Connecting the Genealogist to the Research -- an online conundrum

In the title to this post, I use for the definition of "conundrum" that
of an intricate and difficult problem. The question was raised by Martin
Hollick, author of

Hollick, Martin E. New Englanders in the 1600s: A Guide to Genealogical Research Published between 1980 and 2005. Boston, Mass: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2006.

in his post, "Shepardizing Your Genealogy" "How do we connect the average researcher with this latest and greatest information?"

The term "shepardizing" derives from a legal service begun by Frank
Shepard (1848-1902) in 1873. The concept of the books was to provide a
list of citations made to any law case by a subsequent case. So, for
example, if the Supreme Court of U.S. decided a case the Shepards
citations would list every case that cited the decision and indicated if
the newer case overruled, upheld or modified the original decision. The
Frank Shepard Company (later Shepard's Citations, Inc.) evolved over
time by into a large multi-volume analysis of every court of record in
the United States. The system was ultimately purchased by Lexis-Nexis in
1996.

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