Category «Surveys»

The Survey Is Dead; Long Live the Survey: Can ChatGPT Replace Traditional Research Surveys?

Iantha Haight writes that her library recently hosted a guest speaker, David Wingate, a professor in BYU’s computer science department who does research on large language models, for a faculty lunch and learn. The entire presentation was fascinating, but the most intriguing part for me and many of the law faculty in attendance was the idea that generative AI systems will become so good they will be able to replace human subjects in answering research surveys. How? Generative neural networks trained on huge amounts of data—terabytes and even petabytes—ingest enough information about people that they can answer survey questions as if they were members of the survey population.

Subjects: AI, KM, Law Librarians, Legal Technology, Librarian Resources, Library Software & Technology, Reference Resources, Reference Services, Surveys

Conclusions from the National Inventory of Legal Materials

Hays Butler and Emily Feltren document the process and successful implementation of dynamic, extensive project conducted over the past three years by the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) working with law librarian volunteers around the country to build the first-ever National Inventory of Legal Materials, an inventory of print and electronic legal materials at all levels of government. More than 350 volunteers have added nearly 8,000 legal titles to the inventory so far.

Subjects: American Association of Law Libraries, Features, Law Librarians, Law Library Management, Legal Research, Legal Technology, Libraries & Librarians, Library Software & Technology, Online Legal Research Services, Surveys