An estimated 57% of law libraries increased their budgets in 2004 while only 10.71% decreased their budgets, according to LAW LIBRARY BENCHMARKS,2005 Edition (ISBN#: 1-57440-070-3), published on November 7th by Primary Research Group.

November 7, 2004 -- An estimated 57% of law libraries increased their budgets in 2004 while only 10.71% decreased their budgets. University law libraries were the most likely to have increased their budget, according to LAW LIBRARY BENCHMARKS , 2005 Edition (ISBN#: 1-57440-070-3), published on November 7th by Primary Research Group. The study is based on data from 65 major law libraries including those of blue chip law firms, university law faculties and government agencies. The 111-page reports is available for $115.00; a PDF version with rights to print out one copy for in-house use is $139.50. All data is broken out by library size and type and some data is also broken out by number of partners per firm.

Some of the conclusions of the report are reproduced below:

The mean number of separate law library locations per organization in the sample was 2.48, though the mean for each law firm participant was 3.41 law libraries per firm.

Law firm libraries tend to occupy far more space than their counterparts in corporations. The mean size of the law firm libraries in the sample was 3,207 square feet (about the size of 4-5 one bedroom apartments) while our recent study Corporate Library Benchmarks showed that the average size of corporate libraries, generally serving much larger organizations, was approximately 2,300 square feet.

Square feet per daily visitor for the university law libraries in the sample was 105 while square feet per daily visitor for the law firm libraries in the sample was 180.

The librarians in the sample noted that their firms spent a total of 11.27% of library staff time advising remote users (those not physically present in the library) on how to use the librarys resources.

The libraries in the sample used direct download from publisher web sites only a mean of 6% of the time when they needed access to articles in journals to which they did not subscribe or otherwise have access. Although the acquisition of articles through publisher web sites is still a minor factor in the legal article delivery market, the libraries in the sample report an 8% aggregate increase in such activity over the past two years.

The librarians in the sample say that their libraries answered a mean of 25.18 email queries per day, or more than three per hour. They also answered a mean of 19.52 telephone queries per day, or about 2.5 per hour. University law libraries took nearly 33 telephone queries per day.

A third of the libraries in the sample experienced a decrease in the amount of office space allocated to them in the past five years, while 7% experienced an increase.

The law libraries in the sample averaged 85.48 visitors to the physical location of the library per day, but the university law libraries in the sample averaged 383; the law firm libraries, a shade less than 18.

Mean spending on salaries for the university law libraries in the sample exceeded $1 million.

A bit less than 16% of the law libraries in the sample have a full time webmaster for the library web site and almost 22% of libraries with materials budgets greater than $350,000.

A shade more than a third of the libraries in the sample expect an increase in their budget in 2005, while 10.71% expect a decrease. Larger libraries, defined in terms of their materials budgets, are more likely to expect an increase than smaller libraries.

Tasks involved with selecting and paying for materials such as books, databases and other materials consumed about 16.7% of the time of the librarians in the sample and more than 18.1% of the total work time of law firm librarians

More than44% of the librarians in the sample plan to reduce print expenditures in the future in order to finance increases in spending on electronic materials

The libraries in the sample tried a mean of 6.69 databases on a free trail basis in the past year.

Law firms are still using CD-ROM databases to a far greater extent than other industries. The mean number of CD-ROM subscriptions per library in the sample was 5.37, far higher than the mean of 1.3 in the corporate library sector (see Corporate Library Benchmarks, 2004-05 Edition ISBN# (1-57440-069-X).

Law librarians generally felt that they were more strongly supported by organizational management than their counterparts in corporate libraries felt about the support they received from their organizational management. Only 4.8% of the libraries in the sample felt that management wanted to eliminate the physical library and replace it with an online information system or virtual library.

None of the librarians in the sample characterized their patrons as uncomfortable using databases and only a small percentage 15.9% -- considered their patrons to be proficient researchers while 42.1% said that their patrons still needed help and an equal percentage thought that their patrons could make do.

The librarians in the sample reported that they had ordered a mean of 11.02% of their newly purchased books through online book selling sites. University law libraries were the most likely to use such sites and government libraries the least likely.

A bit more than 17% of the libraries in the sample have a virtual reference system that utilizes some form of chat technology. Surprisingly, it was government libraries that were the most likely to have such a system and university law libraries that were the least likely, very contrary to our expectations.

The report has more than 300 tables of data and is based on a questionnaire that posed more than 100 questions to 65 law librarians. For more information, contact James Moses at 212-736-2316 or visit the Primary Research Group website at WWW.Primaryresearch.com.

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