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GAZETTE
H N
N
NOVEMBER 1992
On-Line Se r v i ces
and The Cha l l enge of Rom
By John Furlong, Solicitor
One of the critical requirements in
all legal offices is access to relevant
and current information. A legal
information system can be developed
through a combination of
practitioners' knowledge and
training; library resources; the
maintenance of suitable office
precedents and exploitation of
outside information resources.
Building on the communications
capabilities of modern systems and
in-house information retrieval
systems, comes a wide range of on-
line services which allow for
searching of vast amounts of data
via a PC and through the
telecommunications system.
1
Provided that the PC is suitable, the
additional requirements will include
a communications software package,
telephone or data communications
links and a modern
telecommunications modem.
On-line services consist of
commercial databases providing full
text availability to commercial,
financial, corporate, scientific and
legal information. There are over 100
databases which are either
specifically of a legal nature or
which contain information relevant
to legal practice. Since they are full
text systems, they allow searches to
be made against any word or term in
context and the retrieval of extracts
or full versions of law reports,
statutory materials, legal journal
articles, company profiles etc.
2
A large number of on-line services
are accessed through host services;
many are available direct from on-
line service providers themselves.
Services may be charged on a per
usage basis calculated on a
combination of time; the type of
data accessed and/or the amount of
material retrieved. Some services
John Furlong
impose initiation and minimum
subscription charges.
The principal benefit of an on-line
service is to allow direct and
immediate access to a vast range of
current information; with the ability
to print or store this information for
future use.
Balancing these benefits are the
proportionate capital investment in
equipment and ongoing costs which
are involved. The efficient and cost
effictive use of any on-line service
requires an ability to frame accurately
a search; the identification of
appropriate on-line service or library
for searching and skills in the use of
various searching commands and
syntax required for each on-line
service.
CD-ROM
Developments in micro technology
and in particular the emergence of
the compact disk provide another
source of information. Read Only
Memory disks (ROMs) allow for
access to between 500 and 600 Mb
of data (compared to 40 Mb on the
average PC hard disk). This is
equivalent to about 250,000 A4
pages of information. This can
readily be searched by means of key
words and using a CD-ROM player
linked to a PC.
3
CD-ROM players
may be integrated into the PC box
or operate as a separate item of
equipment. The cost of players has
decreased dramatically over the past
two years. In addition to single
drives, twin drive and jukebox CD-
ROM players are now available.
The advantage of CD-ROM over on-
line access include its lower costs;
the availability of materials for
future research or copying at no
extra cost and the increasing range
of materials now being made
available. CD-ROM may not be as
effective in providing current
information since disks are reissued
only at regular intervals and in order
to benefit from many CD-ROM
publications a long-term subscription
is required.
Several major legal works are now
available on CD-ROM and the
market is rapidly developing in the
United States.
4
The disks are usually
updated on a regular basis. While
CD-ROM provides a means to
rapidly access material and to
significantly reduce library storage
costs, it is still comparatively
expensive and limited in its
application. It is highly probable
however that CD-ROM will develop
over the next few years as a major
source of published legal material
and that the costs of the technology
will become more affordable. It is
notable that a number of major on-
line services are now providing CD-
ROM versions of their databases as
an ancillary or alternative means for
their subscribers to use their
information resources.
The whole area of digital
information will be further
transformed by the business uses to
which the emerging technology of
multimedia CD-ROMS will be
applied. These advanced disks allow
for the integration of pictures, text
(Cont'd overleaf)
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