On Fri, 5 Jan 1996, JACQUELINE S. WRIGHT wrote:
> I changed the name of this thread, which started as Couch... because I
> want to broaden the discussion. Most of what our lawyers know about
> legal publishing they learned in their legal bibliography courses.
> I quote from the 9th edition of How to Find the Law, page 332, the chapter
> on Looseleaf Services. "The looseleaf publishing format is an ingenious
> response to our legal system's constant state of change....The major attri-
> butes of looseleaf services are the promptness with which they notify
> researchers of developments." Nauseating, isn't it?
> Those who teach the courses should make an extra effort to help the
> student distinguish between the real looseleaf services and the
> "knock-offs. If I remember correctly, the year I taught the course
I do this for my students. For example, I define a true looseleaf to be
a service that is
a) updated six or more times per year with TIMELY information
b) each release is interfiled instead of having supplements filed
at the beginning or end
c) usually contains actual text of topical primary sources such of
statutes, regulations, cases, and especially agency materials
d) rarely consists entirely of comentary (I tell them that something
that consists entirely of commentary is a Treatise)
e) are usually paid for on a subscription basis rather than a per
release basis
I emphasize that looseleaf services usually cost as much to update each
year as they do to buy the first year. I also emphasize that they are
generally the most expensive format (other than newsletters), and only
make cost sense if they contain most of the information needed to do
relatively complete research in a topical area or provide access to
information that is difficult to acquire and update in any other manner.
I tell them that they make sense for the attorney who does a lot of work
in a particular area and tends to specialize in only a few areas or for a
firm that has several attorneys specializing in an area. Otherwise they
don't make much economic sense.
I tell them of many of the problems that result from converting a
treatise to binder format. For example, the problems that arise if
filing is not done carefully, the extra maintenance time involved in
filing, the tendancy for pages to tear out, the mechanisms on the binders
breaking, the heavier weight of most of the binders, the reluctance of
libraries to check them out, and of course the major jump in the cost of
updating and the difficulty of buying the amount of updating you judge to
be appropriate.
My comments about the pricing and updating tactics of publishers
are far from flattering. Some might even say that they often border on
scathing. But judging from some of the comments made
in their narrative essays for their final problem on why they chose to use
or to avoid using a particular source, a significant percentage of the
students still remembered much of what I said in the beginning of the
semester at the end of the semester. I only hope they continue to
remember to take everything a publisher says with a healthy dose of
skeptism so they will be aware of at least the worst attempts to fleece
them in the future.
> I skimmed this chapter. Apparently some of the lawyers checked back
> with it - or were referenced to this material by some of the
> publishers' reps. Practicing attorneys do not have time to investigate
> deeply into the practices of publishers. They take what they are given
> on faith. Also, some titles are purchased to fill a specific, one-time
> need and are not kept up-to-date.
>
> If lawyers are to be wise consumers they need to be educated on the
> problems they will encounter, and it needs to be in the classroom where
> they cannot escape.
>
> Jacqueline S. Wright
> Supreme Court Library
> 625 Marshall St.
> Little Rock, AR 72201-1080
> 501-682-2147
> sclibrary@ualr.edu
>
Mary Brandt Jensen University of Mississippi
Director of the Law Library University, MS 38677
Assistant Professor of Law mjensen@sunset.backbone.olemiss.edu
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