Dumpling in a Hanky

Admittedly, various legal database suppliers seem to think that English/Welsh law and Scots law are interchangeable. For example: Westlaw. It’s developed a sort of “know how” product called Insight, which should allow more in depth analysis and updates on certain points of law. This is handy, and the sort of things our users like – no wading through articles or textbooks and checking if they’re up to date or take into account recent judgments – just nice primers on specific legal points. Which would be lovely, if Westlaw could remember that not all jurisdictions are the same. When I go into the Scots Law tab on Westlaw (which should restrict my searches to only Scottish material, hence avoiding a lot of time wasting and confusion when I’m looking for something with a specific Scottish meaning), it gives me the new option of Insight within that tab. “Oh good,” I thought, “they’re actually paying some attention to their Scottish users, and putting Scottish content on!”. So I wen...

Information Overlord kindly pointed me towards Wests reply to the staggeringly badly thought out "Librarian name" marketing email. Wisely, they've put their hands up and confessed to being *rses, and apologised. A good response, but why did a massive (I believe, I'm not overinformed on the US legal information suppliers marekt) company whose focus is on supplying information to legal and information professionals, ever think that it would be ok to insult the best informed sector of their users? And who authorised that email going out? Did they look at it and go "Yup, that's just the tone we want to set!" Apparently, it "won't happen again". I'm just surprised that it happened at all.

Well, West (the American parent of our UK Westlaw) seem just about ready to start giving classes in "simultaneously patronising and insulting some of your core users". Sarah Glassmeyer posted this screenshot to Twitpic of a West email to its users. Shall I explain why I find this to be hugely insulting? Well.... do West understand who the biggest users / on site trainers / troubleshooters / BUYERS of its products are? Have they ever actually met a librarian, or do they still think all librarians wear half-moon glasses / twinsets / pearls / sensible shoes / their hair in buns? I suppose we should be grateful they didn't throw in a clipart library matron, or something about keeping te noise down too. And do they really think it's a good idea to imply that knowing a colleagues name in another department, who's there to do expert research work to save that fee earner valuable time, is beneath the dignity of a fee earner? Sigh. *Written by the librarian who has sho...

The Scottish Council of Law Reporting , publishers of the Session Cases, have made selected cases available for free from their website. In their own words: For some years the Scottish Council of Law Reporting has provided the law-teaching universities in Scotland with a CD-ROM containing cases selected from the Session Cases ® archive to distribute as a learning aid to their students. Technologies change, and the Council is pleased to provide a database of Scottish cases selected from their archive as an open access resource. The only problem I'm having is finding out a listing or index of what these selected cases are, but hey, for allowing even some access to an otherwise subscriber access only database, I'm not complaining!

Having had to delve in quickly already this morning, I'm liking the redesign. My main delight is the fact that, when using Stair Memorial Encyclopedia (our main reason for subscribing), there's now a lovely new option. Previously, to see a whole section of the encyc, you had to click individually on each separate paragraph. Now, when you click into a para, there's a lovely option in the top right that says "View whole of"...it's a joy! Now I can scroll merrily through the encyclopedia, without thinking that it'd actually be quicker to use the paper version! Well done Lexis Nexis! Now, off to get used to the navigation (already re-sorted my bookshelf) before someone else needs me to do something useful with it!