LAW LIBRARY BENCHMARKS, 2004-05 EDITION QUESTIONNAIRE AND SURVEY INVITATION
REQUEST
Primary Research Group, Inc., a publisher or surveys, monographs and research
reports, is planning to publish a survey of law libraries. We invite you to
participate in our survey by filling out the survey form in exchange for a
free pdf copy of the report when it is published. The information that you
provide is absolutely confidential; all data is amalgamated in a statistical
package; no data is presented for individual institutions. The report will enable
your library to compare its technology, acquisition and management practices
with those of similar libraries in the USA and Canada. We invite law firm,
university law school, government and corporate, and court house law libraries to
participate. The report will sell for approximately $115.00.
The best individual (s) to fill out the form is the person (s) that have the
most knowledge about your library's technology and acquisitions practices.
Primary Research Group is listed in Literary Market Place, the Findex
Directory; the ERIC Database, Gale's Directory of Telecommunication Consultants and
other standard directories. RETURN THE QUESTIONNAIRE By MAY 10, 2004 to
qualify for your free copy.
Send the questionnaire by fax, e-mail, courier or by mail. Call us if you
wish to complete it by phone with one of our interviewers.
E-Mail: Primarydat@AOL.COM FAX: 212-412-9097 PHONE: 212-736-2316
MAILING ADDRESS: VISIT OUR WEBSITE: WWW.PRIMARYRESEARCH.COM
Primary Research Group Inc.
224 West 30th Street, Suite 802
New York, New York 10001
What is the NAME and ADDRESS of your institution?
CONTACT NAME: (important to receive copy of the
report)________________________________________
Phone #:
Email address:
1-LIBRARY DIMENSIONS
1) How many separate library locations does your law firm have? _____
2) What is the total footage in square feet of the space occupied by all the
libraries of your organization? _________
3) Has this space appreciably increased or decreased in the past five years?
_____
4) If so, by what percent has it increased or decreased? _____
5) Do you believe that the space allocated to the corporate library in the
next three years will:
a) remain about the same b) increase
c) decrease
6) How many visitors does the library receive at its physical location on a
typical business day? ______
7) In the past two years, has this increased or decreased and, if so, by
about how much in percentage terms? _____
2-LIBRARY STAFF
1) How many full time equivalent librarians are employed by the
organization? ______
2) How many other full time equivalent employees such as library assistants,
technology staff, secretaries and others are employed by the library? _____
3) What was the library's total spending on salaries last year in 2003?
__________
4) What do you estimate will be the library's total spending for salaries in
2004? _________
5) Does the library outsource any of the following: to organizations or
individuals that are not company employees:
web site development______
library marketing _____
cataloging_____
6) Does the library have a:
a) more or less a full time webmaster
b) a part time webmaster
c) Several employees pitch in to manage the site
3-OVERALL LIBRARY BUDGET
1) What is the overall budget for the library, including spending for
salaries, materials, overhead, maintenance and other costs? _________
2) Does the figure you have given above also include the costs of benefits
and the attributed cost of office space for the library?
3) Did the library budget increase, decrease or remain approximately the same
in 2004? _____
4) By how much did it change? _____
5) In your view, will the library's overall budget increase, decrease or
remain the same next year, in 2005? _____
6) By how much will it change? _____
7) What percentage of the library's budget is paid for through charge backs
to departments that use the library's services? _____
4-USE OF LIBRARY STAFF TIME:
1-In the following question we ask you to break out the use of librarians
staff time among the following types of activity.
There are 7 categories; the total should add to 100%. Let us give you the
categories first.
1-Amount of Librarian Time Spent Advising Remote-Users on How to Use Library
Resources ______
2-Amount of Librarian Time Spent in Addressing Needs of Walk-in Visitors to
the Library_____
3-Amount of Librarian Time Spent in Routinely Monitoring Specific Subjects or
Doing Special Research Projects for Attorneys, Professors or others _____
4-Amount of Librarian Time Spent Giving Classes, Seminars or Formal
Tutorials in How to Use Library Resources_____
5-Looseleaf filing and other pocket part replacement?
6-Amount of Time Spent Reviewing, Procuring, and Financing Books, Databases,
and other Materials for the Library _____
7-All Other Purposes_____
5) LIBRARY CONTENT BUDGET
1) What was the library's overall budget for content/materials in 2004?
________
2) Approximately how much of this budget was accounted for by print and how
much by electronic resources:
Print _____Electronic _____
3) What will be the library's overall budget for content/materials in 2005?
________
4) Which choice of the following opinions best represents what you think will
happen at your library over the next few years?
The Library will reduce spending on both print and electronic resources.
The Library will aggressively reduce spending on print resources and use that
money to increase spending on electronic resources while holding overall
spending relatively constant
The Library will maintain spending on print resources and moderately increase
spending on electronic resources
The Library will increase spending on both print and electronic resources,
perhaps increasing spending somewhat more on electronic resources
The Library plans to increase spending on print resources at a faster rate
than on electronic resources
5) Will spending this year Increase, Decrease, or Remain the Same for
information on the following
1: Federal Codes, Regulations, Cases & Commentary _______
2: State & Local Codes, Regulations, Cases & Commentary _____
3: International Codes, Regulations, Cases & Commentary _____
4: Finding Aids and Reference Works such as directories, indices, digests,
encyclopedias and other reference works _____
5: Nonlegal materials such as books, magazines, newspapers and
non-specifically legal newsletter _____
6: Legal Journals and Legal Theory _____
7: Subject Specific Legal Materials about particular areas on the law _____
6) COMMERCIAL ON-LINE SERVICES
In the next three questions we ask you to divide your current online digital
spending in percentage terms among three choices -- which should add up to
100% -- the choices are West Publishing, Lexis-Nexis and all other providers
1) Approximately what percentage of the library's spending for online digital
information was accounted for by spending on Westlaw or other services from
West Publishing? ______
2) Approximately what percentage of the library's spending for online digital
information was accounted for by spending on Lexis-Nexis? _____
3) What percentage of the library's spending for online digital information
is accounted for by providers other than West or Lexis-Nexis? _____
4) In general, the library staff believes that it is:
a) Overpaying for on-line services______
b) Paying an appropriate and fair amount for on-line services_____
c) Getting more than they are paying for on-line services_____
5) Does the library charge back to library patrons any fees for the use of
Lexis-Nexis or Westlaw?_____
6) If so, what percentage of the cost of these services is supported by the
charge back fees? _______
7) DATABASE DECISION-MAKING
1) How many different databases did your library examine on a free trial
basis in the last year? _____
2) How many databases examined during a free trial did your library
subsequently acquire access to? _____
3) How many total new subscriptions to databases did the library acquire in
the past year?
4) How many database subscriptions has your library canceled in the last
year? _____
8) ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT DELIVERY SERVICES
1) To obtain journal articles not generally delivered in full text from major
on-line services, libraries generally go to document delivery services or
interlibrary loan, when not subscribers to the journal in question. What is your
best estimate of the source of the % of journal articles obtained when the
library itself does not subscribe to the journal requested by a patron:
Obtained through library loan____
Obtained through electronic document delivery____
Obtained through traditional document delivery____
Obtained directly from publishers web sites ____
2) In general, by what percentage has the retrieval of articles direct from
publisher's web sites increased or decreased in the past two years? _____
3) To what extent does the library subsidize document delivery for its
primary clientele?/
a) Totally subsidized; the library absorbs all costs associated with document
delivery_____
b) Partially subsidized--The library charges the patron a flat fee for each
article acquired through document delivery services_____
c) Partially subsidized--The library charges the patron for the service on a
cost-recovery basis_____
d) Not subsidized-- The library passes along all fees associated with the
document delivery service including library labor, overhead, and/or handling
fees. _____
9) CD-ROM
1) The library subscribes to how many CD-ROM databases? _____
2) How much did the library spend for CD-ROM database licenses in?
2003________2004_______
10) ANALYZING THE BUSINESS OF THE LEGAL INDUSTRY
1) How would you best describe the state of your organization's research
capabilities in uncovering new information to help analyze developments in the
legal services industry and to produce reports and data that help in identifying
trends, threats and opportunities:
a) To be perfectly frank we don't do such a good job in this and I think we
can do better in the future
b) We do ok but probably not as well as major corporations in the non-legal
fields
c) We've made an effort and know what we are doing
d) We stress industry analysis skills and think our substantial skills in
this area help give our organization distinct competitive advantages
2) Please list some of your favorite sources of statistics and analysis of
the legal industry and why you like them. Web sites, portals, newsletters,
government, trade association or international agency sources are all welcome:
3) About what percentage of the research requests that you get from
management and attorneys concern competitive intelligence or market information to
advance the firm's prospects instead of case related information?
11) MANAGEMENT VIEW OF LIBRARY
Of the following 3 choices choose the one that best describes the view of the
management of your parent organization's view of the library:
A) Views the library as a cost center that in the next five years may be
replaced virtually completely by a companywide digital information system. Plans
to phase out the traditional library.
B) Aggressively supports the library; will help it to expand digital
collections while maintaining or expanding the library staff to meet the company's
critical information needs.
C) Seems to want to downsize the library but -- in general -- will maintain
it with essentially a stable budget
12) ATTORNEY SEARCH SKILLS
1) In general you would say that the end users of your library:
a) Aren't too comfortable using the databases on their own
b) Still need quite a bit of help
c) Can more or less make do
d) Are proficient searchers
13 PRINT JOURNALS (Printed journals -- electronic journals covered
separately)
1) How many print subscriptions to journals does the library maintain in:
2003_______ 2004_________
2) How much did the library spend for print journal subscriptions in:
2003________ 2004________
14) ELECTRONIC JOURNALS
1) How much did the library spend to subscribe to electronic journals in:
2003_______ 2004 ________
2) How many electronic journals does the library maintain subscriptions to?
_____
3) How many of these require a subscription fee? _____
14) PHOTOCOPYING MACHINES
1) How many photocopy machines did (will) the library currently have for
patron use in:
2003_________2004_______
2) Does the library charge patrons for photocopying services? _____
3) If so, how much revenue from photocopying did the library accrue in the
past year? _____
4) In your view, in the past two years, the amount of photocopying done at
the firm has increased or decreased by approximately what percentage?
5) On a typical day in the library, roughly how many pages do patrons print
out on the library's printers?
15) CATALOGING
1) In the past three years, has your library replaced its previous online
catalog with one provided by a different vendor? _____
2) How much did the library spend in the last year on products, equipment and
services related to it online catalog? Exclude internal costs such as
salaries. _____
3) What percentage of each of the following kinds of cataloging are performed
in-house at your library? (check all that apply)
Original cataloging______Copy cataloging______
4) What was the cataloging department's total budget for the last fiscal
year? (If cataloging is dispersed across more than one department, please give
your best estimate) ______
16) BOOKS
1) How much did the library spend for traditional print books in:
2003 ________ 2004________
2) Demand for print books from the libraries patrons over the past two years
has:
Increased_____Decreased_____Remained about the same_____
3) Orders through online bookselling sites such as Amazon.com, Barnes&
Noble.com and other such sites account for approximately what percentage of the print
books ordered directly by the library. Do not include orders made through
your jobber or main third party book purchaser. _____
4) How much does the library currently spend for E-books or electronic site
licenses from book publishers? ________
17) DIRECTORIES
1) How much did the library spend for subscriptions to directories in print
form in:
2003_________2004__________
2) How much did the library spend for subscriptions to directories in online
electronic forms, including web access, and intranet licenses, in:
2003_____2004________
18) REFERENCE PRACTICES
1) As a best guess, how many email queries do the librarians at the library
answer in a typical day? ____
2) How many telephone reference queries? _____
3) Does the library have a virtual reference system of any kind that utilizes
chat technology or instant messaging technology?
4) Does the library use software that allows it to determine the origin by
department of the organization of reference questions posed by phone or email?
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