Internet Newsletter for Lawyers |
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A new series of articles, to be continued next time
Fortunately, I do not need to make a choice between buying legal materials in either print or electronic format for financial reasons. We use both books and databases according to the information required and the circumstances of the research. Budgets are prepared carefully each year and subscriptions to certain databases are negotiated with publishers. I do understand that it must be very difficult when firms need to make a choice for financial reasons. Over the past few years it has become increasingly obvious that City law firm libraries need access to material in all formats. The more we use electronic sources, the more we understand that they are not a substitute for hard copy material but a much appreciated complement to research.
Problems arise because of the licensing policies of some publishers rather than the content and format of material. We prefer concurrent user licences to those licences which are limited to an agreed number of individuals with access to particular databases. Butterworths give good discounts for electronic subscriptions if the library also takes hard copy volumes such as Halsbury's Statutes, but we rarely use the CD-ROMs that publishers issue with printed volumes because installing frequent updates on a network is very time-consuming. We wish we could reject unwanted CD-ROMs. Why should we pay for combined electronic/ print subscriptions in what is quaintly named "bundling"?
Context has very reasonable licensing policies for the Justis databases which other publishers should consider. The number of licences taken for concurrent users can be assessed by monitoring usage. For example, with a four-user licence any four lawyers may access law reports on the Justis internet database from any part of the world. The fifth person to try for access would be locked out.
We need access to material electronically and in bound, printed format and these are some of reasons why.
Favourite: There is one database of legal information that I could not do without and hard-copy is no substitute. Sweet & Maxwell's Current Legal Information, formerly published by Legal Information Resources has saved me months of time since we first subscribed in the late 1980s.
Hilary Green, Head of Library & Information Services, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, email hgreen@blg.co.uk.
We are a medium sized firm in Devon with an enthusiastic IT literate group of lawyers and support staff. We wish, as far as possible, to replace the printed library with comparable digital resources which can then be accessed from any computer terminal within the firm. The resources we require are very varied and we also wish to include self generated information resources.
Before we can move very far, we need to financially and physically audit and review the information needs of library users and establish when these types of digital information will be available for their use. We also have to establish costs and consider the extra technological and training resources needed to supply and deliver this information.
In the past, legal books were purchased on a one-by-one basis without a great deal of co-ordination between legal departments. For digital resources, however, a team of decision makers is needed because of the complexity and difficulty in making direct comparisons with regard to price and content when there is overlap of information for each legal regime or alternative versions of the same material.
The price and type of information varies from supplier to supplier dependant on a per user basis, per concurrent user basis, number of partners and/or the original value of the publication. The preferred publisher, by a lawyer, for this variable information also spans all publishers and is different for each lawyer and part of a practice.
Use of the computer means that access may be faster but the overload of information can be overwhelming and new tools are needed so lawyers receive only the information they need. We have been efficient users of books for many years but are much less experienced with Internet and digital resources. We also have to run the gauntlet of suppliers' offering free trials, free training etc, as inducements to take on their products.
Considering the complex and time consuming task involved in this project, it seems that there could be an opportunity for an outsourced Legal Information Service that provides access to a comprehensive, substantial and complete legal library resource via a membership access, at a fixed fee for user access or a pay per use service.
Steve Harris, IT Manager, Woollcombe Beer Watts, Devon, steveharris@wbw.co.uk.
Until recently electronic products have not been seen as a substitute for print in academic law libraries. There has been an assumption that the purpose of the library was to provide a substantial collection of primary materials, underpinned by the prescriptive requirements of bodies such as the SPTL and the Law Society. The real change, however, came with the advent of web-based services which allow for universal access on and off site. These offer direct alternatives to print versions of law reports and legislation and - increasingly - periodicals.
The law librarian or law school needs to consider:
Most academic law libraries subscribe to the general datasets rather than the specialised practice-orientated services which are increasingly being offered, and the pricing for academic institutions tends to encourage this. The options are now for Westlaw, Lexis, a selection of the Butterworths services (currently on offer with Lexis as a bundle), the Justis databases provided by Context, and Lawtel. In addition there is the increasingly complex access to online versions of periodicals (which probably involve other university departments).
The cost of an online service is normally more than its print equivalent, although in some cases the aggregation of databases available on a service may offer the possibility of cancelling print series worth more than the subscription cost (depending on what the Library takes). Larger libraries should certainly be able to cancel duplicate sets of major series of reports, such as The Law Reports, WLR and All ER and a number of runs of journals.
Once a library has gone down the virtual route it will find there is an expectation that all resources are available electronically. We have experienced a dramatic reduction in the use of the print materials (apart from books), as students now expect to be able to access law reports and statutes, indexing services and increasingly full-text journal articles from their desktop (which may be elsewhere on campus, in their bedroom or at home in the UK or abroad) 24 hours a day. And, in spite of an initial caution on behalf of some academic staff, the advantage of desktop access is now seen as a real enhancement to the research process. (Who would make a trip to the Library, retrieve a periodical and photocopy the article when you can print it in your office or at home in seconds?)
Comprehensive coverage would mean the library must subscribe to all the available services, but this leads to duplication (for example, The Law Reports are available on Westlaw and Lexis, and as a separate database from Justis and Butterworths). In reality it has been a haphazard process, because of the slippery nature of the services. Whereas printed series have always remained stable in content and presentation, electronic services are constantly changing and of course will not reveal their development plans in advance. Subscribing also involves a considerable investment in training, information and the production of supporting materials, and therefore you tend to be locked into a service - cancelling a service is no light decision.
There is still a nervousness, especially among the academic staff, at the prospect of cancelling runs of journals or law reports which are seen as prestigious and an enhancement to the research activity of the law school. However the real financial driver is the recruitment of students, and the demand for the 24 hour virtual library will prove the decisive influence in the long run.
Sarah Carter, Law Librarian at the University of Kent at Canterbury, S.H.Carter@ukc.ac.uk. See also her excellent legal web portal, http://www.ukc.ac.uk/library/lawlinks/.
Note from Delia: Contributions on this topic would be very welcome for the next issue. I particularly want to hear from a chambers' library, an Irish firm (are there any different considerations in Ireland?) and a really small firm (which probably does not have a "library" at all). And would one or more publishers like to contribute to the debate? Please contact me!
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