Summer Access To Lexis, Loislaw, and Westlaw

Summer is approaching, so don't forget to register your Lexis and Westlaw passwords for summer access.

LexisNexis Summer Access

Students may register for LexisNexis Summer Access by requesting access to LexisNexis using their Law School Educational ID from June 1 to August 1, 2010 for academic purposes. Academic purposes include, but are not limited to:

• Class preparation and assignments
• Summer school or course work
• Research associated with moot court, law review, or law journal
• Research associated with pursuing a grant or scholarship
• Service as a paid or unpaid research assistant to a professor
• An internship, externship or clinic position for school credit or graduation requirement
• Research skill improvement, such as improving research efficiency and sharpening your area of law research skills as you prepare for practice
• Study for the Bar Exam
• NEW: Research skill improvement for education purposes. You can take any Lexis Interactive Tutorials to prepare for your summer or fall employment

Please note:

'Academic purposes' do not include research conducted for a law firm, corporation, or other entity (other than a professor or law school) that is paying the student to conduct research, or that is passing along the cost of research to a third party. These are deemed 'commercial purposes.'

Loislaw

Loislaw provides one low, all inclusive flat rate; no hidden charges for hyperlinking, downloading or printing; free training; and 24/7 technical support. Loislaw does not pose any summer access restrictions on students.

If you are not graduating this summer, click here to get the authorization code, so you can register for an account with Loislaw, if you have not already done so. The code is listed on TWEN, under Law Library on Twen - Passwords.

If you are graduating and will no longer be a student, Loislaw is also available for free through the New York State Bar Association website if you are a member.

Westlaw Summer Access

Extend your Westlaw password for the summer. Current students may use the Westlaw password for the following purposes:

• Summer law school classes
• Law review or journal work
• Project for a professor
• Moot Court
• Unpaid, nonprofit public interest internship/externship pro bono work required for graduation

Please note:

Graduating students may extend their Westlaw password for the summer for the purpose of preparing for the July bar exam. Passwords may NOT be used for research for law firms, government agencies, corporations or other purposes unrelated to law school coursework. Students graduating this academic year are not eligible. Even if student does not qualify to extend his/her Westlaw password, the password may still be used 2 hours a month in June and July.

Free and Low Cost Resources

The Pace Law Library also has a guide to free and low cost resources: Free and Low Cost Resources for Legal Research, compiled by Cynthia Pittson.

WestlawNext and The Bluebook Citation Format

The WestlawNext site has some informative user guides and brochures, including a chart that compares features of the current Westlaw and WestlawNext. I was interested to read their comments about the use of The Bluebook citation format in WestlawNext. In one of the brochures, they talk about having

Copy and paste with citation, including Bluebook. You can paste text
into your work product with the official citations -- including The Bluebook, ALWD, California, New York and other leading formats.

It seems that if you "copy with reference" it will include a Bluebook citation by default, and you can choose other formats by clicking on the preferences option at the bottom of the screen. I am looking forward to seeing a live preview of the new interface!

Westlaw Next at Legaltech 2010

Westlaw Next was introduced at Legaltech NY on Monday by Thomson/Reuters. They went all out--full page ad in the N.Y. Times, serving coffee right on the corner in front of the Hilton, a flashy multimedia presentation called the Westlaw Experience that didn't impart a lot of information but supplied employment for several classical musicians, and sales reps with notebooks offering to demo it for you every ten feet. The product itself was demoed in the Westlaw booth. The new interface is cleaner and clearer, definitely a step in the right direction. There is a bar at the top of the screen where you type your natural language search, then select the jurisdiction from a list. When the documents are returned, there is a list of the most relevant documents from each category—case law, statutes, court documents, and secondary sources. On the left is a list of the types of documents and number of each retrieved. KeyCite flags are still integrated and the depth of treatment is now indicated by a green bar. ResultsPlus (not called that any more) still appears. There is no link for the Directory, Formfinder, Court Docs. It appeared that the only database restriction was by jurisdiction.

I'm not sure (and no one would tell me) exactly what data they were searching. It had to be an older data set since a search for the recent Supreme Court case Citizens United did not find that case.

The advanced search module was not available, but the Westlaw rep said that it was forthcoming. I inquired about getting a demo password, but there were none available. The interface is more modern, and should be available to the academic market in the fall (no word on pricing). Westlaw has invited local law librarians to another more in-depth demo on Feb. 17, and I am looking forward to seeing it then.

Summer Access to Lexis, Loislaw, and Westlaw

This post is to follow up on our previous two posts (by Cynthia) about Lexis and Westlaw summer access. This time, let's give it a summary and complete the list by adding Loislaw.

Lexis
Access to Lexis is limited beginning June 1 unless you register for summer access. Summer access is limited to academic purposes, which include:

• class preparation and assignments
• research associated with moot court or law review/law journal
• research associated with pursuing a grant or scholarship
• service as a research assistant to a professor (either paid or unpaid)
• an unpaid internship, externship or clinic position for school credit
• clerkship for credit
• bar review

Loislaw
Loislaw provides one low, all inclusive flat rate; no hidden charges for hyperlinking, downloading or printing; and free training and 24/7 technical support. Loislaw does not pose any summer access restrictions on students or non-students.

If you are not graduating this summer, as a student click here to get the authorization code, so you can register for an account with Loislaw, if you have not already done so. The password is listed on TWEN, under Law Library on Twen - Passwords.

If you are graduating and will no longer be a student, Loislaw is also available for free through the New York State Bar Association website if you are a member.


Westlaw
For those who are not graduating this summer, if you are participating in what qualifies as an educational program, you may extend your Westlaw password for the summer. Educational programs qualifies as:

• You are taking summer law school classes
• You are on law review
• You are working on a project for a professor
• You are participating in moot court
• You are doing an unpaid non-profit public interest internship/externship or pro bono work required for graduation.

Important - the following is NOT considered an educational purpose and are therefore prohibited:

• Working for law firms, government organizations, entities serving the District of Columbia, corporations, paid or for-profit internships, externships, public interest, non-graduation required pro bono
• Personal use, practice and preparation for the bar exam.

Contact us with any further questions!

Westlaw Summer Access

If you are not graduating this summer and are participating in a qualified program defined as an educational purpose, Westlaw allows you to extend your password for full use of Westlaw this summer. You must fit into one of the following categories:

• You are taking summer law school classes
• You are on law review
• You are working on a project for a professor
• You are participating in moot court
• You are doing an unpaid non-profit public interest internship/externship or pro bono work required for graduation.

The following categories are NOT considered an educational purpose and are therefore prohibited:

• Working for law firms, government organizations, entities serving the District of Columbia, corporations, paid or for-profit internships, externships, public interest, non-graduation required pro bono
• Personal use, practice and preparation for the bar exam.

Click here or the link above to extend your password.

Loislaw vs. Westlaw vs. Lexis

Above the Law posted this month, law firms as well as other businesses are coping with the difficult economic environment and are looking into cutting their costs without having to fire associates. One way to cut back on cost is to look at monthly bills for legal research databases. Some firms use Lexis, some use Westlaw, and some use both. The subscription packages wary from firm to firm. The one thing that doesn't wary are the multiple hidden costs within both of these databases. Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell decided to cut back on their legal research cost by embracing Loislaw for non-billable research.

Thanks to the faltering economy, we are now required to use Loislaw instead of Lexis or Westlaw for certain things. Unlike its more expensive counterparts, Loislaw has one "low, all-inclusive flat rate, with no hidden charges for printing, copying, downloading, or hyperlinking to primary law or analytic materials outside the scope of a current subscription."

All non-billable legal research involving case law, statutes or regulations at both the state and federal level should first be performed using Loislaw. Loislaw should also be used for billable research where appropriate, resulting in a much lower cost to the client. If additional research is required on Lexis or Westlaw that research must be billed to a client/matter. [Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell Memo]

See the firm's full memo here.

This makes me wonder, will the use of Loislaw become a trend in more law firms? And if so, will law school education, particularly legal research courses often taught by law librarians, need to adjust and possibly add Loislaw to the curriculum? What are your thoughts? Any comments?

A Day In A Life Of A Case

Have you ever wondered how does a case make its way to an electronic database? Decision is rendered by the court and the opinion is written, by the judge - and then it appears on Westlaw. How? If you'd like an answer, take a look at the following Westcast to find out. Click on the title or here to access the Westcast video podcast that highlights the process.

For Public Patrons of Pace Law Library

Lexis Public Access will replace the current Westlaw Public Access as of Saturday, November 2, 2008, and will be available on the public computer workstations in the Pace Law Library. The six public computer workstations are located on the main level of the library opposite the reference desk. Westlaw Public Access will no longer be available in the library after tomorrow November 1, 2008.

Access to Westlaw and Lexis for students, staff, and faculty is uninterrupted by this change.