University Times

Log on to JURIST: The Law Professors' Network (jurist.law.pitt.edu) and meet LANGDELL, the newest addition to Pitt's law "faculty."

The first computer-generated audio-visual personality to be put on-line at a law school, LANGDELL introduces the JURIST legal education service in four different languages.

Named after the 19th-century Harvard law professor and dean Christopher Columbus Langdell, LANGDELL is the "virtual host" of JURIST 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "He's always on," said JURIST creator Bernard Hibbitts, professor and associate dean for communications and information technology at the law school.

"I put LANGDELL up to make the site more accessible to users who are tired of reading from their computer monitors, who have visual disabilities or who are simply looking for a new type of on-line multimedia experience," Hibbitts said.

LANGDELL reads the daily legal news on JURIST. "I'm sure we'll see more 'virtual newscasters' in the future," said Hibbitts. "But as far as we know LANGDELL is the first."

In the next couple of months, LANGDELL will become fully interactive and will answer reader's questions about JURIST in real time, Hibbitts said.