Six Years Tracking Law Library Trends

As we went to press, the 2007 Law Librarians’ Survey had not yet been published. It will be part of the July/August issue of Law Firm Inc., which will be released August 15th. So we amused ourselves in the meantime by looking at some of the trends in the last five years since the survey was first conducted in 2002.

The annual Law Librarians’ Survey, conducted by the national magazines research staff, surveys librarians at Am Law 200 firms to follow trends in purchasing, vendors, staff, space, and so on. For this trend review, we took a look at the trends in compensation for the head librarian.

In 2002, 90 percent of respondents said the head librarian at their firms earned under $100,000 in total compensation; only 10% earned above $100,000. But as of this time last year, only about 30 percent were earning under $100,000, and almost 70 percent were earning above the $100,000 mark. Indeed, according to last year’s respondents, 8 percent of Am Law 200 chief librarians were earning over $200,000; five years ago only 2 percent were in that segment.

Staffing has changed noticeably also. In 2002, the average library staff at Am Law 200 firms was 13 staff members; the median was 9. Five years later, in 2006, the average was 18 and the median 12. In each instance, this represented a 33 percent or higher increase in staff.

Similarly, the budget for library staff has risen since 2003 by an average of 33 percent – with the median rising by 48 percent.

In the Law Librarians’ Survey all trends don’t move in an upward arc. Some questions over the years have tracked spending on print volumes and plans to cancel subscriptions to hardbound treatises, digests, and reporters. Other questions have asked respondents about the physical space of the library, and shelf space, and whether these have increased or decreased in size. Need we even mention what the trends show here?

Another interesting area of the survey has been the questions about the librarian’s role—how much time is spent managing staff and budgets and negotiating contracts with vendors, as well as responsibilities for marketing, training lawyers in computer research skills, developing competitive intelligence (e.g. researching laterals), researching legal information, researching non-legal information, and coordinating access to information sources and tools for the firm. Sounds to us like a librarian’s work is never done.

To order an advance copy of the 2007 Law Librarians’ Survey, send an email to almresearch@alm.com or call us at 888-770-5647. The cost for non-subscribers is $100. As with other data products available through the ALM Research Store, the Law Librarian Survey is available in spreadsheet format. The historical data (2002 through 2007) will also be available as an Excel® workbook for $150.