Law Libraries Respond to Changes in ABA Reporting

In the seven years that I've been a law librarian, ABA reporting for law libraries has made a fairly dramatic shift from measuring inputs to measuring outputs.

Chapter 6 of the Standards, along with most of the Standards, now places an emphasis on outcomes instead of inputs. For libraries, that means an analysis of how well the patrons of a library are being served rather than how much we spend for various activities, and much of the information now required comes from the sabbatical site visits rather than from annual information on expenditures or staff.

One of my colleagues recently pointed out that during an ABA site visit, law libraries must highlight how our patrons are being served. As the physical collections shrink, we need to focus more on customer service.  

This same colleague opined that, on the horizon, law school administrator's will look at this [measuring outputs only] as another opportunity to slash library budgets particularly in regard to print. Outside of state-specific needs, this will effectively kill print collections. The library of the future will be vested in digital collections accessible anywhere for the convenience of our patrons, a smaller footprint on the campus due to decreased need for stacks ,and the need to create more modular space as needed to accommodate different sized study groups, for example. We will also need to offer the latest technologies to draw users into our space. High speed internet, movable digital white boards, etc.  The need for expert librarians that know how to navigate and manage the digital collections is where library administrators will need to vest their political capital within the law school. Even this will come under pressure as IBM's Watson grows more proficient. It is a rapidly changing environment.

For a fairly prescient discussion of law libraries in the digital age, see this article on The Virtual Academic Law Library. Of particular interest is the SWOT analysis near the end.  

With this perfect storm brewing, it is time to start analyzing our law libraries' own strengths and weaknesses in our brave new world.

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