1. The Life of a Question 2013 Legal Research Boot Camp Shannon Kemen & Laura Dixon-Caldwell

2. I. Getting a Research Assignment

3. Conduct a Reference Interview Ask Specifically for: Client Code Due Date Cost Restrictions Other Restrictions

4. Use Open Ended Questions What type of information would be most useful? What are you hoping to find? What sources have already been examined? How much information do you want or need? How are you going to use this information?

5. Listening/Inquiring Adopt a communication style that is appropriate for the user Rephrase the user’s question to ensure that you have understood Pay attention to the user’s verbal and non-verbal clues Clarify confusing terminology

6. Searching Discuss the search strategy with the user Encourage the user to contribute ideas Explain the search to the user

7. II. Planning Your Research

8. Multimedia Research Print Resources Electronic Databases Phone Internet / Intranet Interlibrary Loan Document Retrieval

9. Billing Inside/Outside Contract Transactional v. Hourly ID Other Resources

10. Causes for Incurring Excessive Online Research Costs Not planning before going online Engaging in a fishing expedition Not including truncation or synonyms in search queries Not starting with a broad search and then narrowing down for free with focus or locate. Not knowing a search with 0 hits results in a charge

11. 10 Minute Rule If you spend more than 10 minutes looking for information –It’s time to try another approach

12. Thinking Outside the Box Contact: Library Relevant Associations Westlaw/Lexis reference attorneys Assigning Attorney

13. III. Conducting Research

14. Terms & Connectors v. Natural Language Terms & Connectors Exact search terms Literal, precise searching Natural Language Plain English Too many/too few results produced by T&C search

15. Updating Resources Pocket Part Supplement KeyCite Shepard’s Newer editions

16. When to Stop When the question asked has been answered When it is cost prohibitive to continue When the information is no longer relevant When you find the same information over and over again

17. IV. Finishing Your Research

18. Turning in Your Work Be thorough Use appropriate format Use correct citation Look professional

19. Follow-Up Ask the user if the question has been completely answered Offer to provide additional research assistance Refer the user to other sources when necessary

20. Keep a Record of Your Work You may be asked to continue or rework this project at a later date You may be able to use the same search strategies or sources on another project

21. Questions???