Legal research education: the challenge to British law schools

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Gray, Rosemary

Affiliations: Department of Law, North East London Polytechnic, London, UK

Abstract: The presence of commercial online legal research systems in the academic legal environment is forcing a timely reappraisal and re-evaluation of the current state of legal research instruction. With online legal research facilities available in approximately 90 per cent of British law schools the pressure on librarians and academic staff to provide effective training in the use of full text research systems for undergraduate students is growing. Preliminary responses to online legal research instruction indicate a tendency for academic staff to assume responsibility for any instruction given, in some instances, to the exclusion of library staff. Unless there is a radical rethinking of the aims and objectives of research instruction, the current trend may succeed in creating a false divide between online legal research and traditional library skills, which, it is argued, could have far-reaching implications for the status of the professional law librarian.

DOI: 10.3233/EFI-1984-2403

Journal: Education for Information, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 283-293, 1984