At least this public library has been forced to think along those terms by
the fact that my budget has not increased at ALL for several years and
stayed relatively flat for years before that. No huge increases to match the
price increases here and no way to ask the "firm" for more money because
some partner might demand a title.
In order to stay within the zero increase budget, products have to be
cancelled EVERY YEAR to make up for the cost increases in the books we must
have. If the prices go up 20% I have to cancel titles that equal that. OR
try to come up with some way of saving in Westlaw or Westpac or some other
gimmick.
Since I have now relatively few titles that DO NOT come from West, the West
products are and have been on the chopping block. CJS went years ago. As
did print Restatements, regionals, digests, treatises, etc. etc. etc.
I have database just to keep track of the cancellations. I am still doing
well compared to some other places, but I have about 1/3 of the titles I had
in 1990. Soon I will have even less. I had to cancel US Law Week last week
and I do not have a single print shepards anymore.
And I can't get off of Westlaw because that is what my Judges demand. Also
in PA Purdons statutes is a West product. Although I am happy with Lexis,
the statute annotations are simply NOT the same and I have to provide the
Purdons version....
Are the very cancellations of print sets what is SENDING the print titles
through the roof?
Fewer subscribers means the production costs of a set has to be divided up
among fewer subscribers? Like dividing the check for a party of eight by
three! It appears to be a cycle we cannot escape.
But are not the costs still there in producing the sets for ONLINE USE???
If I switch, am I not contributing to the cost of the sets by buying
Westlaw?? That is what I would like to know!
Lorelei A. Broskey, MLS
Director of Library and Information Services
Lehigh County Law Library
Phone 610-782-3308
_____
From: Teresa Neaves [mailto:Tneaves@mitchellmcnutt.com]
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 3:25 PM
To: Frye, Nanna; Lee Warthen; Kendall F. Svengalis; law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Subject: RE: Svengalis on West pricing
I know it is harder for public law libraries to think in these terms, but
firms surely can. A few years ago I would never have dreamed our firm would
cancel all West reporters in one office and all copies of CJS, but we have
done without those West products for a number of years now (not one single,
solitary complaint). (Those un-necessary CJS volumes were the last straw
with me.) I am much more inclined to think at this juncture that we could
do without a number of other titles. Attorneys are frequently just as
"bottom-line oriented" and "pocket-book conscious" as West, and I have been
preparing for a number of months now to point out to mine just how much West
is charging us for other reporter volumes and some particularly high-priced
treatises. West may think (and hope) that we will then all be forced to
access Westlaw for what we have relinquished in print. 'Tain't necessarily
so. Who's to say we won't be encouraging our attorneys to pull that
material from Lexis instead.
Opinions express herein are my own and not necessarily those of the law
firm.
Teresa Neaves
Librarian
Mitchell, McNutt & Sams, P.A.
P.O. Box 7120 (38802)
105 S. Front St.
Tupelo, MS 38804
662-620-6254
662-842-8450 (Fax)
tneaves@mitchellmcnutt.com <blocked::mailto:tneaves@mitchellmcnutt.com>
_____
From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On Behalf
Of Frye, Nanna
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 11:40 AM
To: Lee Warthen; Kendall F. Svengalis; law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Subject: RE: Svengalis on West pricing
I think for a boycott to be effective here, one would have to boycott the
product itself, not the freebies or the exhibits. Which of us can boycott
West's products?!?
Nanna Frye, Law Librarian
Court of Appeal
San Diego, CA
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