AALL 2012

Target Audience: Anyone who uses multiple online legal research vendors in their normal workflow

Learning Outcomes:
1) Participants will be able to assess the advantages and disadvantages of newer generation vendor engines over classic versions of Bloomberg Law, LexisNexis, and Westlaw.
2) Participants will be able to discuss how the adoption of these new versions of standard research tools affects the education of end users and workflows in libraries.

What began as a lively discussion of WestlawNext last year in Philadelphia continues with this sequel program. This forum will enable librarians familiar with Bloomberg Law, LexisNexis Advance, and WestlawNext to compare the developments of these research tools and consider the effect these changes have had in libraries. The discussion will contrast the latest interfaces of these services to their classic versions, as well as to each other. What worked? What failed? Have these “improvements” changed the workflow at your institution or company? Did these changes impact user preference? And, how can vendors improve future product generations? Practical matters – such as implementation, user education, accuracy of results, document sharing, billing practices, and user satisfaction – will dominate the discussion.