Journal of Library and Information Studies (Mar 2005)
A Study on Judges and Prosecutors' Information Behavior for Legal Resources
Abstract
The goal of this study is to understand judges and prosecutor's information behavior, i.e., their information needs, seeking, and using of legal resources. Methods of questionnaire, interview, observation, and content analysis of legal forums were adopted to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The result shows that legal resources are mainly to support judges and prosecutors when conducting justice and criminal investigation, and they are mostly interested in the information being able to solve practical legal problems. The study also found 13 important characteristics of their seeking behaviors. Suggestions for improvement in publication of legal resources, legal information services, legal information system design, and law education are also provided. Finally, the study proposed an information behavior model of judges and prosecutors, which may benefit future related research. (Article content in Chinese with English abstract)
