Those of you who tuned in to Richard Leiter's Blog Talk Radio program
on Friday afternoon would have learned that the 2008 edition of the
Legal Information Buyer's Guide & Reference Manual will be released on
June 1. As I am starting to receive e-mails regarding its status, I
would like to take this opportunity to extend this announcement to
those who did not hear the news. As usual, this annual release date is
predicated on our task on collecting supplementation costs for the
prior year and integrating these into the entries for each supplemented
title.
The Legal Information Buyer's Guide & Reference Manual 2008 brings you
the latest developments in the world of legal information, up to and
including the Thomson-Reuters merger on April 17.
The Joseph L. Andrews and Connie E. Bolden award-winning
reference tool has been completely updated and revised for 2008.
The 2008 edition includes reviews of more than 100 new treatise titles
in dozens of subject areas.
In addition to new titles, every one of the more than 3,000 existing
bibliographical entries has been updated to reflect new editions,
prices, and 2007 supplementation costs, giving you all the information
you need to make informed decisions
regarding the purchase, or retention, of selected titles.
For example, you will learn that, between 2007 and 2008, Federal
Procedure has increased in price from $4,026 to $4,731, or 17.5%, and
that its (subscriber) supplementation costs have risen from $2,895 in
2006 to $3,582 in 2007, or 23.73%.
The CD-ROM version increased from $978 in 2007 to $2,079 in 2008, a
112% increase.
SAMPLE COST INFORMATION:
Federal Procedure. Lawyers Edition. St. Paul, MN: West Group (Lawyers
Cooperative Publishing Co.), 1981-date. 82 vols. Annual cumulative
supplements with periodic revised (recompiled) volumes. Also available
on CD-ROM.
Cost: $4,731; supplementation: 1991: $482; 1992: $491; 1993: $451.50;
1994: $830.80; 1995: $830.80; 1996: $1,081.50; 1997: $858; 1998: $973;
1999: $1,300; 2000: $1,390; 2001: $1,634; 2002: $2,181; 2003: $2,331;
2004: $2,295; 2005: $3,293.00; 2006: $2,895; 2007: $3,582. Used sets
sell for approx. $800. CD-ROM version: $2,079 per year (2008).
Note that the 2008 edition gives you the benefit of a 17-year
track record of supplementation cost for this title and many
other titles. This is in addition to a substantive content review.
What's more, every price point throughout the text of the entire volume
has been updated to reflect the latest available pricing information
through April, 2008. Chapter 27 also includes listings of additional
publishers who publish titles each of the 61 subject areas covered in
this chapter. By itself, this chapter is the most complete annotated
bibliography of the legal treatise literature available. Many of the
listings include valuable cost-saving tips for consumers.
A unique spreadsheet in Appendix I listing the historical caselaw
coverage of ten CALR vendors.
Descriptions of alternative CALR vendors, including the most
significant new player, Casemaker.
Our invaluable 52-page spreadsheet allows you to track the prices and
2004-2007 supplementation costs (2008 for Matthew Bender subscription
titles) for more than 1,600 legal treatises and other specialty titles
covered in chapter 27. This feature alone will prove an enormous
time-saver whenever you are conducting a comparative evaluation of
legal specialty titles. You will get a quick over of author, title,
edition, year of publication, number of volumes or discs, cost, and
2004-2007 or 2008 supplementation costs. And while the spreadsheet
includes supplementation costs for the five most recent years, we have
retained supplementation costs for prior years with the entries in
chapter 27, many of them going back to the early 1990's.
Our State Publications chapter has been completely updated to reflect
current titles, CD-ROM products, state-specific legal research guides
and their prices and supplementation costs.
Overall, the text has grown from 749 to 767 pages, all in an attractive
and easily browseable dual-column format.
The Legal Information Buyer's Guide & Reference Manual has received
dozens of laudatory reviews over the years. It has variously been
described as a "monumental resource and the product of rare expertise
and scholarship" (Donna Bausch in Law Practice Management), to "the law
publishing event of the year" (Richard Sloane in New York Law Journal).
Brenda Louzin (Heller Ehrman) wrote: "Please make sure that we remain
on your standing order list. I would not have a reference shelf without
this title!"
Sharon Peregrine Johnson wrote: "if you have limited funds and can only
purchase one book a year, this is a must. Svengalis' book, an annual
publication, is a wonderful collection development tool." (Legal
Information Alert). In addition, I have received dozens upon dozens of
unsolicited E-mails from satisfied customers who have told how
essential this book is to their work as law librarians, whether in
reference, acquisitions, budgeting, or teaching. In short, no law
librarian can afford to be without this book.
In 2004, Legal Information Alert named it to a list of the 20 leading
developments in legal information of the previous decade. And it was
the only book on a list which included Google, Blogs, and law-lib.
Written by a law librarian FOR law librarians and other legal
information consumers. It is the only publication on the market which
describes and analyzes legal information from the consumer's
perspective. It is also one of the few publications many law librarians
keep on their desktops for quick access. Facing budget woes? The
Legal Information Buyer's Guide & Reference Manual is the only
publication guaranteed to help you confront budgetary issues and make
informed purchasing, or cancellation, decisions.
At a time when skinny pocket parts to single-volume legal treatises
from major publishers can cost more than $100.00 annually, the Legal
Information Buyer's Guide & Reference Manual 2008 is priced at just
$149.00--just 2.75% more than last year's edition. We have also
provided a special incentive to our many customers who order multiple
copies. Additional copies shipped to the same institution and address
are available for $130.00 each.
A CD-ROM version is also available for $149.00, or $80.00 to purchasers
of the print edition. This is a great way of printing out selected
chapters for internal or educational use.
The book will be available about June 1. Orders can be placed now by
E-mailing Rhode Island LawPress at:
rilawpress@comcast.net (best)
or calling (800) 955-4089
Our mailing address is: P.O. Box 331, Westerly, RI 02891
If you wish to determine if you already have the book on standing
order, send me an E-mail and I will check our records to confirm and
get back to you.
And one final suggestion. Order now while the information is hot.
Although we receive orders all year long, it pains me to see a library
order, for example, in December, or February, when they could have put
the latest pricing and cost data to work in June and received the full
year's benefit of their expenditure. That's why the standing order is
so valuable in this instance.
Thanks for your attention and please tune-in to a two-hour reprise of
Richard Leiter's Blog Talk Radio program on May 23rd,
Ken Svengalis
Rhode Island LawPress
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