Westlaw To End Free Printing For Law Schools

News is bubbling through law school and library forums that West will discontinue free law school printing effective June 30, 2013.  I assume that includes faculty printing.  Law schools can keep the printers and fund them if they wanted to, but Westlaw IDs would be tied to them only through June 30, 2014.  When I wrote about Bloomberg Law's push into law schools, I said Bloomberg had no plans to include free printing as part of the deal.  I didn't think it made any difference to the acceptance of Bloomberg in law schools given that it was essentially going to be free.  See that post for more details.

Free Westlaw printing, as with Lexis, had been part of the law school package since the early days of their law school presence.  I don't know if Bloomberg's plan had triggered any soul searching in the Eagan executive offices, but it might have in the accounting offices.  I expect the folks in Dayton will be thinking about this as well.  My impression developed at the various schools in which I worked is that students print a lot and use a little of that printing.  We often say we want students to develop good research habits.  Printing is part of that, I think, and students will be a bit more careful of what they commit to paper if they have to pay for it.  The alternative, of course, is storing that research on the system or another device.    

I haven't heard if there are further cuts planned.  I would think there would be less need to have Westlaw student reps since there wouldn't be a need to monitor dedicated printers.  It's the end of an era, I guess.  [MG]