The report, with data gathered after the inception of the pandemic, gives critical benchmarking data about how law libraries are dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. The study gives detailed benchmarking data on spending on books, online law content databases, law journals, and print reporters as well as overall budgets and spending on salaries. The study also looks at staffing levels, communications technologies used during the pandemic, and at how law libraries are planning to handle the near future. In addition, the study reports on other important issues, such as the use of artificial intelligence in legal information searching, the development and use of database usage statistics, and other issue of interest to contemporary law libraries.
Data in the report is derived from 35 law libraries in North America with data broken out by size of library, by operational status during the pandemic, and by type of library, with data presented individually for university law libraries, law firm law libraries, courthouse libraries and other government law libraries. In open ended questions, the 35 participants comment on their libraries are dealing with the pandemic and what their plans are for the future.
Just a few of the findings from this 137-page report are:
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Zoom was being used by 54.8% of respondents to communicate with library patrons working at a distance, including by all of the university libraries in the sample.
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For law firm librarians in the sample, keeping up with new legislation and its implications for clients was one of their most time consuming new tasks.
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Spending on salaries by law firm libraries fell by 6.23% in 2020 but spending by other types of law firms on salaries increased.
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Spending on print reporters in 2020 is expected to fall by 10%.