Should We Care If the Case Digest Disappears?: A Retrospective Analysis and the Future of Legal Research Instruction

This article begins with a brief history of the West key number digest system. Next, it reviews some of the prominent literature discussing the shift from case digests to full-text searching (including the sole user study on this topic). Then, this article examines how the paradigm shift is reflected in law library collections and current trends in legal research instruction. Finally, the author presents four lessons gleaned from this discussion that may help shape future legal research instruction and proposes a user study to better inform future discussion