Changes and Trends

Industry Change

• New publishers
  • Niche subjects
  • Electronic only
  • Concentration on small firms
• Globalization:  European parent companies, acquisition of companies (publishers and databases) worldwide, growth markets in Germany, UK, China, Russia, Brazil, India

New Sources

• New commercial and free sources appearing
• Informal, non-professional sources of information:  e-mail lists, websites, blogs, podcasts, even Twitter
  • AmLaw Tech Survey 2010:  48% of responding firms have blogs, 80% use LinkedIn, 63% use Facebook, 16% use Twitter
• More legal research sources available on new platforms:  tablets, smart phones 
  • Links to apps for law on the New Current Awareness Sources page
• New interfaces for databases that use broad (Google-like) searching, with filtering or narrowing of results : WestlawNext and Lexis Advance
• Questions arise:
  • Are they complete, authoritative, consistent, reliable?
  • Where does the content come from?
  • Evaluation
    • No need to evaluate old established sources, but must evaluate the new ones
  • See :  Robert C. Berring, Legal Information and the Search for Cognitive Authority, 88 Cal. L. Rev. 1673-1708 (2000) and Michael Whiteman, The Death of Twentieth-Century Authority, 58 UCLA L. Rev. Discourse 27-63 (2010)

New Caselaw Websites

• Public.Resource.org
  • New in 2007
  • Archive of Federal Court of Appeals decisions, including the oldest 1st Fed. Reporter series
  • Other information in Bulk Resource.org:  state codes, building codes, archives from FJC
• Justia
  • Court of Appeals opinions from 1950 to current are available to search or to browse by volume, circuit, or year. Federal District Court Filings and Dockets has docket information on District Court cases from 2004 to current to search, with some orders and other documents available in pdf.
• Google Scholar caselaw searching
  • New in 2009
  • Search for legal opinions and journals
  • Use Advanced Search to limit by jurisdiction

Industry Trends

• Vendor-neutral citation
• Small Internet-only publishers
• New smaller electronic systems cost less, usually offer less
• More supplementation
  • Many print publications get annual pocket parts or annual revised volumes, in part to increase revenue
• Libraries cutting print materials, less essential titles, shopping for less expensive databases and flat rate contracts, negotiating rates with Lexis and Westlaw
  • Trend to smaller physical library space
  • Single preferred vendor contracts with Lexis or Westlaw
  • Increased reliance on online access
  • Smaller budget increases or budget cuts + high supplementation costs = reduced library acquisitions and subscription cuts
• Library Management Agreements
  • Thomson/West:  multi-year contracts for a single price for all print publications with predictable price increases
  • Contracts to continue print subscriptions locked in
• More fee-based legal systems, more database vendors
• More caselaw, statutes, regulations issued
• More sources, more formats to choose from
• More publications electronic only
• Hundreds of legal blog sites with increasing influence

Projections

• Libraries continue to drop print subscriptions for online (or no) access
• Increases in electronic database pricing
• Continued sales growth and profits for the Big 4, but not increasing as fast as subscriptions decline
• Online publishing growth fastest, followed by directories and books
• E-books for legal research, with access by tablet computers and smartphones 
• Journals limited growth, more web access
• Print publications going away?:  Digests, citators, print reporters 
• Newsletters and looseleafs going electronic only 
• Cd-rom and other media sales declining
• Lower costs for some print publications with high supplementation costs, and for some practitioner publications with limited subjects
• As firms cut print subscriptions and go online only, increases in electronic access costs, more restrictions on use