CANLII, an open access Canadian legal database, is the most frequently used electronic legal resource in Canada, according to a recent CANLII Survey.
Following is the summary of responses, as posted by Ivan Mokanov, CANLII Chief Editor:
1. CanLII is the most frequently used electronic legal resource. The list below shows the percentage of lawyers who use the following resources once a week or more frequently:
* CanLII - 39%
* Provincial sites for legislation – 34%
* Commercial services – between 17% and 29%
* Various secondary material sources – 29%
* Courts’ websites – 21%
* Library services - 15%
The use is consistent across office size.
2. In terms of user-friendliness, lawyers rated CanLII first among the national legal information services. Lawyers who gave CanLII “very good” and “excellent” scores are 47% of the respondents.
3. Almost one-half of lawyers (43%) state that they can accomplish 50% or more of their legal research work with CanLII.
4. The majority of lawyers (74%) use CanLII to find documents and conduct legal research. A small percentage uses it only as a tool to find known documents.
5. A significant number of lawyers (71%) find that CanLII allows them to reduce their cost for legal information. Almost one half (43%) estimate that CanLII’s impact in the reduction of their cost is significant.
Congratulations, CANLII! This post - and the CANLII initiative - are part of the Canadian Leadership in the Open Access Movement series.
Hat tips to Michel Adrian on Library Boy via Gavin Baker on Open Access News.
