Travisthetrout's Blog

Going Bookless September 11, 2009

Last week it was reported (brought to my attention by Out of the Jungle blog) that a prep school in Massachusetts is planning on going bookless by 2010.  $500,000 is being spent on a new “learning center” to replace the library. With the emphasis on it being a learning and sharing environment, using technology to channel the information and apparently saving space. The report also states that the students will not be cutting back on reading.

Good idea for the mainstream?

Firstly from a cost point of view, Not every school can splash out on a new “learning center” at least not for the equipment that would make this a high quality experience. So when these students leave their school they may be back to old fashioned book reading – how quaint, and probably for them, difficult.

Secondly, sure scrolls were replaced by books etc, it is natural for technology to swap and change but does technology and digital information really have lasting permanence – do we really want to become the least documented generation, and do we want to lose our history.There is also the potential for more of the nonsense and less reputable sources to sneak in.

Another significant problem with good bookless is the stress on your eyes. Can we really we encouraging people to spend more time staring at a computer screen when they could just as easily be looking at a book and enjoying the experience without feeling tired. Long articles are hard to read on the computer and even some short ones are – and although there is already a lot of information that can’t be found in books as libraries go more digital and have to be read online – more people print things off, as it is easier to read.

How will this impact learning?

Surely some valuable skills will be lost here and I can’t help but wonder what will happen later down the line when a student is expected to research something or do something that should still be considered simple with the number of books out there (remember the kids reaction to the walkman? – he could use it but not to its full advantage).

With Law everyone is expected to look up resources at some point during their studies or careers. At university we survived because the law school subscribes to the majority of the legal resources out there so we don’t have to pay for them. In our careers we hope that our firm is also willing to spend the money to subscribe to electronic resources. But in some cases they may prefer good old fashioned books and there are times when I do as well.

It is important to note that just because it is electronic doesn’t mean it is better. On the LPC we are assessed in legal research in the form of 2 exams. First one, the easy one did entirely electronically got virtually full marks, easy. Yet the second one, caused problems for all. In our practice exam we spent 3 hours looking for something electronically, which could have been found in less than 5 minutes using the books. All because we couldn’t get the right keyword. For electronic resources to always be efficient we need to know the right keyword to search for, to hit the nail on the head. With books you have the ease of browsing, which is surprisingly harder and more time consuming on a computer screen. Find and search functions don’t help if you don’t know the exact word you are looking for.

ULTIMATELY a hybrid is the way to go in my opinion, a nice balance between the new and the old – books are not obsolete – but functional, educational and simple to use.

[Taking another look at] Lexology July 1, 2009

Today (in between a spa treatment, notebook hunting, lunch at the Pheasant, visiting a close friend and fighting a cute kitten for my dinner) I decided to play around with Lexology a wee bit more since I got reminded of it by an email from lawcareers. Makes a nice change from Linex Legal.

Lexology, for those who have not come across it before is a service that upon registration, emails you a newsfeed (daily) of the articles published by Commercial law firms. Sort of like all the firm newsletters in the one place. and the best thing about it is that it is FREE.

Registration is easy, simply fill in a few details such as name address etc. Then choose some practice areas from the extensive choice and the jurisdiction (again you can choose as many as you please). You do get a lot of information coming through, so it is probably best to limit yourself as there is a lot of material to get through and the more there is the more likely you are to skim over it.

The information you initially get is identified by name, date and firm with a brief description. Upon clicking it you get the opportunity to read the article in a text form or in some cases a PDF document mostly about legal developments and cases. As well as hosting it on their website there is also a link to the original posting on the Firm’s website.

In many ways I think this is a great service as it saves you signing up to different newsletters from different firms, and also the ability to limit it by practice area, (rather than by firm) to allow you to get rid of the things you don’t particularly want to read. As a student, this resource interests me as it allows me to learn about new things and explore new interests, from sources I probably wouldn’t come across otherwise. It also provides a source of inspiration. However, there is a severe risk of information overload. However, publications are usually written in a simple and easy to understand form (compared to some of the books I poured over during undergrad) which is definitely an added bonus in my opinion.

InformationOverlord recently had a look at a similar service: mycorporateresource.com – it appears to be aimed primarily at the american market and for those who are inhouse lawyers / involved in corporate organisations – but does provide UK information as well and up-to-date RSS feed. Also mentioned in his blog post is another service called Mondaq, unfortunately I’ve not had the pleasure of trying this one out – but I think that I’ve had enough legal reading for one day of my holiday.

Take Care.