From caveman to CaseBase: the evolution of legal research through the technological age by Kayleen Wardell, Southern Cross University Library

• With the evolution and advancement of online legal resources resulting in the demise of the use of print based materials, there has been a substantive shift in the practice and teaching of legal research. 
• Now is the time for tracking seamlessly through hyperlinks in a vast range of legal databases, and trawling through a myriad of citations found in Google. 
• Historical overview of the evolution of legal research
• The evolution of legal materials.  Traditionally, legal research was based on printed text.  The printed word provides a legal context which we all rely on.
• Anecdote: she was burgled recently, her laptop was stolen, which contained her paper.  If she had printed out the paper she would not have had to rewrite it.
• Quotes Ian Gallacher, Hitchhiker's Guide to teaching legal research to the Google generation.
• CALR: started in the 1960s with John Horty.
• Next: US airforce FLITE.
• Ohio state bar Assoc, OBAR.
• 1970s: OBAR > Lexis, Westlaw being developed.
• SCALE was developed in Australia.
• 1980s: CLIRS, computerised legal information research system, Lexis launched in Australia.
• 1990s: CD-ROMs replacing dial-up legal research, world wide web.
• AustLII launched in 1995.
• Australian legal publishers launched their own online platforms.
• Insight into the impact of the technological age on the practice and teaching of legal research.
• The changes have been very swift - we've transformed from printed text to hypertext culture.
• There was something good about the hierarchy of the print digest system: It's different with online research; it’s a totally different paradigm now.
• Deals with this by using emerging and eLearning technologies.
• Blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, social networking, content sharing, virtual worlds
• Blogs - the challenge is to get students to engage with them (and each other).
• Twitter - Examples, UQ Legal research rescue.
• Wikis - very helpful with group work.  Uni of Ottawa, Wake Forest Uni have legal research wikis.
• Content sharing: Google docs, scribd, slideshare.
• Law students are often competitive and reluctant to share. We need to help them to learn to share - eLearning programs; course management systems (eg. Blackboard, Moodle); Virtual classrooms are more interactive (eluminate), Camtasia, Adobe Captivate, Jing (screen capture and screen casting).
• Teach legal eduction in First Life - have space "Interaction island" which looks and feels like the library.
• Talked about 2.0 channels of communication - FaceBook, LinkedIn, podcasts
• Couple of interesting Apps:

Jing - capture movements; 5 minutes worth of video (mini-tutuorial). (www.jingproject.com).

Mindmap software