Google Scholar Blog Post Round Up
Since Google Scholar was announced last week, bloggers have been speculating on what effect it will have on legal research, the practice of law, and the public's access. A few noteworthy posts covering the main areas of discussion:
The Big Winners: Law Students?
From Laura Bergus' post Google Scholar Search Now Includes U.S. Case Law and Legal Journals," it sounds like the big winners will be law students who now have another legal research option, which comes with an easier to use interface that they are accustomed to using.
Will Anyone Need a Lawyer?
Jane Genova at Law and More suggests that Google Scholar will be a great legal research tool for self-represented litigants in her post Everyman a Legal Player: Google Scholar. Taking a more realistic view, Scott Greenfield in The End of the Duopoly at Simple Justice recognizes that case law is hard to understand, doubly so for the average person, whether or not it's freely available.
What About LexisNexis and West?
The greatest amount of ink has been used to analyze the impact on LexisNexis and West. Over at My Shingle, Carolyn Elefant's post Free Legal Research by Google & What It Means looks at this issue.
Is It Any Good?
Most agree that it's a good start for Google. But how does it compare? People are trying to find out, including Greg Lambert and Toby Brown at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog. They want use crowdsourcing as a part of their test and are asking for your ideas. Check out Greg's post We Need You - Ideas for Testing Google Scholar Via Crowdsourcing. - K
