This study looks at law library spending plans for a broad range of print resources including both primary and secondary legal materials in many formats, books, looseleaf services, legal encyclopedias, journals, newspapers and magazines and other information vehicles. The study provides highly precise information from a sample of 32 law libraries of spending levels in 2022, 2024 and anticipated for 2025 in each of these areas. The study also looks at spending on non-legal themed print materials and at issues such as the amount of space used to house and store the print collection in 2023, 2024 and anticipated for 2025. The study gives its readers a highly detailed sense of the plans that law libraries have for their print collections, including comprehensive spending and preference data.
Data in the report is broken out by the type and size of the law library and by the personal age of the survey respondent (which appears to impact spending decisions).
Just a few of this 100-page report’s many findings are that:
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Mean spending on print materials by the law libraries in the sample was $329,568 in 2024, a drop of 1.71% from 2023.
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The mean amount of space used by large law firms libraries in the sample to house their print collections is expected to have fallen by 50% by 2025 relative to the level in 2023.
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Law firm libraries with fewer than 150 lawyers culled 21% of the book collection each year, the highest in the sample among types of law library; law school libraries culled the lowest percentage, 2.75% each year.
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Law school library spending on print materials rose in the past year.
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Courthouse libraries in the sample used a mean of 1,390 square feet of office space to house their print collection.