TO ALL LAW-LIB READERS:
This year I am Chair of the AALL Committee on Indexing of
Periodical Literature. Our committee is charged with
advising Information Access Corporation (IAC) in the
production of their AALL-sponsored indexes, which include
"Current Law Index", "Legal Resource Index" and "LegalTrac."
Recently, my sources at IAC contacted me regarding an
impending change to their CD-ROM product, LegalTrac. I feel
it important that this change be widely publicized among AALL
members, so that everyone should have the opportunity to give
input into the decisions that IAC must make.
IAC informs me that the LegalTrac CD will be completely full
by June of this year. Thus, to accommodate additional new
indexing, the product will have to change in some significant
way. In my initial discussions with IAC, their
representative suggested three options:
OPTION 1) In June, LegalTrac would drop one or two years of
its earliest of indexing, and then drop an additional year of
indexing with each year. Thus, beginning in June, it would
cover 1982 (instead of 1980) through 1994; then in January of
1995 it would cover 1983 through 1995; etc.
OPTION 2) In June, LegalTrac would drop its indexing of local
legal newspapers from before 1990. The titles involved would
be the "Chicago Daily Law Bulletin," "Los Angeles Daily
Journal," "New Jersey Law Journal," "New York Law Journal,"
and "Pennsylvania Law Journal." This would free up enough
space on the disc to permit several years of new indexing
without sacrificing anything else.
OPTION 3) IAC would produce a second CD disc to contain the
overflow. Subscribers who currently run LegalTrac on
equipment leased from IAC, or on any equipment that is
configured with only one CD disc drive, would have to add an
additional drive to their configuration. IAC's
representative assured me that the software would make
switching between two CD discs transparent to the user.
However, there's an obvious downside to this option, which is
cost: Subscribers would have to pay for the additional disc
and drive either through increased subscription costs,
increased equipment costs, or both. IAC has not yet
determined how these new charges would be apportioned, or how
much they would come to.
In a subsequent conversation, a member of our committee
suggested another option -- sort of a combination of 2 and 3
-- which sounded good to me:
OPTION 4) IAC would spin off a separate disc containing
indexing of legal newspapers exclusively. (LegalTrac
currently indexes seven papers: the five listed above, plus
the "National Law Journal" and "Legal Times.") IAC could
then market three CD-ROM index alternatives: a journals
index, a newspapers index, and a combined index that could
run only on multi-disc equipment.
IAC is seeking input from members of our association in
making these decisions. I would ask anyone who is interested
to communicate your preferences and opinions to me. IAC is
not wedded to any of the options presented above. Indeed,
they are interested to hear creative solutions to their
dilemma.J Again, the LegalTrac CD will be full by June, so
IAC has only a few months in which to choose the best
options, implement them, and advise subscribers of the
changes.
Unfortunately, I am not in a position to receive messages
conveniently on LAW-LIB. I therefore ask that you FAX me at
212-431-2327, or write me at the address below, to let me
know what you think. I look forward to hearing your
thoughts.
Bill Mills, Associate Librarian
New York Law School
57 Worth Street
New York, N.Y. 10013
voice: 212-431-2380
FAX: 212-431-2327
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