Law firms may want to take note of this post on US Law Lib blog .. apparently LN have sent a letter to US legal academic(s) and libraries telling them that there will be “zero increase plans for next year”…
Here’s the blog post in full – we’d love to know if this is just a USA offer from LN – or to legal academic libraries worldwide. If not, we do hope that legal libraries at law schools around the world demand something similar (or better) and we suggest law firms also ask why they can’t be extended the same offer.
Although looking at the fine print , as always with Lexis, the deal isn’t half as good as it looks on the surface. Yes no increase in 2010 but you have to buy a multi year contract
And surprise surprise librarians at law schools and universities are treated just the same way as they are at firms. At firm the partners get the offers from LN? before the KM or librarian and it’s the same at academic institutions.. the email/letter goes to the Dean first !
If anybody has a copy of this letter we would love to publish it in full.
And TR West don’t get a good rap in this post..? This is frustratingly close to Thomson Reuters West’s recent business model (which is not unlike a protection racket),
LexisNexis’ new academic pricing model, and simple customer courtesy
This morning my dean received an email letter from Joseph Grunenwald, Vice President of Law Schools at LexisNexis.? The letter informed us of their zero increase plans for next year (yay, they get it!), and included a new twist: they also plan to offer us multi-year contracts with locked-in maximum increases (oops.)
For many of us this will be a good thing; for others, not so much.? This is frustratingly close to Thomson Reuters West’s recent business model (which is not unlike a protection racket), and I doubt that Lexis would be doing it at all if they weren’t highly worried about dozens of law schools choosing to dump one service or the other.? It would actually be a difficult choice at my school, and I truly hope I don’t have to make it.
Having followed this morning’s traffic on the lawlib-dir list, I know I’m not the only director who finds myself somewhat offended that the letter went first to my dean, and that I received the exact same email from Mr. Grunenwald (but still addressed to my dean) some 24 minutes later.? If you’re going to go over my head, would you please at least do me the courtesy of copying me on the original?? As I suspect is the case in most law schools, my dean isn’t likely to make this decision on his own.? That’s what he hired ME to do.? Vendors, you should know better.? [RG]
