostly need primary sources in order to do their jobs.
Citizens seem to rely heavily on friends and the internet for information, and so maybe libraries could help them by setting up forums for discussion, and training them to use the internet effectively and evaluate internet sources.
