I stumbled across this blog post today and wanted to share.  It’s an old one, some of you may have seen it last fall: Dear Law Students, Secondary sources are like cheeseburgers You like those, right?   It is written by Jason Wilson.  He talks about how a secondary source (perhaps a PLI treatise or course handbook) can help “both answer the [legal] question and help … actually understand what the answer means.”    

The cheeseburger is a parallel to a secondary source and the farm is parallel to primary law in its many forms.  The librarian or professor is the “Missus.”  So you can work the farm and make the cheeseburger—all the ingredients are there.  Or ask the “Missus” for something to eat – something prepared.  “The cheeseburger will feed your appetite a whole lot faster than working the farm, no matter how awesome your tools are. That’s because someone who knows better already did the work for you.”

Isn’t that a great analogy???  I you have another analogy that you like, I’d love to hear it.  Comment or write me at libraryrelations@pli.edu.