The Transformation of the Legal Journal

The Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship (signed by law librarians at some of the largest US law libraries) calls for the transition of all law school legal journals from print to digital publication.  There are a variety of rationales for this (cost savings, shelf room) but the obvious one is that there's simply no need to retain the print version of law journals: most titles are available via online sources (HeinOnline, LexisNexis, etc.) and those online sources are vastly preferable to paper versions for research purposes (searchable, accessible anywhere, etc.) - if you need a paper copy, just print it up at your desk, rather than lugging a small brick over to the photocopier and trying to get the margins correct so things don't cut off 3/4 of the way through the page.

This also follows a "dramatic decline" in the number of paid subscriptions to some law journals.  The Law Librarian Blog posited a number of likely causal factors for the decline, of which online availability is only one: falling alumni subscriptions, lack of relevance to practitioners and declining subscriptions from courts and law firms (which themselves are likely prompted by online availability).  As noted by the Law Librarian Blog, the sheer ubiquity of law journals perhaps plays some role as well: it is absolutely staggering how many law journals are out there, and how many articles are published each year.  There may be a psychological factor at play in some cases: devoting funds to a particular journal can seem almost futile.

Bu the greatest potential in the nascent movement heralded by the Durham Statement is actually buried a bit in the Statement itself:

Additionally, and potentially most importantly, a move toward digital files as the preferred format for legal scholarship will increase access to legal information and knowledge not only to those inside the legal academy and in practice, but to scholars in other disciplines and to international audiences, many of whom do not now have access either to print journals or to commercial databases.

I think that's actually a little bit coy: the goal should be to increase access to everyone outside "the legal academy and practice", not just "scholars" or "international audiences" - laypersons right here in Canada or the US should have free access to journal articles as well.  The unspoken problem with just moving publications to digital formats is that access writ large is not addressed: even if articles are on HeinOnline or LexisNexis, having an academic or firm subscription is still critical in order to get inside the walled garden.  Which is why this statement by Wendy Reynolds at slaw is so critical:

I’d also love to see the functionality of CanLII extended to include secondary literature - either by scraping websites, or by functioning as a permanent repository for this material.

Now that would be revolutionary (for those who aren't familiar with it, CanLII (the Canadian Legal Information Institute) is a website which provides completely free access to Canadian caselaw, statutes and regulations (including powerful search functions and noting up features).  Run by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada, CanLII's goal is "to make Canadian law accessible for free on the Internet".  There are, of course, immense cost, time and copyright issues which would come into play in the endeavour of making journal articles available on CanLII, but hopefully we are moving in that direction.

Comments

[Adrian]

On a related note, why are the Ontario Reports still distributed in paper form? Would be much cheaper to e-mail a web link to all lawyers each week. The only opposition I can see would come from advertisers, who might object to what they see as fewer lawyers going online to read the ads.

[Bob Tarantino]

That's a really good point, Adrian - and come to think of it, aren't the ORs delivered *only* in paper format? That strikes me as slightly absurd. I also have to admit that I can't think of a single lawyer that I work with who actually *keeps* the copy of the OR which is mailed to them - the amount of paper wasted is staggering.