CRIV/Lexis May 2016 Call

June 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment

On May 19, 2016 CRIV had its second semi-annual call with LexisNexis. There were no outstanding Requests for Assistance involving LexisNexis products from the membership to discuss.

CRIV inquired about non-disclosure language in LexisNexis licenses so broad that it would prevent libraries from discussing any aspect of the license agreement with CRIV or AALL. CRIV encouraged LexisNexis to adopt more narrowly targeted language to meet its goals, in lieu of language that prevents libraries from bringing potential issues to CRIV or AALL. LexisNexis responded that its non-disclosure language was unlikely to change.

CRIV inquired about LexisNexis’s current offerings of usage statistics, referencing a page on the topic TS-SIS has been curating. LexisNexis was invited to submit more specific information about its usage offerings for this page.

CRIV invited LexisNexis to contact the Vendor-Supplied Records Advisory Group and work with them on any MARC records LexisNexis provides.

CRIV reminded LexisNexis of the upcoming Vendor Roundtable at the Annual Meeting in Chicago. The event will be on Sunday, July 17th at 5:15 PM in the Hyatt Regency Acapulco Room.

LexisNexis informed CRIV that its move to agile development is resulting in more frequent updates and releases for LexisAdvance. LexisNexis encourages libraries to take a look at the visualization tool Legislative Outlook. LexisNexis also encourages libraries to keep an eye out for Search Term Maps, which will be rolling out broadly later in the summer.

CRIV will hold another call with LexisNexis in the Fall of 2016.

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SSRN Joins Mendeley and Elsevier

May 17, 2016 by 1 Comment

SSRN has announced that it is joining Mendeley and Elsevier.

Here’s the announcement on SSRN.

Here’s Elsevier’s blog post about it.

Both statements promise that SSRN users should face little disruption on the cost front. They also promise the entanglement will lead to new features (throwing Scopus out as an example of what might occur).

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Thomson Reuters Announcement of Case Errors on Westlaw and in Reporters

April 18, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Thomson Reuters sent out the following announcement regarding errors in cases they’ve published on Westlaw and in their case reporters. The announcement includes links to further details.

To our customers:

As part of our commitment to transparency, I wanted to alert you to some errors related to publishing cases in Westlaw® and our print volumes that we have now corrected.

In March, Thomson Reuters became aware that small portions of text were missing in a number of new cases posted to Westlaw due to the introduction of an upgrade to our PDF conversion process in November 2014. We immediately conducted an investigation, which revealed that approximately one-half of one percent (0.5%) of total decisions added to our collection during this period were affected by these issues. We have now corrected those cases on Westlaw and we will be shipping replacement print volumes to all affected customers as soon as possible. We will work closely with those customers to minimize any disruption.

Our analysis of the cases found that none of these issues resulted in any change to the meaning of the law. To provide clarity, we are posting examples of the issues, as well as a listing of all corrected cases, here. We will post all affected cases with corrections highlighted within the text.

Additional details and answers to common questions can be found here. If you have questions, please contact your sales representative or Thomson Reuters Customer Service at 1-800-249-9378.

We are very aware of our crucial role in supporting the U.S. legal system, and there is nothing more important to us than delivering the best possible solutions and customer service to you. Please accept our apologies for our errors. We are very sorry for the inconvenience.

Sincerely,

Andy Martens
Global Head of Product & Editorial

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CRIV/WoltersKluwer Semiannual Call

February 22, 2016 by Leave a Comment

On December 14th, 2015 CRIV had its first semiannual call with Wolters Kluwer.

There were no outstanding Requests for Advocacy involving WK products from the membership to discuss.

We discussed an ongoing project regarding MARC records. WK is creating MARC records for Intelliconnect and Cheetah. VRAG is working closely with WK to develop what the record should look like.

In terms of upcoming changes and developments- most content is moving over to the new platform, Cheetah. In addition, they recently changed brands. What used to be WK Law and Business will now be Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory Solutions U.S. The legal entity is still CCH Incorporated, but the business unit name has changed. The logo will not change.

WK stressed that they are very much interested in continuing to support AALL programming and educational activities. They would like to be on panels at the Annual Meeting.

Finally, our current liaison, Linda Dutton is retiring in February 2016, and a permanent replacement has not yet been named.

CRIV will hold another call with WK in Spring of 2016.

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CRIV/LexisNexis Semiannual Call

December 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment

On December 1 CRIV had its first semiannual call with LexisNexis. There were no outstanding Requests for Advocacy involving Lexis products from the membership to discuss. CRIV asked LexisNexis for clarification on who the primary contact should be for AALL members on any issues involving LexisNexis products and services outside the core Lexis.com and LexisAdvance. These include, but are not limited to, recent Lexis acquisitions (e.g. Lex Machina and Law360) and Lexis products primarily marketed overseas (e.g. JurisClasseur and LexisNexis Africa). CRIV was advised that AALL members should contact Library Relations Manager Cindy Spohr for all of these LexisNexis products and services. CRIV will update its Vendor Contact List to reflect this.

CRIV inquired about the timing of the transition from Lexis.com to LexisAdvance for federal government libraries. On the call Lexis confirmed that only a few federal agencies were unable to transition to LexisAdvance. Subsequently, on December 9, Lexis was able to confirm that all federal government libraries were eligible to transition to LexisAdvance. Any libraries with questions about this process should contact their LexisNexis Client Manager.

CRIV also asked for some clarification on the latest LexisNexis/ALM deal. LexisNexis has assured CRIV that the deal represents an extension of the status quo for most LexisNexis and ALM customers. Only the AmLaw200 libraries will see a significant change, which is that LexisNexis will be taking over for ALM as the Sales Team for ALM news products. CRIV will ensure its Vendor Contact List reflects this, as well.

LexisNexis wanted to ensure CRIV was aware of the recent LexisNexis acquisition of both MLex and Lex Machina. LexisNexis also wanted CRIV and the AALL membership to know that its releases for LexisAdvance will be more frequent, and that there will also be more minor updates between the major releases. These include the entire news archive being released in the first quarter of 2016, as well as better deduplication of news results. Finally, LexisNexis requested CRIV remind the membership of LexisNexis’s InfoPro newsletters, to keep libraries and customers up-to-date on the latest LexisNexis developments.

CRIV will hold another call with LexisNexis in Spring of 2016.

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AALL New Product Award

December 10, 2015 by Leave a Comment

The New Product Award has transitioned from being a project of CRIV to being handled by its own jury. They have send around the following announcement asking for this year’s nominations.

Have you discovered a new product that you think is great? Nominate it for the AALL New Product Award! Nominations may be submitted by librarian users or vendors. The deadline is February 1, 2016.

This award honors new commercial information products that enhance or improve existing law library services or procedures or innovative products which improve access to legal information, the legal research process, or procedures for technical processing of library materials. A “new” product is one which has been in the library-related marketplace for two years or less. New products may include, but are not limited to, computer hardware and/or software, educational or bibliographic material, or other products or devices that aid or improve library workflow, research, or intellectual access. Products that have been reintroduced in a new format or with substantial changes are eligible.

Details: http://www.aallnet.org/main-menu/Member-Resources/AALLawards/award-best.html
Application: http://www.aallnet.org/Documents/Awards/newproductform.pdf

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Lexis Acquires Lex Machina

November 23, 2015 by 1 Comment

Under the headline, “Lex Machina is Accelerating With LexisNexis,” Lex Machina announced this morning that it had been acquired by the larger corporation.

Robert Ambrogi discusses the deal (while it was still an unconfirmed rumor) here. His report of the confirmation of the deal is here.

Additional coverage from Bloomberg BNA is here.

Text of the announcement email from Lex Machina is below:

Today we’re excited to share that Lex Machina has agreed to be acquired by LexisNexis. We will continue to operate as a stand-alone entity within North American Research Solutions at LexisNexis Legal & Professional.

Lex Machina’s mission is to be bring Legal Analytics to all of the law. With the acquisition we will increase our ability to fulfill this mission and accelerate our timetable. As part of one of the largest and most successful content providers in the world, Lex Machina now has access to a vast collection of litigation documents. Leveraging this data on our Legal Analytics platform, we will be able to deliver unprecedented insights for attorneys of all areas of the law.

We will also be able to innovate faster and roll out more features and products to continue to help IP attorneys provide the best service to their clients, win more cases, and win more business. And we’ll gain additional resources to scale our engineering, customer success, and support teams, allowing us to focus even more on our customers.

All of us at Lex Machina are very excited about the road ahead. Please let us know if you have questions or would like to learn more about Legal Analytics.

Thank you,

Your Lex Machina Team

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LexisNexis and ALM Deepen Ties

November 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment

LexisNexis and ALM have extended their partnership for another five years. LexisNexis will remain the exclusive non-ALM home for ALM content and looks to be the primary provider for ALM archival content. In addition to access, the agreement also affects customer service and billing operations for some subscribers.

Jean O’Grady has a Q&A with ALM’s Molly Miller here.

Robert Ambrogi discusses the impact of this agreement, including his perspective as a former ALM author/editor here.

Thanks to PinHawk for the alert.

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Harvard and Ravel Law’s “Free the Law” Project

November 12, 2015 by Leave a Comment

The Free the Law project involves the digitization of Harvard Law’s entire case law collection, which will be available for free on Ravel. After eight years, the digitized collection will be available in bulk to anyone.

The press release is here. Ravel’s announcement on its blog (and accompanying video) is here.

Further details were published on Harvard Law Library blog, Et Seq.

The New York Times article announcing the project is here.

Seton Hall law professor Brian Sheppard had a more skeptical take (as to the “access to justice” angle, at least) here.

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Vendor News: Thomson Reuters Restructures Westlaw Account Rep Team

November 5, 2015 by 1 Comment

Yesterday afternoon at least some law schools received the following message from Brian Knudsen, Vice-President (Government Segment) at Thomson Reuters.

We are writing today to inform you of an upcoming change to the way Thomson Reuters supports our law school customers.  As we refocus our efforts in law schools, beginning with the new semester, academic account managers will become part of the larger customer team that focuses on government and undergraduate academic customers.

The integrated government and academic customer team will result in a significantly larger team that will support law schools, offering greater geographic coverage and flexibility during peak times.  In addition, we feel this change provides expanded opportunities for students and faculty to benefit from a team that works directly with practicing attorneys every day on Westlaw and software tools.  Your account management team will continue to provide the highest-quality support for Westlaw, TWEN and your law school programs to drive student success.

This change, while providing more resources to support your law school, will unfortunately result in some academic account managers losing their positions.  As you can imagine, decisions that affect the jobs of our employees are difficult.  It is our hope that as many affected employees as possible find a suitable position within Thomson Reuters.

An academic account manager will continue to work with you on scheduling and establishing goals for training, while continuing to support your students. Your academic account manager also will look for an opportunity soon to introduce you to the government account management team members who will help support your school.

At Thomson Reuters, we have a proud tradition of providing high-quality products and services to our law school customers.  Thank you for your support and feedback as we launch this enhanced approach to serving law schools and students.

All the best,

Brian Knudsen

Vice President, Government Segment

Lisa Schwie

Vice President, Government Sales and Account Management
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Vendor News: Fastcase Acquires LoisLaw

September 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Fastcase has purchased LoisLaw from WoltersKluwer. Robert Ambrogi broke the news on Law Sites after current Loislaw customers started receive notices of the change. Fastcase has confirmed it, and posted some FAQs on the transition.

It looks like Fastcase has expanded it customer base by acquiring the current LoisLaw subscriptions and brand. The legacy LoisLaw subscribers look like they’ll have an option to continue accessing WoltersKluwer treatises as long as they continue their subscriptions, but it doesn’t look like anything will change for current Fastcase subscribers (i.e., no new windfall of editorial content showing up on Fastcase).

Thank you to former CRIV Chair, Liz Reppe, for bringing this to my attention.

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Project COUNTER Survey

September 4, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Project COUNTER is soliciting feedback from libraries via a new survey:

We aim to improve the usage statistics that consortia and libraries receive from publishers and vendors and would like to hear from them about their requirements and priorities.

An online survey is available so that you can tell us your views. The survey will take around half-an-hour to complete. Attached for download is a PDF of the survey to enable data consultation before the online survey is completed.

We realise that we are asking libraries and consortia for some considerable input, but the information provided will enable us to improve the utility of COUNTER usage statistics.

The online survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YNL9YFX.

For what it’s worth, I was able to complete the survey in ten minutes.

Thank you to Margie Maes for bringing this to my attention.

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CRIV Advocacy Request Update: Law360 Articles in which Attorneys Have Been Quoted

September 3, 2015 by Leave a Comment

CRIV received a Request For Assistance regarding Law360 articles in which a firm’s attorney had been quoted in the text. The requesting librarian wanted a complimentary courtesy copy of the article to be provided to the firm in this situation.

CRIV spoke to Cindy Spohr, Senior Librarian Relations Marketing Manager for the LexisNexis Librarian Relations Group about this (Law360 was purchased by Lexis and is available as both an independent product and on Lexis platforms). Her response is below:

Law360 traditionally offers two different options for law firms, corporations, and/or other organizations interested in obtaining copies of articles where their attorneys have been quoted:

  • For Law360-original content in which an attorney or key practitioner has been quoted, the Law360-branded version can be purchased (similarly for wide distribution and marketing, subject to pre-agreed upon terms & conditions) at current rates for original Law360 content.
  • For our third-party-authored “Expert Analysis” content, interested parties may purchase a Law360-branded version of this for wide distribution and marketing (subject to pre-agreed upon terms & conditions) at specially discounted current rates for co-authored content.

If a firm / corporation / organization is interested in the content for internal firm use only, and does not need a publicly-distributable version, interested parties can contact Law360 directly at 646-783-7100 and talk to their account rep to get a copy of the article sent to them on an ad hoc basis simply for review (and not distribution) up to at most 5 times per year.

Librarians looking to get a free copy of a Law360 article in these situations should review the final paragraph of Ms. Spohr’s statement.

Thank you to Cindy Spohr for clarifying the policy.

If you have a similar issue or any issue that CRIV can assist with, please use our Request for Assistance form available at http://www.aallnet.org/mm/Advocacy/vendorrelations/CRIV-Tools/request-assistance.html.

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Need Assistance From CRIV? Submit Your Request Online!

August 24, 2015 by Leave a Comment

As you may already know, CRIV offers assistance with vendor-related issues to AALL members. AALL members who would like to make an official request for CRIV assistance are able to submit their requests using our form available at http://www.aallnet.org/mm/Advocacy/vendorrelations/CRIV-Tools/request-assistance.html. In addition to providing general information about the issue, members can upload supporting documents in the following formats:  Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, PDF, Text, and Word Perfect.

For more information and tips on Vendor Relations please visit http://www.aallnet.org/mm/Advocacy/vendorrelations.aspx.

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Sample Letters Available on CRIV Tools

August 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment

CRIV Tools is a part of the AALL website and is a great source for those librarians that may need assistance navigating vendor relations.  For example, CRIV Tools offers Sample Letters on issues ranging from COUNTER Compliance to the Return of Unsolicited Materials.  Additionally, the Sample Letters page offers tips and suggestions for written communication with vendors.

Sample Cancellation Letter

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