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7 Legal Reference Services Q. 1 (1987)

handle is hein.journals/lgrefsq7 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITORIAL In putting together this issue I reflected upon something that has been increasingly claiming my attention; the difference between le- gal research and legal reference. In training legal reference librari- ans we have placed a premium on their ability to carry out sophisti- cated legal research. Although frequently we lament the inability to train people efficiently, all of our text books and most of our library school courses in Legal Bibliography tend to focus on the research aspects of legal materials. Perhaps it's time to reaccess, to recognize that what most law librarians do is legal reference and that most of our reference desk transactions focus on locating individual and dis- creet pieces of legal information. This might include verifying cita- tions or looking up decisions, but it very seldom involves the type of substantive research that we seem to urge upon our students and colleagues. Librarian training that stresses questions like What is the current state of law on holographic wills in Tennessee? is sim- ply misguided; for malpractice reasons we could not make such a search safely for patrons in the public environment and would sel- dom be asked to do so in a law firm environment. More likely we would be asked to run down the cite for such a statute, locate a specific piece of information about a holographic will in Tennessee, or in fact provide some specific information about the state of Ten- nessee. The vast majority of legal research is still factual research, and a large part of the job still consists of bibliographic look-up via computer and ready reference tools. My claim is that librarians are the true problem solvers in their Lcgal Rcfercnce Scrviccs OuatCrly. Vol. 7(l). Spring 1987 0 1987 by Thc Haworth Prcss, Inc. All rights rescrved. I

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