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Science-Computers-The Use Of Data Processing In Legal Research, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In 1960, at the American Bar Association Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., representatives of the University of Pittsburgh Health Law Center conducted a demonstration of the use of an electronic computer in searching statutory materials. For purposes of the search, each statutory section had been numbered consecutively and programmed into the computer which contained an alphabetical list of every word in the statutes (with the exception of articles) and their location. To locate material on a given topic, the searcher requested the machine to list the location of key words or combinations of words which he believed were present in …