Legal Research

ZiefBrief was surprised to learn recently that Westlaw now includes some hornbooks and nutshells. (As of today, there are 7 hornbooks, and 16 nutshells ? a tiny percentage of what's available in print.)

ZiefBrief was not at all surprised to discover, when we tried to field test these online nutshells and hornbooks, that they are not included in law school subscription plans. Having nutshells and hornbooks available to law students on Westlaw would no doubt completely undercut the market for the print versions of these excellent study aids, and we can't imagine that West's book publishing division would put up with that.

So who does this help? Researchers with commercial accounts. Nutshells and hornbooks are great way for lawyers to get up to speed quickly on new and unfamiliar areas of law, and having them on Westlaw puts them in the hands of attorneys who wouldn't normally have print copies hanging around.

(To see what hornbooks and nutshells are available, log on to Westlaw, and enter "IDEN" in the "Search these databases" textbox. At the IDEN search screen, switch to "Terms and Connectors," and run this search: hornbook or nutshell. Academic users can run this search, but they won't have access to the publications .