Transcript Evaluating Web Sources (also Westlaw and Lexis searching) What should you know about a web source before relying on it?  Who is the.

Evaluating Web Sources
(also Westlaw and Lexis searching)
What should you know about a
web source before relying on it?
 Who
is the author?
 Who (if not the author) is the
publisher?
 How old is the information?
 Is it biased?
 Is it documented?
Problems with evaluating international
and foreign web sources
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English may not be author’s first
language
Style may not conform to Western
custom
Researcher may not know enough
to perceive bias or judge credentials
Response to problems evaluating
sources
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Apply different standard for ESL
text
Overcome expectations about style
Research, consult
Problems with quality of international
and foreign web sources
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Non-governmental organizations –
funding and commitment.
Some governments –less funding,
less transparency
asymmetrical sites (Englishlanguage version vs. vernacular)
Infrastructure (unstable sites)
Response to problems with quality of
sources
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Update and cross-check NGO
information
Extend search –perhaps to paper
sources.
Accept “worse” information.
If important, get translator for nonEnglish side of websites.
Print when up, cache when down;
Wayback machine.
Westlaw and Lexis
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Thousands of databases
Listed by topic, jurisdiction,
publication…
Database selection is crucial
Know the scope of the database
Efficiency requires smallest
appropriate database
WL and LX—not your friends
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2009 study of WL/LX interface
design shows:
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they push caselaw databases
they push large databases
secondary sources hard to find
“As on Westlaw, LexisNexis places its
largest, most expensive primary law
databases first in the prime viewing
area of the screen.” --Julie Jones
Finding databases
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Both LX and WL have hierarchical
directories
WL also has “Search for a
database,” letting you search by
terms (e.g., inter-american)
LX has separate SourceFinder:
http://w3.nexis.com/sources
Call/use chat for help
Pricing
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Complex, perhaps deliberately so
Law offices have indiv Ks usually
w/non-disclosure provisions
Types of pricing
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Transactional (per search)
Hourly
Flat-rate
Pay for printing (use browser!)
Searching: Natural language
Best for:
 Unfamiliar areas
 Very abstract, general terms
 Need something, not a particular
thing
Results don’t mean an answer
Natural language continued
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Results ranked by relevance
Use thesaurus to improve results
On Westlaw, browse results with
“Best” button
On Lexis, use KWIC to browse
Relevance often drops off quickly
Terms and Connectors
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Preferred by expert searchers
More control
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Field/segment searching (some
available w/natural language)
Controlled truncation
Narrow connectors
Use drop-down menus for prompts
Four key parts of expert searching
Truncation!
 Field searching
 Synonyms
 Grammatical and proximity
connectors
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Search syntax (Westlaw)
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Sample search in journals and law reviews
database:
author(oren /2 gross) & tortur! /s interrogat!
question! /p “human right”
=
all articles written by oren gross that contain the
word torture(s), torturing, or tortured in the same
sentence as the word interrogate(s),
interrogatory(ies), interrogation, interrogated,
interrogating or the word question(s),
questioning, or questioned, all in the same
paragraph as the phrase human right or human
rights.
Search syntax: Lexis
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Sample search in journals and law reviews
database:
author(oren w/s gross) & tortur! w/s interrogat! OR
question! /p human right
=
all articles written by oren gross that contain the
word torture(s), torturing, or tortured in the same
sentence as the word interrogate(s),
interrogatory(ies), interrogation, interrogated,
interrogating or the word question(s),
questioning, or questioned, all in the same
paragraph as the phrase human right or human
rights.
LX & WL searching:
How they differ
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WL interprets space as “or”
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Lexis sees terms as phrases
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So put phrases in quotation marks
So separate synonyms with “or”
Lexis doesn’t allow combining
proximity connectors with
grammatical connectors
Best use of the “not” connector
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Often, you will try multiple searches
within a database.
You don’t want to retrieve the same
documents twice.
Paste your previous search after the
“not” connector to exclude
documents you’ve already found.
Westlaw (but not, %); Lexis (and
not).