User and distribution requirements – Online v. Print

Sara Berry

Head of Central Information Services

Introduction

Background Print or online preferences Delivery of services Pros and cons of e-journals

Clifford Chance LLP

One of the world’s largest law firms 27 (shortly 28) offices in 20 countries Total staff around 7,200 including 3,800

legal advisors Capital markets, Corporate and M&A ,

Financial and Banking, Real Estate, Tax, Pensions and Employment and a Litigation/Dispute Resolution practice

Working with global corporations, banks, financial institutions and governments

Central Information Services

The CIS team obtains information resources for the London office but also negotiates global deals where applicable

Works with a subscription agent Around 6,000 copies of serials checked in

and circulated annually About 55% legal, 35% trade/industry and

10% other

Print v. Online – where are we now?

The more extreme predictions 10 years ago saw the demise of print by now

It’s still around – but for how long? Legal information mostly moving online Range of publications going to digital

content only and delivery by email Different e-journal solutions But why are we still buying print copies of

commentary found online?

Print?

When do lawyers have time to read? In between working on client matters (a lot

of reading is done on the Jubilee line!)

And what are they reading non-legal journals for?

To keep up with their clients’ and clients’ industries and know what’s going on in the world which might affect their clients (risk factors)

Print? continued

And why do they still like paper copies (and post-it notes)?

To scan contents page quickly for relevance (using post-it notes to mark the page to show to their client)

Common theme – developing working relationships with clients

Online?

When do lawyers use online versions? All the time – now the expected method for

saving time on legal information delivery and on every lawyer’s desktop (but preferably push not pull)

What do they use them for? Searching for information on a client or

client’s industry, or relating to the subject matter of a case or transaction (often under time pressures)

Online? continued

And why do they like online? It can save tremendous amounts of time,

which is a precious commodity, particularly if the product provides Alerter/News email services

Common theme - Online gives them more time to focus on working with clients

Print v. Online?

Online’s strong point is usually the search function and often it saves time

Online’s weak point is often layout and accessibility

Print’s strong point is often layout and accessibility

Print’s weak point is the search function which often doesn’t save time

Delivery

Print delivery is often time-consuming and heavy on manual and environmental resources but relatively uncomplicated

Online delivery is supposed to be simple, quick and uncomplicated but is often anything but, particularly for e-journals

Terms and conditions are a major obstacle when trying to obtain e-journals

Terms and Conditions

Single person subscription – some web content

Single/multi-user web version licences Site and Enterprise licences Bundled with print Digital content via email attachment And many more variations

Terms and Conditions continued

E-journal licences (where they exist) are mostly too restrictive for our needs

Details hard to find before actually signing up, and often publisher contact is bemused to be asked

Too time consuming and fiddly to manage Copyright licence terms from CLA Aggregators – under price pressure Subscription Agents – ability to manage e-journals

is sometimes restricted also

What could make e-journals a more successful proposition?

Industry standard licences for different combinations of needs

Sharing content within organisation Sharing content with third parties (non-

systematic) Effective search facilities using good

taxonomies Well-designed layout and ease of use

Are these effective propositions?

Initial investment in online is heavy and without a defined market may be difficult to justify

There are also higher costs associated with maintaining and developing an effective online presence

The future is about RSS feeds direct to and accessing resources from the BlackBerry (or the next techie development) for people on the move – even more investment

Are e-journals worth it?

The e-journal has to be easy to use and useful to have

Does publisher research show end users really value e-journals and which titles in particular?

E-journals can tick many boxes but currently are mostly just a management headache!

Any questions?