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Sunday, October 11, 2009
Blogs on Westlaw?
I was in the ALLNEWS database on Westlaw, and noted that some searches brought up posts from such legal blogs as Concurring Opinions and Volokh Conspiracy. Am I just late to the scene, but when did that happen? And how do you get your blog in Westlaw? I rarely use Lexis -- are legal blogs on it too?
Posted by Chris Lund on October 11, 2009 at 01:43 PM | Permalink
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Comments
FWIW, I am pretty sure Prawfs is part of the Newstex alliance of blogs included in Lexis. Not sure why we're not there under Westlaw--surely we're at least as authoritative as our wingnut friends over at Co-op and Volokh!
Posted by: Dan Markel | Oct 13, 2009 7:24:39 PM
MNO--
I agree wholeheartedly--we don't know that news is reliable now. In which case, how do we determine that any news is reliable--where does any of our information come from? For example, people are fact-checking the Saturday Night Live skit about Obama. Why aren't we fact-checking all news? And doesn't it matter *who* is doing the fact checking?
And good point about the political leanings of blogs. Though if all blogs are either right or left leaning, is there anyone who is writing without spin? (Is there anyone writing without spin in traditional media anyway?)
There's lots to consider...
Posted by: GJELblogger | Oct 13, 2009 3:04:18 PM
"how will we know if news is reliable?"
How do/did we know that anyway? The New York Times and others frequently issue corrections, with many other uncorrected pieces criticized for inaccuracy or at least incompleteness, misrepresentations, etc. Presumably, the Times would be more reliable than Joe's Family Newsletter, but a similar reputational determination can be made for blogs, can't it? (And at least blogs are generally overt about their political leanings.)
Posted by: MNO | Oct 12, 2009 11:38:07 PM
Interesting, and perhaps relevant if you're just sifting for information for personal reasons. But would anyone ever use this in a scholarly article or a brief? I hope not, but maybe we're headed that direction...
This brings up yet another problem--we frequently cite AP or New York Times articles or other "legitimate" news pieces. If bloggers are going to replace traditional media (as some suggest), how will we know if news is reliable?
Posted by: GJELblogger | Oct 12, 2009 4:57:05 PM
Law library blogs are a great way to stay on top of new content on Lexis and Westlaw. The American Association of Law Libraries publishes a list of law library and law librarian blogs here:
http://aallcssis.pbworks.com/Law-Library-Blogs
Posted by: Amy | Oct 12, 2009 12:36:36 AM
Also Above the Law, which makes me very nervous about "scholars" relying on unreliable sources.
Posted by: Josh S. | Oct 11, 2009 9:16:55 PM
Westlaw rolled out its "blogs on demand" database about May 2009:
http://west.thomson.com/signup/newsletters/westelert/2009-may/article8.aspx
The contents of Westlaw's blogs on demand database are here:
http://directory.westlaw.com/scope/default.asp?db=BLOGSOD&RS=W...&VR=2.0
Lexis has included blogs since 2006.
http://ziefbrief.typepad.com/ziefbrief/new_on_lexiswestlaw/
Lexis's legal blogs are under the heading "Newstex Legal Blogs"
http://w3.nexis.com/sources/scripts/info.pl?313508
Posted by: michelle | Oct 11, 2009 7:52:33 PM
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