Legal Information Alert

From the informative information contained in The Political Economy of Legal Information: The New Landscape, you will discover how you, as a librarian or other information professional, can comprehend, cope with, and even try to influence the factors which comprise the new legal information landscape. You will discover the great changes in the legal publishing industry that have occurred within the last few years and the new ways in which legal information is produced, stored, disseminated, and used. The Political Economy of Legal Information will provide you with valuable tips to help you make sense of this new landscape so your library can reap the benefits of this new age. This informative book provides you with a collection of essays that describe, asses, and evaluate the political economy of information in the changing realm of legal publishing to keep you and your library on top of this dynamic situation. Through The Political Economy of Legal Information, you will find valuable insight into how you can make adjustments to constant technological changes by: confronting the cost efficiency model which promises both lower prices and greater effectiveness to help you make informed decisions about your library's technology learning about the economic logic of copyright laws to safeguard your library's reliance on big-name databases exploring the new Legal Publishers’List that provides a roadmap to the mergers and acquisitions that have characterized the publishing industry in recent years in order to choose the best manufacturer of the legal products in your library exploring case studies to help you understand how educational institutions, governmental entities, and small publishers can successfully cope with the new information landscape and to keep you informed of all the options available to your library Written by a wide cross section of people who are working with legal information,The Political Economy of Legal Information provides essential information to assist you and your library in staying informed regarding the fast-paced world of legal publishing.

The second edition of this popular handbook has been thoroughly updated by the original team of experts and some new contributors, to provide current best practice guidance on the key legal information issues for every type of service. Each of the chapters is updated to reflect general changes in law libraries and their users in the past seven years. In particular, the handbook covers new information technologies, including social networking and communication. New chapters also focus on the key topics of outsourcing, and the impact of the 2007 Legal Services Act. The second edition of this valuable handbook continues to be an important professional reference tool for managers and staff of all types of legal information services, and will help them with the challenges they face in their work every day.

While the digital revolution has touched every aspect of law librarianship, perhaps nowhere has the effect been more profound than in the area of collection development. Many of the materials law libraries traditionally collected in print form are now available in electronic format. Digital technology has affected the way we select, order, and process legal materials. The World Wide Web has created an explosion of both commercial and private online publishing. The cost of electronic publishing has caused many traditional law book publishers to sell their companies rather than invest in the needed technologies to compete in the 21st century. Small publishers and book jobbers have been forced to reinvent themselves. The amount of legal information available and its costs continue to soar. Law Library Collection Development in the Digital Age deals with these and other issues related to law library collection development. Chapters range from the theoretical to the practical. Inspired by Penny Hazleton’s seminal paper “How Much of Your Print Collection is Really on Lexis or Westlaw?” the editors and chapter authors of Law Library Collection Development in the Digital Age endeavor to expand on professor Hazleton’s work, with examinations of: the role of law libraries in strategic planning for distance learning Web mirror sites trust vs. antitrust issues access vs. ownership issues how law libraries deal with electronic court records, dockets, and filings the growth of e-journals as they relate to legal publishing how the Hein Greenslips and Blackwell North America’s Bookservice cover legal materials past, present, and future roles of specialized book jobbers and more! Anyone interested in law librarianship or the information industry will find this book informative and useful. Make it a part of your professional collection today.

While there are common misconceptions regarding the definition of a public law library, it can be defined as a government mandated library which provides the public with access to legal resources. Largely, public law libraries are instituted by state or federal law. Public Law Librarianship: Objectives, Challenges, and Solutions aims to introduce firsthand knowledge on the funding, organizational structures, and governance related to the public law library. This book includes comprehensive research for current and future public law librarians to provide administrative guidance and professional sources essential for running a public law library.