In F or M Ation Sear Ch Pr Ocess of Lawyer S: a Call F Or`ju St F or M E' in F or M Ation Ser Vices

The study reported in this paper is part of a programme of ongoing research based on the model of the Information Search Process (ISP) developed in a series of prior studies by Kuhlthau. This study sought to gain a better understanding of the variety of tasks that involve lawyers as a particular group of information workers, how they use information to accomplish their work, and the role mediators play in their process of information seeking and use. F indings revealed that these lawyers frequently were involved in complex tasks that required a constructive process of interpreting, learning and creat ing. To accomplish these complex tasks, they preferred printed texts over computer databases primarily because computer databases required well-speci®ed requests and did not offer an option for examining a wide range of information at one time. These lawyers called for an act ive potential role for mediators in j̀ust for me’ services. J̀ust for me’ services would encompass designing systems to provide a wider range of access more compatible with the process of construction, applying and developing principles of classi®cation that would offer a more uniform system for organising and accessing ®les, and providing direction in ®ltering the overwhelming amount of information available on electronic resources.