AALL
and
ILTA
The New
Librarian
digital white paper
The Challenges
of E-Books in Law
Firm Libraries
by Bess Reynolds of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
It is a fact that lawyers live in a world of
information overload. Adoption of online information tools requires
ease of use. Lawyers don’t want to have to learn a new platform for
every resource they use in the course of a work day. But what about
e-books?
To date, major legal publishers are feeling their way through
the maze of offering electronic versions of their publications.
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP conducted e-book trials with three legal
publishers. Let’s see how they fared.
The Trials
In 2011, our firm set up e-book trials with LexisNexis, Thomson
Reuters and Wolters Kluwer. Our initial foray into e-books began
when three of our partners wrote a treatise, “Takeovers: a Strategic
Guide to Mergers and Acquisitions,” which Wolters Kluwer made
available as an e-book. The library was asked to set up trial-uses
for attorneys.
At the same time, the firm began a pilot project for lawyers
and staff to test iPads in the network environment, creating a
pool of potential users. After reviewing questions of format and
devices, I determined that the EPUB format was most commonly
used by our vendors. The firm network supports iPads and iPhones,
so they were the only devices suitable for the trial (dedicated
e-readers such as the Kindle and Nook were not supported by the
firm). Although it is possible to read an e-book on an iPhone, it is
not practical, so the iPad became the device of choice. Access to
business email on the device helped users take advantage of some
special features of the e-books, such as the ability to email sections
or chapters.
In researching the use of e-books in law firms, I found that
legal publishers had not progressed into the e-book market as
nimbly as publishers of novels and other more popular works.
Kindle and other dedicated e-readers were premised on a
one-book/one-device/one-reader business model. How would that
work in a law firm library? True, public libraries make that work, but
they deal primarily with e-book aggregators. Although this requires
a standard, lowest-common-denominator licensing agreement,
individuals can check out e-books from public libraries, at least
once they find the title(s) they want.
We purchase directly from the publishers for 95 percent of the
materials our lawyers need. When asking how three big competitive
The Challenges of E-Books in Law Firm Libraries
corporations were going to sell e-books to law firms, it was no
surprise to find that each publisher went about it differently. Even
now, the publishers are still developing a strategy.
The mechanics of acquiring and distributing books, making
sure they are up to date, and retrieving books from departing
attorneys are all part of the job of the technical services
department. Transferring these tasks to e-books was therefore
already within our department’s job description. How did we tackle
this beast?
Our firm confronted some issues with the publishers who
offered us their e-books.
Wolters Kluwer
We began with Wolters Kluwer. The company already had a
management tool for libraries to register users and set up IDs and
passwords. At that stage, their eDis platform was hosted by their
parent company in the Netherlands. Although the site was in English,
notifications arrived in Dutch, an oddity that needed to be explained to
the lawyers.
We were able to log in to the eDis site and begin the process
of registering lawyers who volunteered to test a digital version
of the “Takeovers” treatise. An acknowledgement email message
was sent to each person who registered. The following steps were
necessary to complete the transaction:
• The end user was required to go to the Apple app store to
download the proprietary eDis software.
• Once the app was installed, they registered with the
user name and password from the Dutch language email
authorization.
• The user was then able to download the e-book. At that time,
they could choose to open it in one of several applications,
including the commonly used iBooks.
• Once the e-book was on the user’s device, it could be found
in the iBooks library, and the end user did not have to use the
eDis app to read the e-book.
One partner responded to an internal survey at the end of the
trial-use period. He said he found the e-book convenient as he had
used it to find specific information while out of the office. He added
What’s a Desk Book?
The NY CPLR is an example of a desk book. These are
generally paperback titles that are issued annually
or semi-annually and made available to lawyers as
copies to keep in their offices. These books tend to
be heavily used titles such as court rules or certain
annotated codes like the Collier’s bankruptcy set, or
“New York Laws Governing Business Entities.” Our
firm provides 25 different titles of desk books from
six different vendors. All other titles in the library
have one or two copies and are checked out in the
usual way.
that although e-books were useful for home and travel, he would
not want to substitute digital for print. On pricing, he was adamant
that we should not pay a premium for e-books.
To my knowledge, no lawyer filled out the evaluation
requested by the publisher.
As of this writing, Wolters Kluwer has not released
the e-book platform for use in the U.S., although they did
demonstrate it at the AALL annual conference in Boston. The
company is publishing about 70 e-book titles, including a large
amount of materials for the academic market of law students.
CCH-branded books, primarily tax titles, are available on the
website for direct purchase.
LexisNexis
Lexis determined early on that they were in the content business
and partnered with Overdrive — the largest aggregator in the e-book
market — to create an additional solution to provide access to their
legal titles. Before they signed the agreement with Overdrive, Lexis’
e-books were available through the online Lexis store only, which is
still an option. They’re also available using the library management
through Overdrive.
We were given the opportunity to test the desk book “New
York Civil Practice Law and Rules” (NY CPLR), popularly known as
the “Redbook” (see sidebar for more information).
But talk about complicated! These are the steps necessary to
obtain a single copy.
• The end user must register on the Lexis website.
• When logged on to the website, they must then search for a
title.
• Select the appropriate format (EPUB, Mobi or PDF). You have
to know which to select for your device, and not all lawyers —
very few, in fact —are technically savvy.
• The user must have an e-reader installed on their device.
• Download the file to a folder where it can be found at a later
time.
• In order to read the e-book on a device, the user must sync the
device with their computer.
• If the user is subscribed to updates, they will receive email
messages instructing them when and how to download
updates.
• The user can read the book using the iBook application, and
the e-book appears in the user’s iBooks library.
No busy lawyer is interested in doing anything that requires
that many steps! In addition, since this was an iPilot trial and the
users were only able to sync with their personal computers, they
would have the additional challenge of doing all of this from home.
The process did not bode well as an introduction to e-books at our
firm.
The Challenges of E-Books in Law Firm Libraries
Lexis is now using two different ways to distribute e-books.
They can be purchased directly from their LexisNexis online store
or borrowed using the Lexis eLending program through their
collaboration with Overdrive. Librarians determine which content
is available. The lawyers must visit the Lexis website or download
an app from Overdrive that allows them to check out e-books.
(The site is still under beta testing as of mid-October 2012.) There
are about 1,445 titles available. In any case, the online store is
oriented toward individual purchases of individual titles, not a
library model.
Thomson West
Thomson’s proprietary platform is known as ProView. They initially
offered two titles for our trial period — “McKinney’s New York Rules
of Court,” another popular desk book, and “The Transformation of
Business Development.” Thomson limited the study to seven users.
The study lasted exactly three months, after which the e-books
disappeared from our devices. They currently offer 230 titles
and expect to provide 500 by the year’s end. Thomson charges a
premium of 10 to 15 percent for e-books over the price for print.
Again, we found the sign-up process for access to even a
single e-book to be cumbersome.
• The library places the order with the vendor’s rep.
• The library receives an order confirmation email message.
• The end user receives an activation email message outlining
next steps.
• From the activation message, the user accesses OnePass,
the Thomson user password account manager, to assign the
e-book library to their existing OnePass account.
• The user must download the ProView application to iTunes.
• As soon as the ProView app is downloaded and opened, the
user is asked to log in using OnePass. Credentials are saved
on the device for future use so subsequent sign in is not
necessary.
• The user opens “Your Library” and finally has access to the
purchased e-book.
Compare that process to taking a book off a shelf. Traditionally
a lawyer only has to take a single action once a year: reply to a
library email message inquiring as to whether they still wish to
receive the printed book. The library staff orders, receives and
unpacks the books, checks them in to the system and labels them
for distribution. The mail room picks up the books, and they
magically appear in the attorney’s office ready to use.
What the Publishers Have in Common
The e-books in EPUB format share many similarities. Each allows
the reader to create bookmarks, make annotations in the form of
notes and adjust the appearance by changing fonts and sizes. You
can also copy and email selected text.
Lexis and Thomson, who have created their own platforms,
justify propietary systems by saying the software allows them to
develop special features within the e-books. Among these are the
ability to carry notes and bookmarks forward to new editions. If
the e-book is borrowed from the library, the vendor keeps track
of patrons through their login credentials and retains their notes
to be reapplied when they next check out the book or receive an
updated edition.
Wolters Kluwer has added the ability to use a split screen to
view two e-books or an e-book and an outside document at the
same time.
In addition, the e-books allow linking outside of their content
to other resources, such as primary law. Since each of these
providers are major publishers of legal databases, they benefit from
directing lawyers to Lexis, Westlaw or CCH Intelliconnect. Although
the latter is not a metered resource, the first two can quickly add
to the monthly database bills as they already have your research
ID. For Thomson West, the links only work with Westlaw Next. If
your firm, like ours, does not yet subscribe to Westlaw Next but
sticks with Westlaw Classic, you may be hearing from your lawyers
about barriers to research. Lexis links to Lexis Advance, their new
platform.
While these are useful tools, they mimic the use of print books
and hardly represent earth-shattering developments for lawyers
who are used to spreading everything out on their desks and
making liberal use of highlighters and post-it notes.
Nothing in these e-books is so enticing that we are rushing
to substitute them for our existing print collection. In fact, in a
year since our trials began, not one lawyer has asked the library to
purchase an e-book.
Survey Reveals Similar Results
According to a Zoomerang survey I conducted among law firm
librarians in June 2012 (view survey results), we’re not the only
ones reaching this conclusion. Our colleagues at other law firms
aren’t buying many e-books either.
Of the 85 law firm librarians answering the question, “Are
you providing e-books to the attorneys in your firm?” only 10
(12 percent) said yes. About 21 percent of the law firm libraries
are planning to purchase e-books in the coming year. Almost 40
percent of the librarians have tested e-books, so presumably they
are basing their decisions on concrete experience.
Librarians are not ignoring e-books with legal content, but I
believe they are hesitating for good reason. Firms with 500 or more
lawyers had not bought any e-books. This supports my conclusion
that the vendors have made the entire experience of acquiring,
distributing and supporting e-books far too complicated. I have
not addressed licensing and digital rights management, which
add additional complexity. Pricing is another issue to consider,
with Thomson specifically charging a premium for e-books over
print. Lexis is keeping prices the same, and Wolters Kluwer offers
discounts if you purchase both formats.
Recommendations
From the American Lawyer Law Librarian Survey of 2012, we
find that 96 percent of law firm libraries are using an integrated
library system (ILS). If you are unfamiliar with the ILS, it is a type
of proprietary database. The catalog is specifically designed to
create and maintain library resources in the form of bibliographic
records. In our case, it handles all of the library’s circulation,
serials maintenance, check in/out, routing, acquisitions, etc.
The Challenges of E-Books in Law Firm Libraries
We catalog all print and electronic subscriptions that the firm
purchases.
After years of working to assure that everything in our
collection can be found with a single search from the lawyer’s
desktop, we are faced with the prospect of splintering resources
into multiple silos should the vendors continue on their course of
requiring customers to use their platforms. Libraries may lose the
ability to gather meaningful usage statistics.
Of those libraries using an ILS, two vendors support 61 percent
of the libraries and two other vendors account for an additional 27
percent of the firms. Since 88 percent of law firm library systems
are provided by four companies, we as librarians should actively
engage with the ILS vendors to encourage them to become the
hosts of our e-books. The system already has all patron information,
our lawyers know how to use the ILS, and it is searchable from their
desktops.
In addition, we should demand the right to own e-books just
as we own our print titles.
While Lexis is working with Overdrive, we have found that
platform to be unnecessarily complicated, as currently designed.
There is a precedent for this idea. The Douglas County
Libraries, a consortium of public libraries in Colorado, has already
begun an experiment to host their own books. They installed
Adobe Content Server to manage e-books and developed an opensource software that serves as a discovery layer. They have made
agreements with many publishers to buy books outright. According
to Monique Sendze, Associate Director of Information Technology
at Douglas County Libraries, in “The E-Book Experiment”: “the
number of steps from search and discover to check out [of an
e-book] has been streamlined to no more than three clicks.”
Law firm librarians need to speak out to our vendors and insist
that they concentrate on providing content and let us manage
our own books whether digital or print. This is our future, so let’s
make it workable, efficient and forward-looking to better serve our
lawyers and the practice of law. A/I
AALL
and
ILTA
digital white paper
The New
Librarian
Bess Reynolds is the Technical Services
Manager in the Library and Knowledge
Management Department at Debevoise
& Plimpton LLP. She specializes in
implementing new technologies to
enhance discovery of the firm’s print
illustration by thomas boucher, all rights reserved
OCTOBER 2012
and digital resources. Before becoming
a law librarian, Bess worked in banking
and finance. She can be reached at
[email protected].
This article was first published in AALL/ILTA’s
October 2012 white paper titled “The New
Librarian” and is reprinted here with permission.
For more information about AALL, visit their
website at www.aallnet.org. For more information
about ILTA, visit their website at www.iltanet.org.