Thing one: Universities don't generally teach law students how to use print resources.
You know I had always suspected this given the lack of ability on the part of newly minted law students to use (or even know to find) relevant legal resources. Heck, in a few instances, I've even had to help newly graduated law students learn (or re-learn) how to use the Table of Contents or Index in a book.
Yeah, blows my mind every time it happens (and it happens enough now that I'm ready for it).
So, if law schools don't teach students how to use print resources, why do they even have books on the shelves? Advertising? Seems pointless and a waste of money to update something you're not even going to use.
Also, do students ever just wonder what is all that stuff on the shelves? Has no student ever asked themselves, what are those paper looking things in the library? Are law students now totally devoid of curiosity?
I know when I went to law school, I spent hours pulling things off the shelf asking the librarians what it was and how to use it. Maybe that's just me being me, but it's crazy that that level of curiosity is not encouraged.
Sad thing is, if it's not taught (or otherwise introduced) in law school, odds are it will be years before an attorney might be exposed to something that is not online (and that they can use in practice). Heck, I've taught classes with attorneys, who have been practicing law for decades, stop me and say, "Wow, I never knew that existed" - which is (sadly) entirely possible.
Thing two: If they aren't going to teach how to use print resources, then Universities have waaaay too much money on their hands.
What brought this to mind was one point in the interview I was bemoaning the fact that not all print resources are found in legal databases (like Westlaw or Lexis). As if I was dangling raw meat in front of a lion, my interviewer jumped up and cut me off exclaiming that I was wrong - everything is available online. Well, everything is available online if you work (or study) at a university.
The problem here is (and it's my opinion that) life in a university is not a life based in reality. You go to school, party like they is no tomorrow, and use resources that only exist in a microcosm (like a university).
I suspect universities have lots of money to build their online (library) collections. I'll bet those online collections are absolutely beeeeeutiful.
The problem is that they've got so much money and have bought access to so much data that it is a shock for newly graduated law students to find that they don't have access to vast mountains of data heretofore available under a university plan when they graduate.
Access to an email for life, maybe, but not access to everything Westlaw has to offer.
I know when I graduated from law school it was a painful transition because I then had to fork over $200 a month for access to California primary authority and some secondary authority under my very limited Westlaw plan. A paltry amount of data compared to the vast mountains of information I heretofore had access to whilst in school.
In reality, people practicing law have a finite amount of money - and they're not spending (all of) their cash on Westlaw or Lexis. They're spending it on E&O insurance, on salaries, on, well, life.
In short, universities are doing their students a dis-service by only exposing their students to online resources (which really isn't utilized properly unless said students have been taught how to make use of boolean search syntax).
Might I suggest a balanced research training - part online and part print. That way, at least, when your students graduate from law school, they don't have that deer-in-a-headlight look when they walk into a county law library the first time and learn that they can actually touch the books on the shelves.
Of course, I have no doubt that there are some law schools that teach students a well-rounded approach to legal research and that their students are wheels-on-the-ground ready to get to work when they graduate.
I hope so, anyway.
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