The first semi-annual call between CRIV and Thomson Reuters was held on December 15, 2015. In attendance were Lori Hedstrom (Thomson Reuters); Jeff McCoy (Thomson Reuters); Kate Hagan (AALL); and Gilda Chiu (CRIV Vendor Liaison).
The conversation started with discussion about any new products or other issues of interest Thomson Reuters wanted AALL members to know about. Thomson Reuters had nothing concrete to report, though they mentioned there might be some developments coming for WestlawNext and Practical Law during the Spring.
Next some member concerns were addressed. The first was the changes in customer service structure, especially in regards to academic account managers being integrated into the government customer team. Thomson Reuters explained that the decision of merging the academic and government customer service teams was made so that they could widen the access to managers for all of their customers by creating a larger team to even out the distribution of managers instead of having academic managers constantly having to travel to meet with customers. Overall Thomson Reuters believes the move will be beneficial for customers and account managers, especially those that were managing too many accounts.
Another concern was a possible change in the labeling of pocket parts. A librarian mentioned noticing that pockets parts, in her case for the Alabama Code, only contained the volume number in which it should be filed in but not the date of the replacement volume (information typically used to make sure the current volume is being updated and not the superseded volume). Thomson Reuters was not aware of any change in the labeling of pocket parts, also pointing out that the required information would still be on the filing instructions. They will get back to CRIV about whether the missing information is indeed a publishing change or just an error.
The best contact for informing Thomson Reuters about problems with the WestlawNext platform and if Thomson Reuters was going to continue to support indexes for its treatises on the same platform were also discussed. Thomson Reuters said the best way to provide feedback on WestlawNext, whether it is to report errors or recommend improvements, is to contact Product Development through a link at the bottom of any page on WestlawNext called “Improve Westlaw.” A librarian can also call any reference attorney through the dedicated 800 number (1-800-733-2889) and mention his or her concerns and the attorney will forward the comments to Product Development. As for the question about the indexes, Thomson Reuters will absolutely continue to support indexes on WestlawNext. The question came up after a librarian expressed having issues with index links not working and wondering if this meant that Thomson Reuters might be looking to phase out indexes on their platform. Thomson Reuters believes that the problems might have arisen from the migration to the new platform. They will inquire with their team and get back to CRIV about what exactly is the issue with the indexing errors.
As soon as the updates to the above concerns are received they will be added to this post.
The next call is set to be scheduled for some time in late Spring/early Summer 2016.
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