This benchmarking study of law libraries, published every other year, covers staffing, salaries, content spending, as well as use of legal information vendors, artificial intelligence and more. Other issues covered include librarian professional development, knowledge management, research services demand, and how law libraries demonstrate value to institutional leadership.
The report is based on data from 36 law libraries, including law firm libraries, university law libraries, courthouse libraries, and non-courthouse government, nonprofit, and international-agency law libraries. It provides detailed breakouts by library type and librarian staffing level, enabling readers to compare their own staffing, budget, technology, vendor, and service patterns with peer institutions.
Just a few of this 130-page report’s many findings are that:
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Nearly half of respondents, 47.22%, expect salary increases that will not keep up with inflation, while 38.89% expect increases in line with inflation. The expected nominal salary increase averages 2.73%, with a median of 3.00%.
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Staffing plans also suggest caution: 52.78% expect to replace departures but otherwise freeze hiring, while 25.00% plan to add staff and 5.56% expect reductions.
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Digital content now dominates spending, averaging 73.82% of content budgets, compared with 25.27% for print.
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Looking ahead, respondents expect print spending to decline by an average of 9.13%, while digital/electronic spending is expected to rise by 15.17%.
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Artificial intelligence is emerging as both a budget issue and a professional skills issue. AI fluency is rated often important or critical by 47.22% of respondents.
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Demand for librarian research support is more likely to be rising than falling: 44.44% report increased demand over the past three years.