[Web4lib] New federated search tools for legal information

[Ballard, Terry]

The New York Law School's Mendik Library has recently developed DRAGNET,
a search tool that allows the user to find a topic simultaneously in
more than 80 legal web sites and databases.   DRAGNET stands for
"Database retrieval access using Google's new electronic technology. "
It is located at
http://www.nyls.edu/library/research_tools_and_sources/dragnet

 

 DRAGNET was developed over the summer by librarians at the New York Law
School's Mendik Library, using Google's free custom search option.   In
addition, we used the same search tool to track 150 law journals with
free online content at
http://www.nyls.edu/library/research_tools_and_sources/current_awareness
_sources/law_reviews_with_online_content  Because it is provided by an
educational institution, Google allows the site to run ad-free.

 

 This federated search returns results in less than one second, but the
response is limited to 100 hits, so users are encouraged to be very
specific - we suggest that they add the year 2010 if they want the most
current information. The same sort of project could also be set up for
other specialties such as medicine and education. For questions or
suggestions about this, please contact the school's systems librarian
Terry Ballard at terry.ballard at nyls.edu . 

 

 

 

Terry Ballard

Assistant Director of Technical Services for Library Systems

New York Law School, Mendik Library

185 W. Broadway

New York, NY, 10013

Telephone: 212-431-2106

Web: www.terryballard.org

Blog: librariansonedge.blogspot.com

Tweets: twitter.com/terryballard

 

 

"Things always seem darkest just before the bottom drops out." Arthur
Lifshin