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Information search process of lawyers: a call for ’just for me’ information services

C.C. Kuhlthau (School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08903)
S.L. Tama (School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08903)

Journal of Documentation

ISSN: 0022-0418

Article publication date: 1 February 2001

4034

Abstract

The study reported in this paper is part of a programme of ongoing research based on the model of the Information Search Process (ISP) developed in a series of prior studies by Kuhlthau. This study sought to gain a better understanding of the variety of tasks that involve lawyers as a particular group of information workers, how they use information to accomplish their work, and the role mediators play in their process of information seeking and use. Findings revealed that these lawyers frequently were involved in complex tasks that required a constructive process of interpreting, learning and creating. To accomplish these complex tasks, they preferred printed texts over computer databases primarily because computer databases required well‐specified requests and did not offer an option for examining a wide range of information at one time. These lawyers called for an active potential role for mediators in ‘just for me’ services. ‘Just for me’ services would encompass designing systems to provide a wider range of access more compatible with the process of construction, applying and developing principles of classification that would offer a more uniform system for organising and accessing files, and providing direction in filtering the overwhelming amount of information available on electronic resources.

Keywords

Citation

Kuhlthau, C.C. and Tama, S.L. (2001), "Information search process of lawyers: a call for ’just for me’ information services", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 57 No. 1, pp. 25-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000007076

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited

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