In what will be considered a seminal article of the 2010s in law library literature, The Algorithm as a Human Artifact by Susan Nevelow Mart, Associate Professor and Director of the Law Library, University of Colorado Law School, has been published by LLJ. From the abstract:
The results of using the search algorithms in Westlaw, Lexis Advance, Fastcase, Google Scholar, Ravel, and Casetext are compared. Six groups of humans created six different algorithms, and the results are a testament to the variability of human problem solving. That variability has implications both for researching and teaching research.
open-access alternative to AALL gated link:
Mart, Susan Nevelow, The Algorithm as a Human Artifact: Implications for Legal {Re}Search (October 26, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2859720
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open-access alternative to AALL gated link:
Mart, Susan Nevelow, The Algorithm as a Human Artifact: Implications for Legal {Re}Search (October 26, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2859720