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COPYRIGHT 2007 Alert Publications, Inc.
Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky ... --"Stormy Weather," Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, 1933
In his December 2007 American Lawyer article "Storm Warning," Dan DiPietro states that for the first time in six years, law firm expenses are growing faster than revenues. Although the majority of this jump in costs (13.7 percent in the first half of 2007) was propelled by associates' salary increases and rising attorney numbers, technology costs were also a factor. Is this a harbinger for yet more surprises at the proverbial publishers' pump? It would seem that there are movements afoot here that for library budgets could become the perfect storm.
Proliferation of Products
Keeps raining all the time. --"Stormy Weather"
I spend 25 percent of my time previewing new products--a quarter of my professional time listening to sales pitches, beta testing half-baked goods and, in some instances, retraining users on products that have been "improved" by enhanced technology or arbitrarily moved to a new platform. There was a time when I found auditioning a new product a positive diversion from rote research. It was exciting to be the first on the block to discover and roll out a resource that would ensure my firm a competitive edge in the challenging legal world. Introducing attorneys to electronics that would save them time and angst and sharing that "aha" moment were exhilarating. But lately the "aha's" have given way to the "oh no's," as attorneys complain about being barraged with vendor e-mails messages shouting "must have" or free trial subscriptions that show up mysteriously and never seem to go...
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