Mind the Gap – or how I learned not to love Google

1. Mind the Gap – or how I learned not to love Google Philomena Humphries and Justin Booker Information Services, UWA

2. What is the gap? • What are the reasons for the gap? • What we can do to help bridge the gap?

3. The nature of the gap (Moore,1903) “specific and practical instruction be given to students in law schools so as to enable them at the very beginning of their career as practicing lawyers to "find the law" more expeditiously than would be possible without such instruction.” (Foote, 1917) “the function of the school is to fit the attorney to practice law, not merely to pass the state examination … law school curricula are overcrowded …nor are the prospects of a four-year course sufficiently bright to promise immediate relief.” (Rombauer,1973 on the University of Chicago program of the 1940s ) “Emphasis [is] on the intimate working relationship of research, analysis and exposition… and exposure to realistic problem fact patterns and to the fuzzing of subject matter classifications in real problems (Mills, 1977) “nearly all the people who have added computerized legal research instruction to their teaching say that it is necessary first to be sure the student understands and is able to use the manual research tools. One might ask, not so frivolously, whether legal bibliography instruction is going to have to be emphasized more in the future than it has in recent years

4. Reasons behind the gap? What the literature says… • Digital mindset • Print v online • ‘Satisficing’ • Rivers and pools • Reality gap • Preference /need for ‘on the job’ training’ • Problem based learning • Structure of legal research programs • Often not embedded throughout the course • Not sufficiently practiced and tied to assessment and perhaps • Unrealistic expectations

5. Feedback from local law firms General/Secondary sources: Understand what is meant by Primary and Secondary sources of law, the authority of different sources, where to get an overview of an area of law, know how to structure and document a search. Legislation • by subject, judicially considered, from authoritative sources, delegated legislation from authoritative sources, updated, amended, point in time, numbered, reprinted, compilations, date of assent and commencement information. Cases • by party names, citation or topic, judicially considered, the difference between authorised and unauthorised authorised report series, reported and unreported cases, whether an unreported case has subsequently been reported.

6. Recent law school graduates and vacation clerks The training sessions are great and you come out of there and say “that’s good – I get that” but because you don’t really practice it you tend to forget it… If you’re not really using it..if you’re not putting it into practice right way you forget it so quickly and we just don’t do assignments where you need to search legislation… If its relevant to that subject and the unit coordinators are keen to do more assessments like that its actually pretty useful… you whine about it at the time… Maybe we do too much in first year –it’s a bit overwhelming - and it could be done later

7. Surveys of integrated research skills in law schools (Cuffe, 2002)

8. Surveys of integrated research skills in law schools Numbers of respondent Law Schools - from the 2002 Australasian Research Skills Training Survey question: Is legal research compulsory? 1st year only Compulsory in 2 years Compulsory in 3 or more years No Compulsory subject (Hutchinson, 2002)

9. Integrated research skills in WA Law schools, 2010 • In the first years of their course 100 % of students receive several hours of lectures/workshops – some assessed with online quizzes. • In middle and later years this drops off with students receiving 1 hour or less of direct f2f instruction in their final year. • Much more emphasis on our online guides (Libguides)which are highly used but tend to be a ‘point of need’ resource unless they can be introduced and put into ‘context’ by a librarian or law lecturer.

10. What we can do to bridge the gap?

11. What we can do to bridge the gap? • Use the information gained to press for more embedded learning throughout degrees, treating research as a thinking, intellectual as well as practical activity. • Provide problem based learning and practice opportunities that are assessed, rather than demonstrating skills in isolation. • Be nimble in responding to changes in the way that information is managed - both the rivers and the pools. • Current developments in higher education are an opportunity to press our case.

12. LLB Threshold Learning Outcome 4: Research Skills Graduates of the Bachelor of Laws will demonstrate the intellectual and practical skills needed to identify, research, evaluate and synthesise relevant factual, legal and policy issues. Explanatory note “Intellectual and practical skills”include information literacy skills and an expectation that graduates are able to identify the need for research, select and use appropriate information sources, and determine their authority. These skills also include the ability to read, comprehend, and paraphrase a range of legal and non-legal documents; as well as legal referencing skills; an understanding of the requirements of academic integrity; and the ability to manage, organise, and retrieve information effectively.

13. What we can do to bridge the gap? • Legal Research Competencies • WA Legal Research FAQs • UWA F2F refresher

14. Where to from here?

15. Philomena Humphries | Acting Manager, Law Library Information Services philomena.humphries@uwa.edu.au Justin Booker | Law Librarian, Law Library Information Services, UWA justin.booker@uwa.edu.au