3.1171 Nexis and Lexis (77)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Wed, 14 Mar 90 20:28:47 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1171. Wednesday, 14 Mar 1990.


(1) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 90 10:07 EST (23 lines)
From: Ezra Zubrow <APYEZRA@ubvmsc.bitnet>
Subject: Re: 3.1165 queries (111)

(2) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 90 10:23:07 EST (15 lines)
From: "Christopher W. Donald" <DONALD@UKANVM>
Subject: Re: 3.1165 queries (111)

(3) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 90 08:34:00 EST (15 lines)
From: N_EITELJORG@cc.brynmawr.edu
Subject: Re: 3.1165 queries (111)

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 90 10:07 EST
From: Ezra Zubrow <APYEZRA@ubvmsc.bitnet>
Subject: Re: 3.1165 queries (111)

Regarding Jane Edwards requested information about
Nexus and Lexus:

I think she is referring to Nexis and Lexis which are two very large
text data bases owned by the Meade Corporation. Lexis is one of the two
standard law data bases and provides full text of almost all legal
decisions in the United States and several European countries. Nexis is
a current affairs data base. In addition there is a competitive legal
data base named\ Westlaw which is run by the West corporation.

Access to these data bases have to be arranged with the companies.
However, most law libraries in major universities have contracts with
Lexis, Nexis and Westlaw and I am sure that they can provide more
information as well as demonstrations.

Ezra Zubrow
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------24----
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 90 10:23:07 EST
From: "Christopher W. Donald" <DONALD@UKANVM>
Subject: Re: 3.1165 queries (111)

RE NEXIS and LEXIS. These are commercial databases produced by
MEAD DATA. The primary market is for Law Offices and Law Schools. Lexis
is on-lne access to all opinions written at federal and state level.
Nexis is a full-text data base with such publications as NY TIMES
Reuters and Business Week. The best place to start looking for is
is your local law school. I should also point out computer guru Peter
McWilliams had a column on Nexis in his syndicated column about three
weeks ago.

Christopher Donald
The University of Kansas
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------23----
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 90 08:34:00 EST
From: N_EITELJORG@cc.brynmawr.edu
Subject: Re: 3.1165 queries (111)

Lexis and Nexis (and Medis) are products of Mead Data Central (a
subsidiary of Mead Corp.). Lexis is a legal data base, Nexis a general
one (and Medis a medical one). Lexis dates to 1973, Nexis to 1980, and
Medis to 1985. There are sales offices in many cities. New York:
212-309-8100; L.A.:213-627-1130; Chicago: 312-236-7903.

Those numbers are about 4 years old. I don't know if they are still
valid. The service is expensive, with a very high monthly minimum need
to justify the charge. The range of coverage is very broad in Nexis,
but one must carefully craft searches in order to find what one wants,
and each search has a cost.

Nick Eiteljorg