Harvard Law Library Sacrifices a Trove for the Sake of a Free Database
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/29/us/harvard-law-library-sacrifices-a-trove-for-the-sake-of-a-free-database.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Shelves of law books are an august symbol of legal practice, and
no place, save the Library of Congress, can match the collection
at Harvard's Law School Library. Its trove includes nearly every
state, federal, territorial and tribal judicial decision since
colonial times -- a priceless potential resource for everyone
from legal scholars to defense lawyers trying to challenge a
criminal conviction. Now, in a digital-age sacrifice intended
to serve grand intentions, the Harvard librarians are slicing
off the spines of all but the rarest volumes and feeding some 40
million pages through a high-speed scanner. They are taking this
once unthinkable step to create a complete, searchable database
of American case law that will be offered free on the Internet,
allowing instant retrieval of vital records that usually must be
paid for.
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--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
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