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TAX FILE

CD-ROM Training­Lessons Learned
By Lynn Dilts-Hill and Adrienne Eng, Tax Analysts

CD-ROM products can be found everywhere in libraries. Increasingly, librarians are faced with the task of training their attorneys in the use of these products. This article discusses some lessons we have learned at Tax Analysts where the librarians are involved in training customers in the use of the Tax Analysts OneDisc Professional Research Library. There are a number of good articles on techniques for training, including an article by Marirose Coulson in the last issue of this Bulletin, so this article does not discuss specific techniques.

The customized OneDisc Professional Research Library, for those who are not familiar with it, is a multi-disc set of tax information including the IRS Code and Regulations, Letter Rulings, Court Opinions, Tax Treaties, and Tax Forms, to name a few items. The five-disc set can be purchased as a package or individually. Folio® software is used for searching, and the discs can be used on a stand alone computer or on a network. (Call Tax Analysts Customer Service at 800-955-3444 for more details.)

A classic rule from training seminars is to know your audience. This is the one major lesson we have learned from training the Tax Analysts subscribers, most of them attorneys. The successful librarian/trainer knows the audience and its skills. The Tax Analysts librarians would like to add several corollaries to this rule­ address the concerns of the audience about the product before they bring it up themselves. Being proactive and anticipating their concerns makes the audience comfortable and less hesitant to ask questions. In addition, use a product the audience is familiar with as a starting ground for the training session. For example, if you are training on CD-ROMs, explain that they generally use search and retrieval techniques similar to the online systems the attorneys may be familiar with.

We have identified three groups of OneDisc users that require training. The three groups are described below, along with the successful strategies and products that can be used with each group.

Dealing with the online searcher or debunking the Lexis/Westlaw myth. A common complaint of longtime online searchers is that the product isn't "Lexis" or "Westlaw". To deal with the concerns, we tell the audience up front that the Folio search engine is not as sophisticated as Lexis or Westlaw, but that the cost is significantly less. Use Lexis or West search terms and explain the comparable search on the CD. For example, a one-page handout such as a conversion table showing the common Lexis search format and the equivalent Folio command (e.g., New Search on Lexis would be the Query Template, found on the OneDisc) would be particularly useful.

Dealing with the computer phobic or senior partner who is more comfortable with print. We make clear that you can't break the computer and that CD-ROM offers the audience a more sophisticated tool than the equivalent print product. The CD-ROM does away with the volumes and volumes of print information and their separate indexes. As an example, we talk about Letter Rulings. The OneDisc contains on a single disc all the letter rulings issued by the IRS since 1980. The comparable print product takes up at least a six-shelf bookcase worth of space. Reminding senior partners of their early days as associates where they may have spent several hours reviewing the black looseleafs for letter rulings usually convinces most of them to take a look at the CD-ROM Chief Counsel Advice Disc. The best analogy we found to use with this group is to compare the CD to an "electronic book" and point out how the CD is the same as the print product equivalent­we show them how to use the electronic index and then move immediately to the text. The handout for this group is a basic set of instructions and several very simple, sample searches for the documents they will most likely need to retrieve. These sample searches are a great guide for future searches.

Dealing with the busy professional or "The Hook". To keep the busy professional engaged and focused on the training session, we found it is best to do some homework and use current, relevant issues in the training. To keep up on current tax issues, the librarians regularly scan the headlines in two Tax Analysts publishes Tax Notes and Highlights and Documents. Once we pique their interest with the latest tax news, we can tell them about the benefits of learning to use a new media to track future developments in this area. The audience knows that time is money, and the ability to search volumes of materials from their desktop can make their research much more efficient. Many of these professionals travel, and being able to take a CD-ROM instead of packing loads of paper or carrying heavy books is a real plus. Another benefit is the cost: a CD-ROM subscription is generally lower than the online services. The one-page handout for this group would be a quick reference guide of the search features with sample searches for the issues discussed. Specifically, these searches would include all synonyms and related terms that would pull up the issues relevant to their practice. You also could illustrate ways to save searches and continue the research later.

Conclusion

"You can teach an old dog new tricks" if you know your audience and can get them to see the value of the CD-ROM.

* Lynn Dilts-Hill (Lynn-Dilts-Hill@tax.org) and Adrienne Eng (Adrienne-Eng@tax.org). Lynn and Adrienne are Associate Librarians at Tax Analysts. Send your comments or questions to them at their e-mail address.

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