The study presents data from 34 North American law libraries, detailing their plans for their print materials acquisitions. The study gives comprehensive data on spending on print versions of books, journals, directories, loose-leaf services, newspapers and magazines and other products in print formats, with data from 2016, 2017 and estimated for 2018. The study also presents the opinions of survey participants about their plans for print over the next few years. The study discusses book culling practices, use of inter-library loan and consortia, and the substitution of digital for print formats.
Just a few of this 84-page report’s many findings are that:
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For smaller law firm libraries in the sample the change in overall mean print spending from 2016 to 2018 was a cumulative drop of $25,249 or 12%. This was a lower decrease than for many other types of law library in the sample.
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Primary legal works accounted for a mean of 25.78% of the sampled libraries print materials budget with a median of 30% and a range of 0 to 70%.
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Non-law firm corporate and government libraries cull an annual mean of 7.29% of their book collections.
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Most of the print subscription volume was in larger law libraries with more than 3 full time equivalent librarians, though it should be noted that many of these were not university law libraries.
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Data in the report is broken out for US and Canadian libraries, and by library size and type, i.e., university law library, courthouse law library, other government/corporate law library, and for two categories of law firm library, those serving fewer than and more than 150 lawyers.
A PDF version of the study is currently available from Primary Research Group for $139.00. Site licenses are also available. To view a table of contents, an excerpt, the survey questionnaire and a list of the institutional affiliations of the survey participants – or to place an order – view the product page for this report at: https://www.primaryresearch.com/AddCart.aspx?ReportID=481
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