Almost as soon as the technology existed for computers to talk to one another, so grew the notion of information as transient, kinetic, ubiquitious and unbound. As Stewart Brand, author, editor and creator of the Whole Earth Catalog noted at the Hacker’s Conference in 1984, “The information wants to be free.”
And today it is, with free repositories of caselaw, plus regulatory and administrative materials easily accessed through hundreds of government and commercial Web sites – including our own, FindLaw, which offers one of the Web’s largest collections of free legal information.
These sites are a great resource for professionals and personal users interested in general background on a legal matter or case. But for specialized users, and for the most critical applications, information needs to be more than free.
It needs to be relevant, current, contextual, organized and authoritative – requiring rigor, process and, for West, a human hand guided by unique expertise and insight.
We asked Bob Berring, legal research guru and Walter Perry Johnson Professor of Law at the University of Califonia, Berkeley, for his thoughts on the matter:
Editor’s note (Oct. 30, 2009): West has published legal research titles authored by Bob Berring. He was a consultant and speaker at law librarian events for West until 2007.
Posted by John Shaughnessy in:
In Practice | Video |
