Law Librarian Blog

Guide to Negotiating Vendor Contracts

A veteran of vendor negotiations for law firm online and print contracts, Elaine Billingslea Dockens offers a detailed guide for vendor representatives (VRs) and law librarians inexperienced in the ways of vendor contracting in Vendor Pitfalls in Negotiating Large Multi-Year Contracts - or How to Lose a Million Dollar Contract (LLRX). Dockens writes:

During negotiations my goal is to control expenses and look for discounts (and still keep a quality product). The goal of the VRs include obtaining or retaining our business and making a reasonable profit. When we both - firm and vendor - come to the table prepared to get the very best deal for our side, then everybody wins. However, if one of the parties arrives at the table ill prepared - we both lose. The vendor will probably lose the business they could have obtained or retained and the firm loses the chance to seriously consider the vendor in comparison to other vendors.

The article includes commentary on vendor representative tactics Dockens has witnessed over the years that substantially decreased the success of the VRs to obtain or retain her law firm's business. Reading this section was déjà vu all over again. [JH]

States Facing Declining Personal Income Tax Receipts

As state governments race to prepare new budgets by July 1st, Stateline.org staff writer Pamela M. Prah surveys findings from recent reports about declining personal income tax revenue at the state level. Public law libraries dependent on state funding take note. Here's a couple of snips from Prah's article:

• Personal income taxes paid to the states plummeted 26 percent, or $28.8 billion, in the first four months of 2009, compared with the same time period last year.

• The income tax collections filed in April were $18.2 billion lower than the previous April.

• Overall personal income fell in 37 states in the first quarter of 2009.

[JH]

Dealing with the Economy’s Impact on Law Libraries

AALL's Hillary Baker reports on how different types of law libraries are grappling with the consequences of the current economy in Battling the Economic Bully: How Tough Times Are Affecting Law Libraries and How You Can Fight Back in the June issue of AALL Spectrum. [JH]

Reminder: Registation Deadline for The Shared Electronic Resource Understanding Webinar is June 5

"The Shared Electronic Resource Understanding (SERU): Can It Work in My Library" webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, June 9, 2009, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm (Eastern Time). The presenters, Karla Hahn, Assistant Executive Director of the Association of Research Libraries and Judy Luther, President of Informed Strategies, who served together as co-chairs of the NISO Working Group that developed SERU, will discuss how libraries and publishers can forgo negotiating traditonal licensing agreements for e-resources in favor of using a set of “common understandings”. Topics to be covered in the webinar include:

• Learn about what SERU is and how SERU is used in practice.
• The legal implications of SERU.
• Is SERU feasible in the law library setting?

Registration must be complete by June 5 (5:00pm Central). Space is limited. [JH] 

AALL's Economic Outlook Survey Results Now Available

Last month, AALL conducted a survey of law library directors to understand how the current economic crisis is affecting the profession. The results, based on a respectable 34 percent response rate, are now available for download here.

Here's a summary of the findings:

Staff Reductions

• 23 percent of law libraries have experienced staff reductions, the overwhelming number ranging from one to five full-time employees laid off

• Nearly 20 percent of law libraries have eliminated vacant positions, and more than 63 percent have a hiring freeze in place at this time

• Hardest hit have been the private law libraries; 30 percent have had staff reductions, and nearly 72 percent have a hiring freeze in place

• Only about 10 percent of academic law libraries have reduced their staffs, but 45 percent have a hiring freeze in place

• A little more than 15 percent of state, court, and county law libraries have experienced layoffs, and 57 percent have a hiring freeze

Budget Cuts

• More than 60 percent of all respondents have already experienced budget cuts

• Private law library budgets have seen the most cuts; nearly 73 percent have been cut, and about a quarter of respondents have seen cuts of 15 percent or more

• Nearly half of academic law library budgets are so far untouched, and about 40 percent of state, court, and county law library budgets also have remained steady, but many anticipate cuts in the next fiscal year.

Hat tip to AALL Spectrum Blog. [JH] 

Should LexisNexis and Thomson West Be Worried About the Economy's Turbulence? Results of the LLB Poll

Faced with substantial budget cuts to law library collections and legal research policy changes, LLB launched an informal poll on April 13th [background] looking into what impact the current economy may have on LexisNexis and Thomson West print products and online legal research services and whether any impact would having lasting consequences. The results are now in and note the conflicted situation we are in. On the one hand, participants see a permanent shift to free and low cost online legal research services, presumably for primary legal materials. On the other hand, reliance on LexisNexis and West online services for secondary materials may trend upward, but at the expense of libraries canceling LexisNexis and West print title continuations that are duplicated online.

Is it too far-fetched to contemplate that their duopolistic pricing practices may end LexisNexis' and Westlaw's dominance of the market for online primary legal materials someday? Considering the content-rich, and better designed products offered by BNA and CCH in their web-based services, will libraries eliminate from their plans LexisNexis and West online secondary legal materials covered by BNA and CCH someday? Will legal publishers like BNA, CCH and Aspen-Loislaw see this as an opportunity to expand their online offerings into subject areas they may once thought they could not be competitive? Expand by offering competitive fundamental research tools like comprehensive and reliable online citation indexes for example?

Thanks to everyone who participated in this informal poll. While utterly unscientific, the results are thought-provoking. Maybe we are living in interesting times. [JH]

Will the current economic situtaion be "good" for free and low cost online legal research services -- do you see or expect to see patrons use them more frequently than in the past?

If yes, will the trend in usage be temporary or permanent once the economy improves -- should LexisNexis and Westlaw be worried?

Should LexisNexis and Thomson West be worried about the cancellation of print titles because many of their regularly updated titles are duplicated in their online services?

I work in [type of law library]

A Bookless Academic Library?

The need to tear down the seismically unsafe Meyer Library on Stanford's campus has produced faculty protests over the university's plans for the future library (or is it the future of the library). The preliminary proposal called for digitizing and storing off campus most of the library's 600,000 volumes. Writing in The Chronicle, Johanna Drucker, UCLA professor of information studies, argues that "[the task of modeling an environment for scholarship (not just individual projects, but an environment, with a suite of tools for access, use, and research activity) is not a responsibility that can be offloaded onto libraries or technical staffs. I cannot say this strongly or clearly enough: The design of digital tools for scholarship is an intellectual responsibility, not a technical task."

Hat tip to James B. Levy (Nova), Legal Writing Prof Blog. [JH]

Removing Books from School Libraries

Eugene Volokh discusses the implications of the Supreme Court's 4-4 decision on Board of Education v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982) in his blog post, What Do Supreme Court Precedents Tell Us About Removal of Books from School Libraries. [JH]

ARL Statement of the Global Economic Crisis and Its Effect on Publishing and Library Subscriptions

The Association of Research Libraries has released a statement to scholarly publishers and vendors on the impact the global economic crisis will have on research library budgets and spending. Recommendations include the following:

• ARL calls on publishers to consider carefully decisions to invest in new products, functionality, and marketing efforts. Any new investments need to be strategic and market sensitive. Publishers should base investments on market research that demonstrates demand and takes into account the ongoing economic situation.
• Publishers should go further in reducing the need for outright cancellations by undertaking broad efforts to seek new efficiencies that can result in price reductions in the short as well as long term. As libraries scrutinize their own operations, publishers similarly need to critically examine all of their practices and services to identify ways of reducing expenditures and, with them, prices. One obvious opportunity for reducing operating costs to proportionately lower prices is accelerating shifts to electronic-only publication to reduce overhead of print production and handling.
• ARL reiterates the ICOLC call for price stabilization and advocates real price reductions. Models that stabilize or discount prices for all customers, large and small, are most likely to be attractive in the current economic situation and into the future.
• Libraries serving research organizations are increasingly receptive to models that provide open access to content published by their affiliated authors in addition to traditional subscription access to titles. This kind of model can form a bridge from subscription models to models incorporating author-side payments.
• Responsible publishers and vendors should provide real alternatives to multiyear contracts and a range of options for contract terms, as described in the ICOLC statement.
• Acknowledging the singular budget conditions confronting even the largest libraries, publishers must be open to mid-term renegotiations of contracts.
• The research library community is also concerned that the suddenness and depth of the global economic crisis substantially increases risk for the loss of important scholarly content. Scholarly publishers share with libraries a stewardship responsibility and should accelerate their commitments to third party archiving services as potential for business failure increases.
• Inevitably, libraries will be forced to invoke many contract terms in place for providing ongoing access to previously subscribed content after cancellation. ARL calls on publishers to generously and completely facilitate fulfillment of existing contract terms to provide ongoing access to back issues of cancelled
  subscriptions and to continue to provide these contract terms.
• Finally, ARL encourages publishers to consult widely with research libraries. Small, not-for-profit publishers are of particular concern, and ARL member libraries welcome conversations regarding new publishing models that can reduce the cost and vulnerability of established publications of high value.

[JH]

Tough Times Ahead for Law Library Budgets

On January 26th we launched a little poll on the financial situation law libraries are finding themselves in because of the dismal state of the US economy. See Is It Time for a Law Library Bailout? I would like to thank the 220-plus participants and publish the results for your review.

The situation is grim. Only 11% responded that no budget cut was expected while 44% expected budget cuts this and next fiscal year. 31% have been informed or expect a 7-10% budget cut and an alarming 24% report that their budget cut will be more than 10%. Such a large percentage cutback, whether in one or two fiscal years, is going to be extremely disruptive to library operations and services.

What area will be hardest hit? Collections according to 82% of the responses. Vendors and library patrons take note because 82% of the poll's respondents work in academic or law firm libraries, generally the most heavily used libraries and the ones that spend the most on library materials each year. [JH]

Have you been informed or do you expect a budget cut in [fiscal year]

If you have or expect to have budget cut(s) this or next year or both, how much do you expect the cut will total over your last fiscal year's budget?

What area will be hardest hit in cutbacks?

I work in [law library type]

Refurbishing Library Facilities

From Ashgate, Renewing our Libraries: Case Studies in Re-planning and Refurbishment (2009), edited by Michael Dewe. Here's the product description:

With the wish to heighten their profile, modernize their environment and increase use, libraries in the UK have refurbished and, where necessary and possible, extended their existing buildings. Although much has been achieved in this regard across the UK, more continues and needs to be accomplished.

The case-studies in this book provide librarians, architects and others with examples of what has been undertaken and highlight the policies, processes, design issues – and the problems that have been overcome – leading to successful library refurbishments. While the case studies are mainly drawn from the UK and cover a variety of library types, the book has wider international appeal and includes case studies drawn from Ireland, Sweden and the USA.

[JH]

Is It Time for a Law Library Bailout?

We'll leave it to AALL (or LexisNexis or Thomson West) to do a proper survey of the financial situation of law libraries but until then, please take this little unscientific LLB poll which is open to all, not just library financial managers. Feel free to add your comments about the financial circumstances of your library or law libraries generally to this post. See also LLB's earlier post, Budgetary Woes Return to Law Schools and Their Law Libraries. [JH]

Online Surveys & Market Research

Online Surveys & Market Research

Online Surveys & Market Research

Online Surveys & Market Research

SLA's 2008 Salary Survey Is Now Available

The 2008 SLA Salary Survey results show that the average salary increases for SLA members have again outpaced inflation. Based on salaries as of April 1, the mean percent increase in salaries for 2008 over 2007 was 5.3% for U.S. based respondents. The average salary for U.S. members who answered the survey was $71,812, compared with $69,426 in 2007 and $67,400 in 2006.

The 2008 Survey can be purchased in print or PDF for $80. An online  interactive Salary Calculator using the survey data is included in the purchase. [JH]

Applications Being Accepted for the 2009 AALL Management Institute

From dealing with difficult people to developing a strategic plan for the library to building partnerships, new law library managers have a lot on their plates. The AALL Management Institute, held March 19-21, 2009, in Tampa, Florida, provides new and aspiring managers from all types of law libraries the opportunity to collaborate in small groups and learn from their colleagues as they develop the skills to manage with confidence today.

Learn How To:

• Build and nurture a professional network
• Develop effective communication
• Negotiate and handle difficult situations
• Develop a strategic plan
• Take on project management
• Champion the library’s role within the institution and build partnerships

An action-learning approach will be utilized that includes: lecture, case studies, small group discussion, self-assessment tools, journaling, and skills practice.

Application and Selection:

The institute application process is open to AALL members, and applications are accepted online.

Applicants are encouraged to apply early. Selected participants will be notified beginning mid-January. The application form includes the opportunity to describe career goals and how this institute will benefit you as you advance in your career. A total of 30 participants will be selected.

The cost of attendance is $250. Institute materials, continental breakfast, break and lunch each day is included. Participants are responsible for covering transportation and housing.

Sponsor Information:

This continuing professional education opportunity is sponsored by the American Association of Law Libraries. Contact Celeste R. Smith, AALL director of education, at csmith@aall.org or 312/205-8032for more information.

LJ's 2008 Placements & Salary Survey

Library Journal has released its Placement and Salary Survey for 2008.  Despite the economic crisis, the outlook looks good for the profession.

On the positive side:

• Annual salaries increased approximately 3.1%
• Large gains for minority grads in the Southeast
• Strong growth for academics in the Northeast
• Extraordinary salaries garnered by University of Michigan graduates.

On the negative side:

• Increase in temp positions
• Longer job search
• Persistent gender gap

[RJ]

Legal Issues Every Librarian Should Know

In 25 Important Legal Issues Every Librarian Should Research, Jessica Merritt writes "most people don’t think of librarians as legal entities, but the fact is there are a number of legal issues that are important for librarians to understand. Whether you’re dealing with copyright or disabilities, the best way to protect yourself is to be informed. Be sure that you’ve brushed up on these important issues." Issues presented in the article include the following:

Filters: Many public libraries are under pressure to filter Internet access to patrons. Whether or not you do so can have legal implications for your library.

Accessibility: It’s important that libraries comply with the Americans with Disabilities act in order to make accessing the libray easier for people with disabilities.

Accessible website and written materials: Accesibility in your library also extends to your website and written materials. Make sure you’re in compliance with this resource.

Privacy: As many libraries become more technologically savvy, the issue of privacy will often come up. You will have to be careful about publishing your patrons’ information, images, and more.

Information liability: If a patron uses your library resources to learn how to build a bomb, and then uses the bomb to harm people, can your library be held partially responsible? Find out the exact legalities and how you can protect your library and resources from this issue.

[RJ]

Geeks are Guys: Is the Re-Feminization of Law Librarianship Coming?

In The Feminization of Librarianship, Tawny Sverdlin calls attention to the well-known fact that library work has been associated with women since the late nineteenth century when the proliferation of American public libraries began and library education was professionalized to meet library needs for trained staff. She observes:

In the late nineteenth century without many jobs available to educated women, male library administrators often accepted the employment of women as librarians and assistants as a means of allowing their organizations to survive financially. Access to alternate types of employment proved to be an important factor in attracting women to the profession. Male librarians at the time were accepting of incoming women simply for the cost-effective opportunity that they provided.

...

The opportunity for women to enter library school at Columbia College, later known as Columbia University, in 1887 proved to be a double-edged sword in terms of women’s opportunity for advancement. Melvil Dewey (right) championed women as librarians and library school educators but placed caps on their achievement in terms of gender straight away. According to Dewey’s blatant double standard, women had to demonstrate truly remarkable ability or be relegated to perpetual underling status. [emphasis added]

Professionalization in Law Libraries. If we looked into law library staffing in the late nineteenth century and its eventual professionalization in leadership roles I think we know what we would find were we to examine the appointment of directors in academic and court law libraries where the growth of legal reporting coupled with Langdell's "law library is a laboratory" mantra first signaled the need for full-time, if not professional, librarians. First, someone who "knew where the books where" was appointed to run the library full-time. For example Henry DeForest Clarke became the first in a line of full-time librarians to serve the US Supreme Court in 1887 when the Court Clerk found his library chores a burden. A porter for the US Supreme Court, Clarke knew where to find the books in the joint Congressional and Court library and in the homes of the Justices. He served until his death in 1900.

A pool of readily available and convenient law school and court staffers serving full-time to run law libraries was followed by a candidate pool of male attorneys because female law school grads were few and far between. These male attorneys turned librarians rarely had professional library training but may have been supported by female clerks with some training. They, in turn, oftentimes were succeeded by a male law library director with law school and library school training, a rare commodity considering law school grads were usually male and library schools students were predominately female.

I think we would find that the glass ceiling in law library administration was finally cracked when deans and court administrators recognized that their professional prejudice (or arrogance) that a lawyer was needed to run a law library because only another law-trained person would understand lawyers, law profs and judges "unique" information needs was a mistake. The structure of legal literature and the glut produced by the legal publishing industry required a professional librarian's skills. If one checked closely, I think one would find that cracks began to open when male attorney-law librarians skilled in legal bibliography were replaced as head law librarians with female librarians professionally trained and experienced in all aspects of technical services.

Glass Ceiling in Law Library Administration. Cracked but not shattered even to this day. As the desired skill set for law library administrators turned from technical services to public services, the window of opportunity to smash the glass ceiling completely was narrowed. Sure female public services law librarians moved up the ranks to run law libraries. The career path of one of Clarke's successors, Judy Gaskell, the current Supreme Court Librarian is one of many examples. Judy Gaskell worked her way to her current position after serving first in public services at the University of Chicago's law school library and then as director of DePaul's law school library.

But if the promotion track to law library administration has shifted to the pool of practicing public services law librarians, there should be substantially more female law library administrators than there are. Why aren't there? Probably because female law librarians have had a tougher time proving their credentials as front-line public services librarians to those members in the law library's patron group who make the law library director hiring decisions. In my opinion, the hurdle has been, may still be, much higher. It was probably easier for deans and court administrations to appoint as library director a female librarian skilled in the so-called "back office" and "mechanical" skills of technical services. Ordering and cataloging books, organizing and maintaining a library collection, is relatively mindless work, right? (NB: this is not my opinion about tech services; the best reference and research law librarians are those who took every damn cataloging and classification course available in library school.) 

Bias? Yes, even as late as the 1980s, I knew that I, as a law firm reference librarian then, had a much easier time working with attorneys than my equally or better qualified female law firm librarians. My female colleagues were still being asked to make photocopies, cite-check briefs, and were reporting being quizzed to the point of questioning their competency about their research results. Nothing like that every happened to me. My hunch is female public services librarians in law schools and courts had similar experiences. I'm not saying it was impossible for women to prove their street creds, just harder than men.

"Fixing" the Cracks in the Glass Ceiling. Have attitudes changed much since the 1980s? Maybe but watch out for the hiring trend of the next generation of law library administrators. Historically, the shifting professional skill set desired by those who appoint law library directors has moved from (1) technical services followed by (2) public services to (3) today's information technology and services, and we all know that "geeks are guys," right?

"Come on, Joe, people don't think like that anymore!" Wanna make a bet. [JH]

29 Percent of Librarians Dissatisfied with Non-Librarian Decisions, Very Dissatisfied

29% of the respondents to LLB's recent poll "strongly disagree" with the statement "I am satisfied with management's recent decisions regarding my library" (where management decisions means decisions that impact library operations and budgets made by executives and administrators who are not librarians). That's more than the combined total who "agree" or "strongly agree" with the statement (25%). If we add responses for "disagree," 60% of librarians are dissatisfied with recent decisions made by non-librarians. 15% are ambivalent, not exactly a vote of confidence.

The poll will remain open until September 4th so there is still time to register your opinion here. The results so far (150-plus responses) sends a pretty clear message: rely on the professional judgment of librarians. It's possible that executives just need to communicate their library-related decisions better, but in my opinion, that's not the likely reason for librarian dissatification. [JH]

2008-09 Edition of Law Library Benchmarks Now Available

Primary Research Group has published Law Library Benchmarks, 2008-09 Edition.

ISBN: 1-57440-104-1
Currently Available: PDF ($129), Site Licenses ($215), Enterprise License ($299)
Print Version ($129.00) available August 5, 2008

Data in the report is based on a survey of 55 North American law libraries drawn from law firm, private company, university, courthouse and government agency law libraries (listed below the fold). Data is broken out by size and type of library for ease in benchmarking. The 120+ page report covers developments in staffing, salaries, budgets, materials spending, use of blogs & wikis, use of legal directories, the library role in knowledge management, records management and content management systems. Patron and librarian training, reimbursement for library-related education and other issues are also covered in this latest edition.

Table of Contents

• Chapter One: Introduction and Demographics
• Chapter Two: Physical Space of the Library
• Chapter Three: Staff
• Chapter Four: Budget
• Chapter Five: Online Services
• Chapter Six: Use of Blogs, RSS Feeds, Wikis, Social Networking & Listservs
• Chapter Seven: Content Management Systems
• Chapter Eight: Print and Electronic Journals and Other Periodicals
• Chapter Nine: Books and Print Reports
• Chapter Ten: Technology and Information Literacy Technology
• Chapter Eleven: Librarian Training Needs
• Chapter Twelve: Outsourcing
• Chapter Thirteen: Tapping the Brains of Fellow Librarians
• Chapter Fourteen: Wish List

Libraries mentioned:

• Alaska State Court Law Library
• Allstate Insurance Company
• Attorney General Law Library, Victoria, BC
• Bennett Jones LLP
• Bracewell & Giuliani LLP
• Charles County Public Law Library
• Clark Hill PLC
• Cooper White & Cooper LLP
• Credit Suisse  Legal & Compliance
• Dickinson Wright PLLC
• Dorsey & Whitney
• Douglas County Law Library
• Drew Eckl & Farnham, LLP
• Field LLP
• Fredrikson & Byron
• Gray Plant Mooty
• Grayson County Law Library
• Hawley Troxell Ennis & Hawley, LLP
• Hiscock & Barclay LLP
• International Trade Centre
• Jackson Walker LLP
• Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss
• Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro, LLP
• Kegler Brown Hill & Ritter
• Law Society of New Brunswick Library
• Law Society of Upper Canada,
• Minerals Management Service Gulf of Mexico region U.S. Dept. of the Interior
• Library Services, Courts Administration Service
• Manulife / John Hancock Financial Services
• MBM Intellectual Property Law / Marusyk, Miller & Swain
• Middleton Reutlinger
• Miller Thomson Pouliot
• National Indian Law Library
• New York County District Attorney's Office
• Ontario Workplace Tribunals Library
• Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
• Pitblado LLP
• Principal Financial Group
• Regulatory Information Services, Bell
• RossBlakley Law Library, Arizona State
• Sacramento County Public Law Library
• San Bernardino County Law Library
• Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt
• Snohomish County Law Library
• Social Law Library
• Subordinate Courts
• Supreme Court of Canada Library
• Taylor McCaffrey LLP
• Travis County Law Library
• University of Calgary
• Warner Norcross & Judd
• William Mitchell College of Law
• Wood, Smith, Henning and Berman LLP

JISC's Libraries of the Future Website

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) recently launched Libraries of the Future "to engender discussion about how today's academic and research libraries may evolve to address the needs of future information users."  Check it out. [JH]