I promised to follow-up regarding Clarification on Wolters Kluwer Titles Removed from Westlaw as this is a key issue for law librarians as they increasingly transition from print to electronic formats: preservation. Ken Crutchfield, vice president & general manager of Wolters Kluwer Legal Markets in the WK Legal & Regulatory U.S. division, met with me to discuss availability of Wolters Kluwer (WK) titles and to work toward preservation.
Crutchfield echoed David Bartolone’s response regarding reduced demand and increasing costs for print titles, emphasizing the pronounced effects that the pandemic and continued hybrid work conditions have had on decreasing print subscriptions. He additionally noted feedback on lack of library spaces from law firms. Crutchfield also noted a long-term trend within publishing for enhancing their own platforms to provide materials directly to their market. This, in addition to the changing contracts WK has with aggregators, has led to some titles accessible only through WK’s VitalLaw. WK provides a list of digital-only titles, each with the date of the last print update.
WK is aware of the law library community’s concerns regarding preservation. Caroline Walters, chair of the Vendor subcommittee (with committee members) in NELLCO’s Print to Electronic Standing Committee (of the NELLCO Print to Electronic Call to Action project), has been in conversation with Crutchfield regarding the importance of access to previous editions for law libraries. While communications continue in the print to electronic conversation, WK Legal & Regulatory U.S. announced a collaboration with CLOCKSS for Kluwer Law International publications. WK furthermore announced availability of archived content (via additional subscription) for 300+ titles on VitalLaw going back to 2006. The archives are available in PDF format and include editions and supplements.
I am grateful to Ken Crutchfield for chatting with me about industry trends in content provision and WK’s actions toward preservation of digital titles. I also very much appreciate Caroline Walters, manager of collection development at Harvard Law School Library, for reaching out last fall to inform me of their efforts.
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