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Full-Text Articles in Law
Back Away From The Survey Monkey!, James M. Donovan
Back Away From The Survey Monkey!, James M. Donovan
James M. Donovan
In an environment of too many—and too many ill-designed—surveys, our twin aims should be to reduce the number of surveys overall and to improve the quality of those that do circulate. This burden falls on both those who distribute questionnaires—to make them as efficient as possible—and those answering—to decline to participate in any project that shows signs of unthoughtful design, thereby forcing surveyors to “up their game.” Good surveying, a difficult task in the best of circumstances, becomes even more complicated when pushed through the favored medium of the online discussion list (commonly called a listserv), a choice that can …
Not Just Key Numbers And Keywords Anymore: How User Interface Design Affects Legal Research, Julie M. Jones
Not Just Key Numbers And Keywords Anymore: How User Interface Design Affects Legal Research, Julie M. Jones
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Legal research is one of the foundational skills for the practice of law. Yet law school graduates are frequently admitted to the bar without adequate competence in this area. Applying both information-foraging theory and current standards for optimal web design, Ms. Jones considers, through a heuristic analysis, whether the user interfaces of Westlaw and LexisNexis help or hinder the process of legal research and the development of effective research skills.
Thinking Like A Research Expert: Schemata For Teaching Complex Problem-Solving Skills, Paul D. Callister
Thinking Like A Research Expert: Schemata For Teaching Complex Problem-Solving Skills, Paul D. Callister
Paul D. Callister
The difference between expert and novice problem-solvers is that experts have organized their thinking into schemata or mental constructs to both see and solve problems. This article demonstrates why schemata are important, arguing that schemata need to be made explicit in the classroom. It illustrates the use of schemata to understand and categorize complex research problems, map the terrain of legal research resources, match appropriate resources to types of problems, and work through the legal research process. The article concludes by calling upon librarians and research instructors to produce additional schemata and develop a common hierarchical taxonomy of skills, a …