Article

"Just the facts ma'am?": a contextual approach to the legal information use environment

Author:

Yolanda P. JonesAuthors Info & Claims

DIS '06: Proceedings of the 6th conference on Designing Interactive systems

Pages 357 - 359

https://doi.org/10.1145/1142405.1142463

Published: 26 June 2006 Publication History

Abstract

This paper describes a qualitative study of information-seeking behavior patterns of students at the Villanova University School of Law Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic. The interactions of law student researchers with legal information systems were observed, as well as the overall context of use of those systems. The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework for legal information behavior. A strong conceptual framework can be used by librarians and system designers to develop improved legal information systems, services, and instruction.

References

[1]

Cohen, M.L. Research habits of lawyers. Jurimetrics, 9 (1969), 183--194.

[2]

Cole, C. and Kuhlthau, C. Information and information seeking of novice expert lawyers: How experts add value. The New Review of Information Behaviour Research, 1 (2000), 103--115.

Digital Library

[3]

Dervin, B., Given a context by any other name: Methodological tools for taming the unruly beast. In Proc. Conference on Information Needs, Seeking, and Use in Different Contexts 1997, 13--38.

Digital Library

[4]

Dervin, B. What methodology does to theory: Sense-Making methodology as exemplar. In Theories of Information Behavior, Information Today, Inc., Medford, NJ, USA (2005), 25--29.

[5]

Dervin, B. and Nilan, M. Information needs and uses. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 21 (1986), 3--33.

[6]

Hainsworth, M. Information seeking behavior of judges of the Florida District Courts of Appeal. School of Library and Information Sciences, Florida State University, FL, USA, 1992.

[7]

Halvorson, T.R. Law of the supersearchers: The online secrets of top legal researchers. Cyberage Books, 2000.

Digital Library

[8]

Hara, N. and Kling, R. IT supports for communities of practice: an empirically-based framework, Center for Social Informatics Working Paper No. WP-02-02, 2002.

[9]

Harris, R.M. and Dewdney, P. Barriers to information : how formal help systems fail battered women. Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn., 1994.

[10]

Holtzblatt, K. and Beyer, H.R., Contextual design: using customer work models to drive system design. In Proc. CHI 95, ACM Press (1995).

Digital Library

[11]

Johnson, D.J. On contexts of information seeking. Information Processing & Management, 39. 735--760.

Digital Library

[12]

Komlodi, A. and Soergel, D. Attorneys interacting with legal information systems: Tools for mental model building and task integration. In Proc. ASIST 2002 (2002), 152--163.

[13]

Kuhlthau, C. and Tama, S.L. Information search process of lawyers: A call for 'just for me' information services. Journal of Documentation, 57, 1 (2001), 25--43.

[14]

Lave, J. The Practice of learning. In Understanding Practice : Perspectives on Activity and Context, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge ; New York (1993), 3--32.

[15]

Nardi, B.A. Context and consciousness : activity theory and human-computer interaction. MIT Press, MA, 1996.

Digital Library

[16]

Palmquist, R.A. Taylor's Information Use Environments. In Theories of Information Behavior, Information Today, Inc., Medford, NJ USA (2005), 354--357.

[17]

Savolainen, R. Information use, gap-bridging and Sense-Making. In Methodology between the cracks: Sense-Making as exemplar. International Communication Association, CA, USA (1999), 78--81.

[18]

Solomon, P. Information mosaics: Patterns of action that structure. In Exploring the contexts of information behaviour, Taylor Graham, London (1999) 150--175.

Digital Library

[19]

Solomon, P. Discovering information in context. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 36 (2002), 229--264.

[20]

Solomon, P. Rounding and dissonant grounds. In Theories of Information Behavior, Information Today, Inc., Medford, NJ, USA (2005), 308--312.

[21]

Sutton, S. The Role of attorney mental models of law in case relevance determinations: An exploratory analysis. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 45, 3 (1994). 186--200.

Digital Library

[22]

Taylor, R.S. Information Use Environments. In Progress in Communication Sciences, Ablex Publishing, Norwood, NJ, USA (1991), 217--255.

[23]

Vakkari, P. Information seeking in context: A challenging metatheory. Proc. Information seeking in context, Taylor Graham, London (1997), 451--464.

Digital Library

[24]

Vale, M.E. Information structure and the information-seeking behavior of lawyers. Department of Communication, Stanford University, CA, USA, 1988.

[25]

Wilkinson, M.A. Information sources used by lawyers in problem solving - An empirical exploration. Library and Information Science Research, 23, 3 (2001), 257--276.

[26]

Yuan, W. End-User searching behavior in information retrieval: A longitudinal study. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 48, 3 (1997), 218--234.

Digital Library

Cited By

Partridge HMcAllister LToohey LField RCrowe JAllcock A(2023)Understanding the Information Experiences of Parents Involved in Negotiating Post-separation Parenting ArrangementsSSRN Electronic Journal10.2139/ssrn.4586681Online publication date: 2023
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4586681
Meyer MChoo C(2023)Harming by Deceit: Epistemic Malevolence and Organizational WrongdoingJournal of Business Ethics10.1007/s10551-023-05370-8189:3(439-452)Online publication date: 24-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-023-05370-8
Martzoukou KKostagiolas PLavranos CLauterbach TFulton C(2021)A study of university law students’ self-perceived digital competencesJournal of Librarianship and Information Science10.1177/09610006211048004(096100062110480)Online publication date: 30-Sep-2021
https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006211048004
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

"Just the facts ma'am?": a contextual approach to the legal information use environment
1. Information systems
  1. Information retrieval

Recommendations

Formalizing copyright for the internet of services
iiWAS '10: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Information Integration and Web-based Applications & Services

In the Internet of Services vision services are seen as tradable goods. These goods can have an intangible character and might deliver functionality, content and other works, which are protected under copyright. However, currently there is no sufficient ...
Process mining-enabled jurimetrics: analysis of a Brazilian court's judicial performance in the business law processing
ICAIL '21: Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Law

Improving judicial performance has become increasingly relevant to guarantee access to justice for all, worldwide. In this context, technology-enabled tools to support lawsuit processing emerge as powerful allies to enhance the justice efficiency. Using ...
Analogical lightweight ontology of EU criminal procedural rights in judicial cooperation
Abstract
This article describes the creation of a lightweight ontology of European Union (EU) criminal procedural rights in judicial cooperation. The ontology is intended to help legal practitioners understand the precise contextual meaning of terms as ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

DIS '06: Proceedings of the 6th conference on Designing Interactive systems

June 2006

384 pages

ISBN:1595933670

DOI:10.1145/1142405

General Chair:
John M. Carroll
The Pennsylvania State University, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Susanne Bødker
Aarhus University, Denmark
,
Julie Coughlin
The Pennsylvania State University, USA

Copyright © 2006 author.

Sponsors

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 26 June 2006

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Article

Conference

DIS06

Sponsor:

DIS06: Designing Interactive Systems 2006

June 26 - 28, 2006

PA, University Park, USA

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,158 of 4,684 submissions, 25%

Upcoming Conference

DIS '25

Sponsor:
sigchi

Designing Interactive Systems Conference

July 5 - 9, 2025

Funchal , Portugal

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

8
Total Citations
View Citations
471
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)6
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0

Reflects downloads up to 07 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Partridge HMcAllister LToohey LField RCrowe JAllcock A(2023)Understanding the Information Experiences of Parents Involved in Negotiating Post-separation Parenting ArrangementsSSRN Electronic Journal10.2139/ssrn.4586681Online publication date: 2023
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4586681
Meyer MChoo C(2023)Harming by Deceit: Epistemic Malevolence and Organizational WrongdoingJournal of Business Ethics10.1007/s10551-023-05370-8189:3(439-452)Online publication date: 24-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-023-05370-8
Martzoukou KKostagiolas PLavranos CLauterbach TFulton C(2021)A study of university law students’ self-perceived digital competencesJournal of Librarianship and Information Science10.1177/09610006211048004(096100062110480)Online publication date: 30-Sep-2021
https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006211048004
Partridge HMcAllister LToohey LField RCrowe JAllcock A(2018)Understanding the information experiences of parents involved in negotiating post-separation parenting arrangementsJournal of Librarianship and Information Science10.1177/096100061878760452:1(184-196)Online publication date: 18-Jul-2018
https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000618787604
McLaughlin P(2015)Wanting to Do More But Bound to Do Less: A Law Librarian’s DilemmaThe Reference Librarian10.1080/02763877.2014.98231656:2(119-132)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2015
https://doi.org/10.1080/02763877.2014.982316
Du JEvans N(2011)Academic Users' Information Searching on Research Topics: Characteristics of Research Tasks and Search StrategiesThe Journal of Academic Librarianship10.1016/j.acalib.2011.04.00337:4(299-306)Online publication date: Jul-2011
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2011.04.003
Attfield SBlandford AMakri S(2010)Social and interactional practices for disseminating current awareness information in an organisational settingInformation Processing and Management: an International Journal10.1016/j.ipm.2009.10.00346:6(632-645)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ipm.2009.10.003
Makri SBlandford ACox A(2008)Investigating the information-seeking behaviour of academic lawyersInformation Processing and Management: an International Journal10.1016/j.ipm.2007.05.00144:2(613-634)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ipm.2007.05.001

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Figures

Tables

Media

View Table of Conten