The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI), which helps law schools students use technology to learn about the law, has developed LibTour, a series of electronic law library tours using QR codes a new technology explained below. The series includes legal research sources like USCA/USCS, West’s Digests, Corpus Juris Secundum, AmJur, CFR, ALR, and Uniform Laws Annotated. Brooklyn Law School Library intern Sara Kasai wrote the LibTour on Federal Digests, which you can download here. The transcript is available here. With the help of a free barcode-reading app (like Google Goggles), any law student can use QR codes to access CALI audio files for useful information on the specific resource and its use in legal research.
QR Codes, which are beginning to appear on billboards, flyers, and subway ads throughout the city, are barcode-looking symbols that can be scanned by a barcode reader on a smartphone. They link to multiple kinds of data, including URL links, addresses, and text. QR Codes (standing for Quick Response) became popular in Japan after Toyota developed them as a new way to ID their cars. They are useful as a general marketing tool as well as for law firm marketing. Law firms are now putting QR codes on the back of lawyer business cards to enable prospective clients, with smart phone app, to read a lawyer’s biography on a web page. They can help drive traffic to law firm websites, promote events such as seminars, sponsored programs or association conferences. They can also be used to announce new products (such as scholarly publications or white papers), new services (such as new practice areas), or class action law suits. With a class action, a firm can quickly provide valuable information to prospective class members – especially when dealing with consumer issues. See ABA Journal article Biz Cards Go Digital: Firm Adds QR Codes to Business Cards and QR Codes: How Law Firms Can Use Them Effectively.
