Thanks to all those who responded to my question about weeding our reporter collection here at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I have summarized the responses below.
Regards,
Jeff Graveline, MLIS, JD
Reference Librarian
Sterne Library, UAB
jgraveli@uab.edu
Total Responses: 15
Types of Libraries: 1 State law library
8 Law school
3 Private or law firm library
2 Federal Court library
1 State Agency
Brief summary:
Nearly all of the responses suggested getting rid of the print reporters and maintaining our subscriptions to Lexis and Westlaw. Many said this was especially true since we do not support a law school at our university. Some suggested that we maintain our Supreme Court Reporter and Federal Reporter subscriptions.
Another concern was continued public access to case law. Most did not see a problem with discarding the print reporters if we continue allowing on-site access to Lexis and Westlaw for public patrons (in addition to students and faculty).
One response expressed concerned over universities discarding their print reporters. Another suggested that we should check the accreditation requirements of several of our school's programs.
Finally, many people suggested that we donate the reporters to other libraries that may need them.
Reponses:
Below are the edited responses I received. I have redacted text from some of the responses so the authors cannot be identified.
Librarian at a state law library:
I think you would be OK in dumping reporters. A [director of a law school library] has written a memo for faculty showing that they will need to dump some print resources if they are to be able to fund online sources--they will not be able to continue to duplicate as law libraries have in the past. [Here] we will be dumping large reporter sets as we need the space and the money for other things. In my opinion, this is inevitable.
Librarian at a law school library:
If I were you, I would discontinue the print reporters. Even some law schools are discontinuing them.
Librarian at a law school library:
I empathize with your reluctance to discard the books. At the very least I would cut the print subscriptions. The only reservation I would have in tossing the books is public access. Do you have any non-university patrons that need access to cases? In that case, they would need access to print. However, both Westlaw and Lexis have public access subscriptions, if you need public access, so you can comfortably eliminate the print.
Particularly because you do not have a law school, I would be perfectly comfortable eliminating all print in your situation. As you note, those reporters take up a TREMENDOUS amount of space.
Librarian at a special library:
I would hope that the universities would be the one place we could turn to for the reporters law firms are throwing away. Who will be the keeper of that one verifiable print source? I always wonder what will happen when West and Lexis stop printing this one or that one, as they often do. What will our option be? Here in [our state] we have eliminated many books from law libraries. Before I do, I always check to be sure our University has a copy.
Librarian at a law school library:
Since you do not have a law school, do you have a feeling for how often the print volumes are used? It does seem like a lot of valuable shelf space to dedicate to materials that you have in both Lexis and Westlaw. We still get all that you list in print, but I wouldn't want to bet for how much longer! In truth, the access methods in Lexis and Westlaw, not to mention the other advantages of not worrying about torn out pages, processing the volumes for the collection, etc. makes them less attractive (despite their impressive look on the shelves.) We have canceled our regional digests, but have not yet withdrawn them. The only folks using those were students in legal research courses. We still have the federal digests (and [state digests]) which fills the needs of walk-in pro se clients.
Since you are facing a major reorganization this would seem like a good time to make a clean break and move them out. You may find some local attorneys who would want them for window-dressing. Please don't think I'm nuts, but the Savannah School of Art and Design's Bookstore used old law books, reporters and treatises, as interior decoration around the support columns - so maybe some art students would be able to do something creative with them.
[W]ithout a law school to support [and especially with having both Lexis and Westlaw] I would really advise using your shelf space for more relevant materials for your primary clientele.
Librarian at a law school library:
I'd dump 'em in a heartbeat. We still keep one copy of the reporters, but we're a law library, so our patron base is vastly different from yours. With the amount of use I suspect yours get, I wouldn't think it justifies the space.
Librarian at a federal court library:
[I have] had to face the same situation where I am now (and I have a hard time tossing books, but it gets easier over time) my response to you is toss those books and do not worry about it. This is not your primary collection, you have the electronic databases, and you can always ask for the copy of something through interlibrary loan if you need to.
Librarian at a state agency library:
It's a tough choice, because extensive research is sometimes more manageable with print. But all research should begin and end electronically if possible. If you don't have the space, keep Westlaw and Lexis and ditch the print. If you decide to keep the current reporters, remember to prominently display a sign that they have not been updated since xxxx, and with a reference to Westlaw and Lexis.
Librarian at a law school library:
We are undertaking a substantial weeding project here as we prepare to have our library building completely renovated. We have not discontinued the F. Supp. F. Reporter or Supreme Reporters, but we have cut back to just one copy of each. We also continue to get the regional reporters. We quit getting the Federal Appendix awhile ago. Our major weeding has been in the official state reports from states other than [our own state]. We had most of them going back to the first volumes for almost every state. We are withdrawing all those volumes (except for a few that may not be on Westlaw or Lexis) and we are canceling any of the state reporters that we currently get.
We will be in a temporary location for about 15-18 months while our building is renovated and during that time we will have all of our print reporters other than [our own state] reports in storage. Of course our law students and faculty can easily use Westlaw and Lexis to retrieve cases, but we also have a large number of members of the public and the general university community using our library. We have two public access Westlaw terminals and the University has Lexis/Nexis Academic so we will direct those patrons there for cases. It will be interesting to see if the print reporters are missed during this time, and I suspect that they will not.
Librarian at a law school library:
The situation you are facing is a difficult one, but I think there are several issues for you to think about (and I'll share my experience):
1. Are these reporters being used at all (dust is a strong indicator)?
2. If the reporters were discarded would you be able to keep materials that are more valuable, either to your patrons or to have a well-rounded collection?
3. Who are your patrons? Do you have public patrons who use these materials? Could they be directed elsewhere?
I've worked in both a law firm that was and a law school that is confronting this issue. I think that in libraries we often keep materials "just in case" rather than when we know they will are valuable - to our patrons or to have a well-rounded collection. While reporters do contain "the law", as you know as a J.D., they are often the least helpful source when people are looking for the law (secondary sources are more valuable).
At the firm, we discarded all but the regional reporter for our area for those senior partners that couldn't deal with the West PDF-exact copy of cases. The reporters were not kept with the rest of the library (they were in a basement equivalent).
At the law school, we are trying to determine how many copies of reporters to keep in print, but there is a specific educational reason for keeping them - and space reasons for not keeping multiple copies.
If I were you, I would discard all reporters - with the possible exception of the Supreme Court Reporters. Other libraries, especially regional prison libraries, may be very glad to get either individual volumes or entire sets.
Librarian at a law school library:
Summary of conversation:
1. Be sure no university programs require the reporters for accreditation.
2. Check agreement(s) with libraries that donated some of the reporters to be sure we had not agreed to maintain the print collection.
3. Be sure that there is access to cases for public users.
4. Donate or sell rather than trash books.
Librarian at state / county court public library:
We are not an academic but a membership law library. A few years ago we considered dropping the second copy of these reporters. By checking usage statistics we found that most usage occurred in the library - patrons using the print version were more apt to photocopy the case needed rather than check the volume out. Based on that, we canceled the second copies.
While we do have Westlaw, we continue to subscribe to the print. Does your Westlaw subscription cover all volumes back to the beginning? That would also be a consideration.
Librarian at a federal court library:
I'm not an academic librarian, but my experience might help somewhat. My library serves federal judges. My library has about 40,000 volumes, including most of the reporter titles you mentioned.
The [local city] courthouse complex has, in addition to our central library, about 26 other separately identifiable libraries. Each of these libraries currently receives the United States Code Annotated and a small number of other publications. A large majority of these libraries receive the Supreme Court Reporter, the Federal Reporter, the Federal Supplement, and the [regional] Reporter.
We also have Westlaw and Lexis/Nexis available in the central library, for each judge and law clerk, and in many other federal courthouse offices.
Our experience is that we really don't need all the duplicated reporter subscriptions in our buildings. But judges and law clerks continue to want print copies of the reporters. So, even though a great deal of printing is done through Westlaw and Lexis/Nexis, we still maintain these print format reporters.
My suggestion to you would be to maintain subscriptions to the Supreme Court Reporter and the Federal Reporter. These two subscriptions provide you access to the most valuable federal decisions: the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and the various courts of appeals.
You can safely eliminate the other reporters in their print format and probably see very little decline in the value of your reference service offerings in case law. The Federal Supplement, Federal Appendix, and Education Reporter are all probably low value subscriptions in your library. You could safely substitute Westlaw access for the state opinions in the Southern Reporter.
If the elimination of these reporters -- and the retention of the two major reporters -- doesn't satisfy your library's subscription requirements, you might then consider eliminating the remaining two and continuing solely with Westlaw and Lexis/Nexis. But I would strongly urge you to make that last point decision.
Librarian at a private law firm library:
We got rid of all our regional reporters all our US Reports. We kept our Fd 2d and fd3 but not the 1st edition of the Federal Reporters, got rid of the FRD and also the Fed. Supp. We keep the advance sheets but only for about 6 mo. then we pitch. It was an adjustment and there was some gnashing of teeth, but most have gotten over it.
Librarian at a law school library:
If you have LEXIS and WESTLAW access and space issue, this seems like a no brainer for a non law library. Your students won't be bothered by it, but some of your older faculty may grumble at the loss of print. The only other consideration is if you offer free printing.
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