Search

The study ascertains the perception of academic and practicing lawyers about awareness of legal information resources and problems faced by them in accessing legal information resources. Their perceptions about the development of open access legal information system were identified in developing an open-access online legal information system. A structured open-ended questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents. Researcher collected 216 filled questionnaire from academic lawyers and 181 questionnaire from practicing lawyers working in eight institutions in Delhi (India). Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and results are presented in tables and figures. The study found significant difference in the responses of academic and practicing lawyers. 28 (13.0 %) academic lawyers and 28 (15.5 %) practicing lawyers rated online legal information resources poor. More academic lawyers were very satisfied compared to practicing lawyers in using commercial resources. It was ascertained that more number of practicing lawyers expressed 'somewhat satisfied' in using open access resources. Academic lawyers, 51 (28.7 %), expressed 'completely dissatisfied' and 33 (21.9 %) practicing lawyers stated 'completely dissatisfied' in using the open access resources. Practicing lawyers have highlighted that poor details on online legal information is a major hindrance in using legal information resources while academic lawyers mentioned several login requisites as one of the major problems. The outcome of the study can be used to develop suitable online legal information resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This study aims to discuss the metadata structure of an online legal information system (OLIS) developed to suit the Indian environment. The OLIS is accessible online at www.olisindia.in. It contains several types of legal information resources to help lawyers, research scholars, students and the common user. The open-access OLIS helps the users to get the required information expeditiously. Dublin Core (DC) metadata standard was selected to create records in the OLIS because of ease of use and high adoption rate.Design/methodology/approach The OLIS was designed using the system analysis and design method after a needs assessment survey conducted in eight major legal organizations in Delhi. The OLIS, accessible at www.olisindia.in, was accessed to identify and validate the metadata elements with the DC metadata standard.Findings This paper discusses in detail the metadata structures of the OLIS. The system contains 15 types of resources relating to judicial and legislative information. Each database has a different metadata framework so that information desired by the legal community can be retrieved with precision and quick recall. In addition, a number of functions, such as latest news, online help, Frequently Asked Questions, query submission, online discussion forum for help and video tutorials, have been integrated into the OLIS.Practical implications The study guides law libraries and library professionals to follow metadata standards in building an open-access database and also provides a legal resources metadata framework that enables them to select suitable resources for their libraries.Originality/value The study confirms that the metadata elements set for managing judicial and legislative information are different compared to other types of scholarly information. The study can help newly established law university libraries to build legal information systems to suit their environment and satisfy the information needs of the diverse law community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the online legal information sources available in law libraries in India. Design/methodology/approach – Evaluation method followed with the help of specially designed checklist for e-resources in the field of law in India. The structured checklist was designed keeping in view of the objectives and e-resources/databases existing in Indian libraries, comprising 189 dichotomous questions and categorized into 12 broad categories. Findings – The study revealed that the study legal information sources are lagging behind in exploiting the full potential of Web 2.0 features. No study legal information source has integrated Web 2.0 tools with contents and provision to contribute the contents by user any time, irrespective of location, except online legal information system (OLIS). Majority of e-resources are lacking search features, general features, Web 2.0 tools, better help features and provision to contribute contents by the users. Besides this, a mobile-based view is not available in majority of sources, and open access resources are lacking user-friendly features. Of the 16 legal information resources, only five have all the four citations search parameters. The study reveals that the OLIS has the maximum features and ranked “excellent”, followed by Manupatra ranked “average”. Half of study online legal information sources are ranked “needs improvement” and 37.5 per cent ranked “below average”. Practical implications – The findings of the study will not only guide the law librarians to subscribe/renew legal databases in their libraries but also improve the legal information literacy among the users for effective use of online legal information sources. It is hoped that the evaluation of online legal information sources will enhance the user’s awareness and increase the use. Originality/value – The findings of the study will not only guide the legal libraries to improve their online legal information sources, particularly, better help features and integrated content with Web 2.0 tools, but also provide guidelines for newly established legal libraries in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study illustrates the functionality of Online Legal Information System (OLIS) developed to suit the Indian environment. The OLIS perpetrates numerous types of legal information resources in a single window search so that lawyers, research scholars, students and the common masses can get the information expeditiously. The OLIS is accessible online at (http://www.olisindia.in). It has provision of citation search facility, filtering of retrieved records and, online account to keep the selected record. It is also compliant with Web 2.0 tools and empowers users to contribute their own contents in the system. The architecture of the system is in five layers. Data layer handles metadata associated with the contents while storage layer manages full text contents. Network layer perpetually connects the users and source institutions to build the system. Presentation layer facilitates display of the retrieved results in clusters. Business layer consolidates the operation of the system. A number of operations such as, latest news, online help FAQ, query submission, online discussion form for help and video tutorials have been created under this layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The judicial system of India is large and complex in size. The amount of legal information is growing at enormous pace, and legal professionals no longer commit such large amount of knowledge to memory. It is cumbersome for the users to locate the valuable legal information related to respective problem. Therefore, a study was conducted to know the librarians' perspective to develop a model Online Legal Information System (OLIS) to suit the Indian environment. Findings of the study reveal that access instruction on the online resources are not clear, and there is lack of expertise in using legal databases. Majority of respondents suggested that the following resources and features should be incorporated in the proposed OLIS: Parliament debates, equivalent citation table, commentaries, search through appellant/respondent, Boolean search operators, printing and e-mail facility, help services through e-mail/discussion forum, citation search facility, search results filter, online account service, export of bibliographical record, save/export of retrieved results, save their searches, subjectwise clustering, Web 2.0 tools, online training, link to useful websites in the field of law, and help services. A number of suggestions put forward by the respondents are also recorded and incorporated in different features of the OLIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]