Peter Kargbo's lightning talk on mobile apps for legal research.

1. Using Apps for Legal Research
Peter Kargbo MA, LLDip
Law Librarian
Manchester Metropolitan University
Birmingham, 8th May 2012

2. What’s Currently Available
 All subjects apps – e.g. Lexis Nexis “On the
Case”
 Subject specific apps – Oxford University Press
“Law Concentrate” revision apps (contract
law, EU law etc).
 Most apps cover US legal system – federal and
state law. A few apps cover UK & European
Union law (EU).
 Some free. Others paid. Free access if
staff/student’s institution subscribes to full service
database (e.g.Lexis Library & Jordans Family
law).
 Mostly for the undergraduate market (LLB, GDL)
 Designed for iPhone, iPad and Android platforms.

3. Cases and statutes – all areas of English law

4. Individual Law Subjects
 Oxford University Press law concentrate revision apps
(contract, criminal, EU, equity & trusts, land, public, tort)
 Jordans Family Law Reports
 Squire Sanders UK Employment Law
 Haines Watts UK Tax Rates
 Eversheds Guide to international Employment & Pensions Law

5. Why Use Apps?
 Great for on-the-go legal research.
 Specifically designed for mobile devices.
 Easily accessed bite-size revision aids.
 Access to a wide range of case law and statutes.
 Status indicators for cases and statutes (is this case
good law?) (e.g.,Lexis Library “On the Case” and
“Legal Terms”).
 Full text of law reports (e.g. Jordans Family Reports)
 Updated frequently, hence current.
 Saves carrying heavy books and boring notepads!
 Will appeal to “digital natives” (Generation Z, Net
Generation) students.

6. About Peter Kargbo
Peter is a part-time Law Librarian at Manchester Metropolitan University and the College
of Law in
Manchester (until August 2012). His 27 year library career spans 3 continents in
Africa, the UK and the
United States. He has worked as a Research Librarian at the Central Bank of Sierra
Leone in Freetown
(Sierra Leone), Reference Librarian and Learning Adviser at the University of
Birmingham, Reference &
Instruction Librarian at Texas Tech University, Librarian for Africana Studies at New
York University (New
York City) and Repository Librarian at the University of Wolverhampton.
Peter holds a BA (Hons) in Library & Information Studies (Leeds Metropolitan
University), an MA in
African Studies (University of Birmingham) and a Graduate Diploma in Law (University of
Wolverhampton.
Peter’s interests include landscape photography and volunteering at Vaughantown in