Abstract

Author(s): Pius Tom Umoren

This study examined library Search Engines and Gateways for effective legal education, implication for the University of Calabar Law Library. The sample population consisted of levels three and four students who are registered in the Law Library. A structured questionnaire was employed for collection of data. The study was designed to determine the extent of availability and utilization of library search engines for information access and retrieval for effective acquisition of legal knowledge in 10 core law courses. From the survey conducted and data gathered from respondents who make use of the Law Library, findings showed that the Law Library had, as at the time of this study, six (6) out of the 10 selected search engines for this study. It was also discovered that students made heavy use of the available search engines with those for Criminal Law and Law of Evidence being the most heavily used in online search for legal information. The study revealed that the major problems that militated against availability and use of the search engines in the Faculty of Law Library included lack of regular subscription for access and eratic power supply