Notes from CRIV Liaison and Bloomberg BNA 6/5/17 Call

CRIV Liaison and Bloomberg BNA Semi-Annual Meeting

June 5, 2017 at 2PM Eastern

Attendance and Introductions:

Present on the call were: Mike Bernier, Director of Library Relations, Bloomberg BNA; Diana Jaque, CRIV liaison; Rick Montella, Executive VP, Commercial Strategy, Bloomberg BNA; and Joe Breda, Executive VP, Product, Bloomberg BNA.

New Bloomberg BNA Products, Policies, and Other Issues of Interest to AALL Members

Joe Breda summarized major developments to Bloomberg Law since the last meeting. April had a big release which was the most comprehensive release to Bloomberg Law in five years. The changes impact all user segments. The major impetus was to adjust the interface to match how users use the product. The number of menus was trimmed down. Navigation now is on shown on the left side of the screen allowing users to see more content. Labels were changed to be more descriptive and the search bar has more functionality. It is now possible to navigate to any function from the navigation bar. For example, it is possible to access docket searching or find a book directly from the search bar. Searching itself has been improved. The product now supports natural language searching, but Boolean searches are still fully supported. After running a search, users will see results sorted by content types such as primary, secondary sources, and regulations. The group agreed this will be especially helpful for law students. The search bar is dynamic and adjusts to the source that is being searched and tries to hone in on where you are in the product.

The Labor & Employment Practice Center was also updated in April with new content and functionality. It includes an activity heat map state and local for news and shows what is trending. As of now, there are enhanced practice centers in labor & employment, tax, privacy and data security, intellectual property, and employee benefits. More enhanced practice centers, including health care, will be coming in 2018.

Bloomberg BNA has received very specific feedback on some of the April changes including changes to docket searching. The search forms were simplified, and docket power users have asked for some parts of the old search form to be returned. In response to feedback, Bloomberg BNA is vetting additional changes with users and a solution will be implemented soon.

Rick Montella reported that two separate customer contact and support teams have existed in separate locations since the 2014 merger of Bloomberg Law into Bloomberg BNA.  In the next few weeks, these two teams will come together in Bloomberg BNA’s Arlington, Virginia headquarters, all sitting together in order better collaborate to enhance the customer experience.

For the academic market, Mike Bernier reinforced that the training focus will be on second and third year students with online training available for all students and staff. Bloomberg BNA will still provide 1L activation codes on registration cards in print or by PDF or via spreadsheets depending on the schools’ preference.

Requests for Assistance/Member Advocacy Issues (Diana)

There were no member requests for assistance received since our last meeting.

Questions/Updates (Diana)

Diana inquired if there is a current date to sunset BNA.com. Bloomberg BNA responded that no date has been set. The Bloomberg BNA web site continues to be updated in real time for the foreseeable future.

CRIV Vendor Roundtable: Sunday, July 16^th at 1PM

Meeting ended at approximately 2:30 PM Eastern