[Cloud]

Er, I'm not sure what you are saying here, DanaC, since you seem to be making contradictory statements, but I'll expand. (puts down Krispy Kreme some evil soul brought to work). Now I'll expound:

1) College students (at least in the liberal disciplines) should be learning a couple of broad categories of learning: critical analysis and how to find information, i.e., research. Both of these skills are combined when doing a research paper and translate well into the workplace. Looking up an encylopedia article (print or online) and copying it does not serve either of these goals fully.

2) Legal research is especially difficult, as anyone who has tried to learn it discovers. It's mostly done online now, because the old, book-based way is EXTREMELY cumbersome. As a paralegal teacher, I have been in the unenviable position of --trying to teach it; and --justifying why.

The main reasons why a prospective law student needs to do it the old way are:
--you might get hired by a firm that only does it on paper
--your bosses likely learned the old way and will SCOFF at your ignorance
--not everything is online, even now, and likely never will be
--it's part of the basics of the profession; it's like wax on/wax off--you have to soak up the basic moves before you can kick ass