As an insurance company library, I am a captive audience to Couch. But I
am not happy with its change to looseleaf. No one at USF&G who has seen
the volumes, lawyer or paralegal, is happy. I would vote on any survey
to keep it hardbound. Plus the fact that it took me all morning to fit
the space for the new set into our shelving. I would like to make a few
comments about it and CBC.
First, I would consider very carefully before you throw any of the 2nd
edition away. If the final version of the 3rd edition set has no cross
reference table in it, it will be impossible to find which sections the
thousands of insurance cases over the years are citing. Couch 2nd and
Couch 2nd (revised--which is on your shelf) have no cross references to
the older editions. We save the older editions for that purpose.
Second, in filing the pocket parts today, I realized how little update
text is in most of them. They sure don't need to be replaced by anything
based on the size of the pocket parts, though a few volumes might be
recompiled. Couch is much more up to date than Appleman; makes you
wonder why it is due for an overhaul.
(Third (aside), why is the prime author referred to as an "Inactive
member of the Iowa Bar?" One of our attorneys asked who were these guys.)
Fourth, when LCP owned Couch, it was supplemented once a year for a cost
of about $100. Since CBC took over, it has moved to twice a year
supplementation. This in my opinion is what has jacked up the cost,
doubling the frequency has doubled the cost. I think the supplements and
the 3 new binders are priced comparably to other products. If you want
to point fingers, point them at the decision to double the supplementation.
Fifth, a complete set of law books, like Couch is a mature market. All a
publisher can do is sell a few additional sets a year and sell supplements.
This doesn't allow a set to earn its keep in an aggressive company,
though it suited LCP fine for years. The result is that every mature set
is liable to experience "finessing", such as paperback index volumes
replaced annually (A perennial favorite), replacement volumes (Callaghan's
fave--check Fletcher and Nichols for any recent year), Aspen's and PH's
replacement of complete books annually, such as Ostrager's Handbook of
Insurance Coverage Disputes. Or, the ultimate finesse, replacing the full
set. In my small library, we are replacing both Corbin and Williston
this way, completed replacing Securities Regulation by Loss and now have
Couch to contend with.
Sixth, on the other hand, CBC offers Couch on CD. If you buy the CD and
keep your books, the updates of the CD are free. Thus since we have the
CD, the cost of the supplementation not only gets us the paper and
binders, it gets us the CD, so for us $400+ is not that outrageous.
Sooner or later each publisher steps over the line. Bender did so and I
cancelled $10,000 a year of supplementation and haven't missed those
books at all. Shepards did so and I cancelled US Reports, Federal and NY
Supplement Citators, costing Shepards at least $5000 in sales, in
addition to their future updates. I also 39 USC 3009-gift discarded
two case name citators, costing them $1500. I have tossed out books from
Panel, Aspen, CBC and LCP under 39 USC 3009. And today I cancelled my
first CBC title, Law of Toxic Torts. Unfortunately, I have to keep Couch
or it would join my cancellation list. And I believed Little, Brown was
next for this treatment, though maybe CBC has beat them out.
-----------------------------
William Grady
USF&G Co., Law Library
100 Light St.
Baltimore, Md. 21202
410-547-3649,fax 410-234-2056
wgrady@capcon.net
-----------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:49:09 PST