Legal eBooks and the Institutional Buyer: An LLB Poll on Use, Acquisition Interest and Market Penetration

Since the advent of full-text search in the late 1970s-early 1980s, law libraries have tended to be at the forefront of technological innovation in the provision of resources to its users. When one reads what general public libraries are doing with respect to eBooks, one has to wonder if law libraries are "behind the curve" in providing legal eBooks. By legal eBook, I am not referring to the fantasy island that is the "there's a legal app for that" mentality. Nor am I referring to research apps for providing access to reliable legal database search services, such as iPad apps for WestlawNext, Fasecase, etc. I'm referring to the legal eBook comparable to what is sold by popular, trade and textbook publishers regardless of distribution channels used.

Where Do We Stand in Use, Acquistion Interest and Market Penetration?Legal eBooks for purposes of this utterly unscientific LLB poll may include hornbooks and casebooks for instruction, primary source materials such as topical statutory, regulatory and court rule compilations, and secondary legal sources including but not limited to legal practitioner materials such as practice handbooks and treatises, etc. The below questions may not answer all facets of legal eBooks but the answers may be a measure of where we are and where we may be heading. As some of our major vendors start executing unannounced until shippped print format switcheroos like the one mentioned in yesterday's LLB post, law librarians can easily see where these print format changes are probably heading.

If you have a moment, please take our poll and thanks in advance for participating. Sorry about the ads. Our blogware provider's "improved" composing interface has made a mess of the free pollware we used in the past. If this pollware works and if the Blog Widow allows, future polls will be ad free. [JH]

NB: After voting, hit the back button to return to this post to take the next question.[JH]

How prevalent is legal eBook use in your institution's population?
	Very prevalent
	Somewhat prevalent
	Not prevalent
	Almost nonexistent or nonexistent
pollcode.com free polls

Does your institution acquire legal eBooks for its employees' office use (eg, attorneys, judges, faculty)?
	Yes, but not with library funds
	Yes, with library funds
	No
pollcode.com free polls

Does your library acquire legal eBooks for lending to patrons?
	Yes
	No, but we plan to start doing so soon
	No, we do not plan to do so at this time?
pollcode.com free polls

Does your library use its funds to acquire eReaders at your institution?
	Yes, for employees' individual use only (eg, attorneys, judges, faculty)
	Yes, for lending to library patrons
	Yes, for lending and individual employee use
	No
pollcode.com free polls

The current selection, quality and pricing of legal eBooks is
	Very poor
	Poor
	Average
	Good
	Excellent
pollcode.com free polls

Legal eBooks are going to be an important facet of law library collection development
	Strongly agree
	Agree
	Disagree
	Strongly Disagree
	No opinion
pollcode.com free polls

The most significant deterrents to the rapid growth of legal eBooks for my institution's user population are (select multiple answers)
	The availability of titles from reputable vendors
	Licensing instead of owning the legal eBook outright
	Proprietary formats instead of open source file formats
	The inability to integrate eBook content into work product directly
	The cost of eReaders
	The cost of eBooks
	pBook usability is better than current eBook interfaces
pollcode.com free polls

My institutional affiliation is
	Academic law library (public or private)
	Private sector law library (law firms, corporations, etc.)
	Public sector law library (agencies, courts, state or county library etc.)
	Other
pollcode.com free polls