Re: response to wren on west

Hear Hear! The same could be said for access to art information. I agree.

Maryly Snow
UC Berkeley
Architecture Slide Library
slides[_at_]ced.berkeley.edu

> Colleagues:
>
> I have read the article in Wired Magazine and Christopher Wren's
> response. Mr. Wren made some statements in his letter that I felt needed
> a response.
>
> He is quite correct in pointing out the distinction between pagination
> and citation, but he is too quick to dismiss the usefulness of public
> domain case and statutory information. I have worked as a reference
> librarian for over ten years, and rarely a day goes by that I don't deal
> with non-lawyer patrons who could be much better served by having access
> to this type of information. The advent of widespread public access to
> the internet, and the availability of search software on both personal
> computers and through various internet sites means that users no longer
> need to purchase both the search engine and the raw data from the same
> vendor in order to use it effectively.
>
> Leaving aside the technical issues, there is a more fundamental issue:
> how does one value the right and/or need of ordinary people to have ready
> (inexpensive) access to the statutes, regulations, and case law that they
> are expected to follow? I believe that assuring widespread access to
> these materials should have a higher 'value' than whatever value is added
> by West Publishing when they paginate them. The emergence of new methods
> for delivering information offers an opportunity to address the legal
> information needs of persons outside the legal profession, but only if we
> are willing to re-examine existing attitudes about ownership and
> valuation of information.
>
> Christopher Noe
> Associate Law Librarian for Public Services
> College of Law Library; University of Idaho
> NOE[_at_]uidaho.edu
> voice (208) 885-6521 fax (208) 885-7609
Received on Thu Apr 28 1994 - 00:03:32 GMT