$74.59 per Page of New Content in the 2011 Edition of CJS Internal Revenue Volumes

In December and January, I posted information about Thomson West’s annual publication in hardcover of the Internal Revenue volumes of Corpus Juris Secundum at what I considered exorbitant prices to be replaced annually. With the 2011 editions published in February 2011, it appears that the suggestions and criticisms have been ignored.
 
In my comparison of 2009 and 2010 editions, I pointed out that there were only 24 pages of new material. In the 2011 edition, the pagination has changed between volumes, but the aggregate pagination of vol. 47A, 47B, and 47C in 2010 was 2,659 pages and that has now grown to an aggregate of 2,670 pages, an increase of 11 pages of text. In my criticisms of the 2010 edition, the editors pointed out that the 24 pages of text was actually 60 pages of Word, so if we extrapolate that, we have 27 ½ pages of Word of new material.
 
All this for $273.50 per volume or a total of $820.50. With 11 pages of new text in the 3 volumes, that comes out to $74.59 per page.
 
I had suggested previously that this publication not be done in hardcover because it was replaced annually and could thus save costs. The customer ends up paying for the embossing, the foil stamp, the cloth cover, and the stitching on the spine, only to discard it 12 months later. Using a soft cover binding with notch and glue netted to hold the spine would save costs and the items would be durable for the 12 month life span of the 3 volumes. Thomson West does this for their annual AmJur Internal Revenue volumes and LexisNexis does this for their tax volumes of 26 USCS. Thomson West maintains they were too far along in their production line, but I believe 2 months notice is time enough to make changes. Why does this suggestion to Thomson West fall upon deaf ears and why the inconsistency?
 
One of the best specimens of this work is the 8 page correlation table in which we can translate sections from 2010 to sections in 2011. For 881 lines, the correlation table goes on let the user know that, for example, section 44 is now section 44, and section 232 is now section 232, and so on. The sections are identical from year to year. The 2009 to 2010 correlation table was the same 881 sections going from identical section to identical section. The best is the typo for section 489 which read s "4895." This typo carried over from last year to this year.
 
The prefatory material and filing instructions allude to 7 legislative changes, and case and regulatory law updates. This is an improvement.
 
Unfortunately, when I asked my account manager to follow up on some of these questions to the editors, he framed it to the editors as the "Scott Burgh issue." This issue is about Thomson West being more accountable to its customers and providing value for the dollar. This issue is about not wasting the consumer’s nor the taxpayers’ money. This is not a personalized issue and it is too bad Thomson West folks have framed it that way.
 
We have been able to not purchase these volumes and separate our set, thus saving $820.50. Others may need to watch and be diligent with their purchases as well.
 
Guest post by Scott Burgh, Chief Law Librarian, City of Chicago Department of Law Library. (First published on AALL listservs.)