[This statement is being cross-posted to the law-lib listserv and sent
via e-mail to AALL members; please excuse the duplication]
AALL AND PUBLISHER RELATIONS: AN OPEN STATEMENT TO THE MEMBERSHIP
Frank Houdek, President
March 17, 1997
Law librarians are justifiably concerned about the recent consolidation
of the legal publishing industry and its actual and potential impact on
their libraries and on access to legal information generally. All of
us-no matter what our positions or the type of institution in which we
work-are affected by the dramatic changes that have occurred in the
legal information environment. While the merger of the Thomson
Corporation and West Publishing is perhaps the most striking of these
changes, the circumstances go beyond that particular matter and require
a new activism on the part of law librarians and AALL. The purpose of
this statement is to assure you that AALL recognizes the critical nature
of this situation and is committed to assuming that active role on your
behalf. It will inform you about what AALL has done in the case of the
West-Thomson merger and describe tangible steps taken by AALL that are
designed to ameliorate conditions that for some (i.e., those librarians
directly involved with acquisitions and budgeting) are approaching an
intolerable state.
The West-Thomson Merger
AALL has been an active participant in the West-Thompson antitrust
review process since it began in Spring 1996. Through our Washington
Affairs Representative Robert Oakley, we have communicated the serious
concerns of law librarians about the implications of the merger in two
comment letters and personal meetings with DOJ officials. Despite these
efforts, the results have been disappointing, not only to the Executive
Board, but to many law librarians and others interested in the
dissemination of legal information. The cause of that disappointment
lies primarily in the conclusion that some of the primary concerns of
law librarians, consistently emphasized by AALL throughout the process,
are not adequately addressed in the outcome reached to date.
Although the Executive Board decided last spring not to formally oppose
the merger, the Board, through Mr. Oakley, did send a strong letter to
the Department of Justice outlining its concerns in this matter. The
focus of the concerns expressed by the Board was not then, nor was it
ever, on the issue of which company owns which other company, but rather
with maintaining a sufficiently competitive environment to ensure the
continuation of high quality legal information products at reasonable
prices in a healthy competitive environment. The Board hoped that by
making those concerns explicit, the Department of Justice would find a
compromise that maximized the public interest. Unfortunately, based on
the changes that are occurring in the industry and the problems that our
members are now facing, the Executive Board believes today that the
actions of the Department of Justice, as approved by the United States
District Court for the District of Columbia, do not achieve the goal
that we sought.
Our letter of March 26, 1996, to Anne Bingaman, Assistant Attorney
General of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, outlined
several specific areas of concern:
o the new merged company would have more than 50 percent market share in
many key legal publication categories
o reduced competition would likely raise prices, a fact that could be
"devastating" for law library and public library budgets, could limit
access to legal information, and ultimately increase the cost of access
to justice
o the merger could have a negative impact on the need to have available
a variety of format choices for legal information-forcing a move from
fully accessible print materials to electronic formats that cost less to
produce, but are inaccessible to consumers and libraries without budget
or training to use them
o the merger could reduce competition in the on-line arena and eliminate
the market incentives to develop CD-ROM products, some of the most
cost-effective and thorough research tools currently available.
When the proposed settlement was announced last summer, the Executive
Board, again through Mr. Oakley, commented further in a letter to Craig
Conrath, Chief of the Merger Task Force of the Antitrust Division. At
that time we raised four additional concerns in response to the
announced terms of the settlement:
o the viability of divesting individual titles, rather than entire
subsidiary companies
o pricing of the proposed license for the use of West's pagination
o the license requirement that would have required users of West's
pagination to give up their legal right to contest the copyright issue
in court
o the impact of the merger on the market for online legal information.
In our view, many of these concerns have not been adequately addressed
in the resolution of the matter. When, in February of this year, it
appeared that there might be an opportunity to make further comments on
the effect of the merger, Mr. Oakley, on behalf of the Board, requested
that the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia grant an
extension of time for filing such comments in order to allow the
Executive Board to deliberate further and decide how it should respond
to the final proposed settlement. The Court had indicated its concern
that the recent withdrawal of LEXIS from the matter had removed any
major opposition to the merger. Our request to Judge Friedman was
denied.
Although the current status of the settlement accommodates some of our
concerns, for instance requiring that West-Thomson divest 52 publication
titles and that it license West's Star Pagination system rather than
keep it proprietary, AALL and others feel this minor divestiture isn't
enough to ensure adequate industry competition. Unfortunately, although
the issues remain of significant concern to the Board, the cost of
seeking to intervene or filing a brief with the court amicus curiae,
together with a realistic assessment of the chances of changing the
outcome, have led the Board to decide not to take any further formal
action in the West-Thomson matter at this time. We will, of course,
continue to monitor the legal proceedings and take action where it seems
appropriate.
What Now for Law Librarians
The concerns about the impact of consolidation that AALL has
continuously voiced over the past year remain of paramount importance to
all law librarians. Whatever one thinks about the West-Thomson matter,
there can be no denying that the legal marketplace has changed more in
the past several years, and on a more profound scale, than any currently
active law librarian has ever seen. The era of "family publishers" has
passed and we must recognize this reality. We may not like it, but this
is the environment today and in the foreseeable future.
But that does not mean we must passively accept the new order. On the
contrary, law librarians must be activist consumers, using our not
inconsiderable position of strength in the legal information marketplace
to achieve positive ends. The 1996 AALL Demographic Survey found that
law librarians who are AALL members control more than $2.4 billion in
legal publishing budgets each year. We have the final call on how
approximately one-half of the industry's total dollars are spent. The
clout represented by those numbers is undeniable, and we must use it to
ensure that law librarians play a major role in all aspects of the
development, dissemination, and utilization of legal information
products. Simply recognizing the power that we have, not only in the
money we represent but in the tools that we have to affect how that
money is spent-or not spent-is the crucial first step. AALL will help
with the next steps, the ones that let you put that power to work.
AALL's Next Steps On Your Behalf
The Executive Board devoted many hours of its recent meeting to
discussing publisher consolidations, their impact on libraries and
librarians, and how AALL could play a meaningful role in helping members
not just weather the storm but right the ship and sail confidently into
the future. We want you to know that AALL is working right now to ensure
that law librarians can participate in this new legal publishing
environment from a position of strength and knowledge. Here are just a
few of the things already underway or planned for the very near future:
o a roundtable meeting with publisher representatives will be held this
Spring to establish more effective and timely methods for specific
problem resolution
o a "President's Briefing on Publisher Relations and Relationships" will
be prepared for the July issue of AALL Spectrum
o the Committee on Relations with Information Vendors (CRIV) will post
and keep timely a variety of practical information on AALLNET
(http://www.aallnet.org), including reliable publisher contacts, hot
publisher news items and an interactive complaint form to be completed
on line
o a team of CRIV Ombudsmen has been formed, with each assigned to forge
relationships with individual publishers and serve as a direct conduit
of information between the publisher and AALL members
o Guidelines for publishers that identify the needs of librarians, and
for librarians that detail how to proceed when problems with publishers
arise, will be produced
o A "Publisher Relations" Tool Kit to help librarians effectively-and
quickly-resolve problems will be developed
AALL is committed to developing productive tools that members can use to
resolve the significant problems that mar today's legal information
landscape. We will use all possible resources to create solutions for
you and share ideas with you. To ensure we meet your specific needs, we
must hear from you. Let us know what's working and what's not, and how
AALL can serve you better. Please write, call or e-mail me at
houdek@siu.edu, President-Elect Judy Meadows at jmeadows@mt.gov, or
Executive Director Roger Parent at rparent@aall.org.
In the new legal information environment, we need to focus on our
strengths-together. AALL is working on it, but we cannot do it alone. We
need your support, your input, and your very active participation.
Together, we can make it better.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:49:32 PST