Legal Commentary

Some readers have asked me to address teaching the research aspect of LRW head-on.

Of all of the components of an LRW program, I found teaching research to be the most difficult.  We had help from two resources on this score--librarians and Lexis/Westlaw reps.  The Lexis/Westlaw reps bring a tremendous amount of knowledge about their products to the table.  My sense is that the trouble is that they are trying to sell these products to students.  They aren't trying to teach the most efficient and effective ways to resolve questions.  Thus, they don't introduce all available tools, including actual books (particularly good as secondary sources to get you started on a project) as well as other online resources like government websites that carry many primary sources.

Law librarians are a different story altogether.  They bring a huge amount of knowledge and information to the table, and they can introduce students to a whole range of resources.

None of this has anything to do with how to teach legal research, though.  And like I said, I found it very difficult to teach in an effective way.  I invite readers to drop comments.