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1.
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a. |
Characteristics
of the Web |
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(1) |
Age of
the Internet: little on-line information predating 1990 |
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(2) |
Access:
Web publication quick, easy and inexpensive |
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(3) |
Historical
Use: developed for military, scientific and technical academic communities |
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(4) |
Constituency:
computer-oriented individuals and organizations |
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(5) |
Programmable
and searchable |
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(6) |
Visual
(and becoming aural) |
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b. |
Research subjects appropriate for Web based on Web
characteristics |
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(1) |
Statistical
data |
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(2) |
Current
events (news and weather) |
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(3) |
Public
opinion |
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(4) |
Alternative
viewpoints |
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(5) |
New
product information, including product specifications |
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(6) |
Hardware
and software information, including software downloads |
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(7) |
Academic
research, especially in science, math, engineering and healthcare |
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(8) |
New or
continuously updated government publications (Fed Register, Federal agency information,
on-line forms) |
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(9) |
Collections
of changing information such as stock, commodity and product prices, telephone numbers,
and surface and email addresses |
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(10)
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Data
collections |
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(11) |
"Breaking"
legal news (especially US Supreme Court opinions) |
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(12) |
Photograph
and aural recording collections |
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(13) |
Consumer
information (healthcare, genealogy, financial, etc.) |
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(14) |
New and proposed
legislation, conference and committee reports, etc. |
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c. |
Research subjects NOT appropriate for legal Web research |
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(1) |
Historical
information (pre-1992) |
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(2) |
Case law
(other than very recent decisions where researcher has already identified a specific
pending case - lack of "official" status) |
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(3) |
Traditional
statutory research (lack of information on previous versions of statute) |
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(4) |
Treatises,
annotations |
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d. |
Duty to search the Internet: See Whirlpool
Financial Corp. v. GN Holdings, Inc., 67 F.3d 605 (7th Cir. 1995)
(reasonable investor presumed to have information in the public domain, including the
Internet) |
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e. |
Time
factor: faster accessibility of information from another source |
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2.
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a. |
Selected new search engines/directories |
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(1) |
Open
Directory©: volunteer driven |
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(2) |
Google©:
link popularity, ability to find non-indexed pages |
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(3) |
The
Electric Monk©: natural language searching |
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(4) |
DataGold©:
European search engine |
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b. |
Search engine changes |
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(1) |
AltaVista©:
paid listings (retraction note: 7/23/99); targeting of sophisticated researchers;
search freshness guarantee |
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(2) |
Snap©:
Global Brain© software used to rank searches |
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(3) |
Netscape©:
using Google© and Open Directory© to power search engine |
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(4) |
Northern Lights©: government searches, WEFA Group (economic
forecasts, financial analysis), Investext |
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c. |
Advanced search engine and directory searches |
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(1) |
Search
engine/directory features comparison |
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(2) |
Constructing
Boolean searches |
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(3) |
Search
bots: The Informant© |
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d. |
Specialized non-legal search engines: audio and video |
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(1) |
Scour.Net© |
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(2) |
Mamma© |
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(3) |
AltaVista© |
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(4) |
Lycos© |
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e. |
Other
general search engines of interest: |
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(1) |
Cyberholics© |
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(2) |
Alta
Vista Canada Search Engine© |
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(3) |
Ask
Jeeves© |
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(4) |
WebMarket© |
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(5) |
MySimon© |
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(6) |
GoTo.com© |
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(7) |
Motley Fool© |
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(8) |
NoWonder© |
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(9) |
TotalNews© |
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(10) |
OneLook© |
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f. |
Ranking
the Search Engines: search engine comparison chart |
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(1) |
Search
Engine Torture Test, About.com Web Search Guide |
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(2) |
Find it
on the Web, PC World, June, 1999 |
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(3) |
Search
Engine Shoot-Out, CNet, 4/7/99 |
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g. |
Search
engine coverage on the Web: search engine bias and depth of coverage |
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(1) |
Bias:
site popularity, U.S., commercial |
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(2) |
Depth:
Nor more than 16% through any one search engine (cumulative coverage less than 42%) |
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3.
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Legal Search
Engines/Directories and Webliographies (webliographies
are similar to specialized search directories, but "webliographies" are often
sponsored by an "interested" individual rather than an organization.
Webliographies may or may not searchable and are usually very narrowly focused.
Links often are annotated)
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a. |
FindLaw© (primarily U.S. based legal search directory) |
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b. |
Hieros Gamos© (U.S. and international legal search
directory) |
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c. |
Juristic Park© (primarily U.S. legal resources |
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d. |
Katsuey Kat's Legal Links© (partially annotated collection
of legal resource links) |
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e. |
The Legal Pad© |
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f. |
LawCrawler© |
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g. |
LawRunner© (by AltaVista)
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4.
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a. |
Copernic© |
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b. |
PeakJet© |
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c. |
Alexa© |
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d. |
Bookmarklets |
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f. |
LegalSeeker©
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5.
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a. |
Locating databases |
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(1) |
Lycos©:
approx. 7,000 databases indexed |
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(2) |
Direct
Search©: links to specialty databases |
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(3) |
Infomine
Scholarly Internet Resource Collections© |
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(4) |
Alpha
Search© (gateway sites) |
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(5) |
Internet
Sleuth© |
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(6) |
WebData© |
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(7) |
Social
Science Information Gateway© |
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b. |
Searching databases |
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(1) |
Searching
from database locators |
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(2) |
General
rules of thumb |
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c. |
Legal Databases |
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(1) |
Law
Office.com© |
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(2) |
Federal
Justice Statistics Resource Center |
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(3) |
Guide to
Foreign and International Legal Databases© |
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(4) |
Guide to
European Legal Databases, Update 3© |
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(5) |
Databases
Patent, Bibliographic, and AIDS© |
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(6) |
US Patent
Full-Text Database Manual Search |
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(7) |
Law Guru© |
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(8) |
Federal Civil Trials
(Cornell) |
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d. |
Medical Databases |
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(1) |
Healthweb© |
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(2) |
Medical
Matrix© |
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e. |
Corporate Databases |
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(1) |
Corporations
Database Query© |
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(2) |
Edgar;
10-K Wizard Search© |
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(3) |
Missouri Corporate
Database |
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(4) |
Companies House© |
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f. |
Miscellaneous Databases |
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(1) |
OSU
Online Image Database© |
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(2) |
PLANTS
National Database© |
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(3) |
USDA
Economic Research Service© |
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6.
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7.
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8.
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9.
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