The New York Times runs the article Old Search Engine, The Library, Tries to Fit into a Google World, that discusses how online resources have supplanted the library for information gathering.
Our summer associates just completed their 6-week session with us, and I find that more than ever, law students rely almost exclusively on online research, especially Lexis and Westlaw. I don’t recall seeing them in the library very much at all during the 6-week period.
Scott Stolley, a lawyer at Thompson & Knight here in Dallas, has a great article on The Corruption of Legal Research (PDF File; scroll down to Page 39 — Page 20 of the PDF), which discusses this very issue.
Although you won’t find a stronger advocate for online research, I also recognize that this increased reliance on electronic resources may actually produce weaker researchers. Law schools really need to do something about this.