Survey of Plans for Law Library Print Materials Collection

Primary Research Group, a New York-based publisher of research reports and surveys about libraries, is surveying law librarians about their plans for their print materials collections. 

Earlier editions of the same survey include:

• Survey of Law Library Plans for the Print Materials Collection, 2018 Edition: "Just a few of this 84-page report’s many findings are that: For smaller law firm libraries in the sample the change in overall mean print spending from 2016 to 2018 was a cumulative drop of $25,249 or 12%.   This was a lower decrease than for many other types of law library in the sample; Primary legal works accounted for a mean of 25.78% of the sampled libraries print materials budget with a median of 30% and a range of 0 to 70%; Non-law firm corporate and government libraries cull an annual mean of 7.29% of their book collections; Most of the print subscription volume was in larger law libraries with more than 3 full time equivalent librarians, though it should be noted that many of these were not university law libraries; Data in the report is broken out for US and Canadian libraries, and by library size and type, i.e., university law library, courthouse law library, other government/corporate law library, and for two categories of law firm library, those serving fewer than and more than 150 lawyers."
• Survey of Law Library Plans for the Print Materials Collection, 2020 Edition: "Just a few of the report’s many findings are that: The government law libraries in the sample spent a mean of $774,000 on print materials in the past year; Canadian law libraries in the sample culled a mean of 6.38% of the book collections in the past year; Large law libraries with 5 or more librarians reduced the number of print subscriptions to law journals that they maintain by nearly 19% in 2019; Small and medium-sized law firm libraries expect to increase their spending significantly on print editions of newspapers and magazines in 2020; Primary legal works accounted for a mean of 34.21% of the print materials budget for the organizations sampled."
• Survey of Law Library Plans for the Print Materials Collection, 2022 Edition: "Just a few of the 111-page report’s many findings are that: The Canadian law libraries in the sample vastly outspent the US ones on print materials; Libraries headed by individuals under age 60 spent far less on print materials than those headed by individuals over age 60; Collection culling of print materials was slightly higher in the USA than in Canada; For law school libraries, print materials accounted for 33.67% of the print materials budget; Spending on print directories by the libraries sampled is expected to fall by 15% in 2022."