And if students react to seemingly irrelevant print lessons by failing to internalize foundational concepts, then they will likely revert to old
research habits when they inevitably gravitate back to
electronic sources to do their actual
research.88 In other words, if the process doesn't carry over to the media they're actually willing to use, then they are
far less likely to actually learn the fundamental, foundational concepts that are so critical to good
legal research.89 Instead, they may achieve mere «inert» knowledge: «the inability to apply skills and concepts in situations other than those in which they were originally learned.»
From the library side of
legal work, some theoretical MWP examples: extra
research to confirm a trusted person's work, legislative
research that goes back too
far in time, looking for every case rather than the best cases that clarify an issue, filing a looseleaf service that hasn't been consulted in several years, pulling and copying print case reporters when you already have an
electronic copy.