While law firm libraries have grown increasingly skilled at controlling costs and boosting their efficiency, they’ve been thwarted in their attempts to move research to the most important new platform in years: electronic tablets. The culprits, The American Lawyer’s eleventh annual survey of law firm library directors finds, are familiar: high costs and overly complex licensing models from the legal publishers expanding into e-books. As a result, many Am Law 200 libraries are sitting on the fence when it comes to these devices — potentially depriving attorneys of an immensely useful way to do legal research.
On other fronts, the 80 library directors responding to our survey had good news to report. Budgets are up from 2011 levels at 55 percent of responding firms (at another 20 percent they remained steady). On average, 2012 budgets were $6.7 million, a whopping 34 percent over 2010. Job satisfaction levels among library chiefs are on the rise, as well: Seventy-six percent of respondents agree or mostly agree that they are satisfied with their firm’s business direction for the library, up from 72 percent last year. And 82 percent agree or mostly agree that they are satisfied with their compensation, a 10-point boost from 2011.
