[LAW-LIB:56905] Re: ALI's "Principles of the Law"

From: Janet Fischer (jfischer@ggu.edu)
Date: Wed Oct 08 2008 - 10:42:10 PDT

  • Next message: Rosemarie_Tominello@ca5.uscourts.gov: "[LAW-LIB:56906]"

    First, I want to thank Thomson West and especially Jon Olson for
    stepping up and helping to clarify what they're doing with the
    Principles of the Law. I'll post his response below, but first, here
    are the responses I got from other librarians:

    * My clerk & I were just discussing this new product. I said let's not
    make a decision on keeping or returning until we see what the buzz on
    lawlib is. Thanks for getting the ball rolling! Please let me know the
    results of your survey.
    * Unfortunately, this isn't an issue that effects only academic
    libraries...all of us who subscribe to the restatements are getting
    these unwanted volumes! My understanding is that the original volumes
    were published by Lexis & that in order to get updated pocket parts now,
    you have to accept the West reprint. But, maybe I'm wrong. There isn't
    that much information out there, and no one at West is forthcoming.
    * We go directly with ALI, so we were not forced to purchase the
    'Principles of the Law'. We may elect to purchase the Principles of the
    Law but we would go directly to ALI, if I remember correctly there is no

    option with West you have to accept the title.
    * Perfect timing! I was just cataloging & noticed the same thing.
    Very frustrating. Please let me know what you find out.
    * Our head of information services did decide to keep them.
    As for processing, you may have noticed that there is no indication
    WHATSOEVER on the volumes that they have been updated in 2008 with
    "modest corrections of content and update of citations since their
    original publication." One of the OCLC records does include [2008] in
    brackets, the other does not, but we'll add it locally. We've decided to
    label them just like their predecessors, then add a horizontal line,
    then 2008 beneath that (see below). The new vols. will go to
    reference/reserve, & their predecessors will go to the stacks.
    Upon further reflection, we've decided to simply label the new books
    like this:
    KF
    535
    A83
    2008
    * I returned the volumes to West.

    Thank you to all who responded.

    Now, a big thank you to Jon Olson at Thomson West who is the editorial
    liaison between West and ALI. I will try to faithfully recount what he
    told me in our phone conversation, although any omissions or errors are
    mine. He also said he would be happy to talk with anyone about this,
    and his direct # is 651-687-7519.

    He said:
    TWest is now publishing the Principles series as part of the
    Restatement series. The recent vol. "Intellectual Property" is new.
    They are republishing the others to give them a similar look and feel,
    as well as to include editorial updates.

    Re. the Corporate Governance title: existing subscribers have 2
    choices. 1. They can drop the old subscription and put those old vols.
    on the shelf as superceded, and the new subscription will be part of the
    overall Restatements subscription with the pocket parts included. Or,
    2. they can keep the old subscription and continue to receive updates to
    that, but that will cost more than option 1.

    Re. the Family Dissolution title: prior vol. was published through
    Lexis, so TWest didn't have a current subscriber list. If you have that
    old vol., you may also notice the errata sheet that goes with it. The
    new vol. has incorporated those as well as updating the citations.
    Updates to this will also be included in your Restatements subscription,
    while there will be no updates to the older vol.

    He also said the cost for both titles should be $105. Our invoice was
    for $174 and change, and I can't believe shipping and handling is $70,
    so we're checking into that.

    Our library is keeping the new vols.

    Thanks again to everyone for their responses.
    Janet

    Janet Fischer
    Collection Development/Government Documents Librarian
    Golden Gate University Law Library
    536 Mission Street
    San Francisco, CA 94105
    phone: 415-442-7826
    fax: 415-512-9395
    email: jfischer@ggu.edu
    http://www.ggu.edu/lawlibrary

    >>> "Janet Fischer" <jfischer@ggu.edu> 10/7/2008 9:06 AM >>>
    We need some clarification on West's publication of ALI's "Principles
    of the Law" series.

    When the original notification came out, it made it sound like this was
    a new product from ALI and, my bad, I didn't double check. But now we
    see that West is simply republishing the existing volumes already
    published by ALI years ago, and not just publishing the new volumes.

    West's filing instructions state:
    "This summer you received the ALI Publishers’ newest publication,
    Principles of Intellectual Property (essentially
    focusing on Internet Law in its global implications). Now, in order to
    provide full Restatements and Principles of the Law
    subscribers with a unified series of published Principles titles, ALI
    Publishers encloses the Principles of Corporate
    Governance (in two volumes) and the Principles of the Law of Family
    Dissolution. Since their original publication,
    each of these titles has been influential in its field and each has
    achieved healthy citation in the courts and in legal literature. The
    enclosed volumes provide this material now in an integrated setting,
    with a consistent appearance to facilitate their contiguous library
    placement, and with modest corrections of content and update of
    citations since their original publication."

    My question is: do the updates alluded to in the last line above make
    it worth keeping these reprinted volumes? Are other academic law
    libraries keeping these reprints of the Principles series, or no? I
    will summarize for the list. Thank you.

    Janet

    Janet Fischer
    Collection Development/Government Documents Librarian
    Golden Gate University Law Library
    536 Mission Street
    San Francisco, CA 94105
    phone: 415-442-7826
    fax: 415-512-9395
    email: jfischer@ggu.edu
    http://www.ggu.edu/lawlibrary



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