Law Libraries Spurn Sizable Publisher Sponsorship

AALL protests Thomson-West's withdrawal from its Price Index

Lynn Blumenstein -- Library Journal, 08/12/2009

• AALL invokes "right of refusal" in declining West sponsorship
• West rep says Price Index is no longer accurate
• Law librarians speak out about prices, packaging

Thomson-West, the staple supplier of resources for law librarians, for the first time in recent memory wasn’t a gold sponsor ($75,000+) at the recent American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) annual meeting, July 25-28, 2009, in Washington, D.C. 

The reason? Not because of budget cutbacks. According to Joe Hodnicki, an editor of the Law Librarian Blog (LLB), AALL’s executive board decided not to accept any sponsorship dollars from Thomson-West. At issue is West’s refusal to provide pricing information for AALL's annual Price Index for Legal Publications (available to AALL members only).

AALL spurns West sponsorship
In a post to the law-lib discussion list on August 6, AALL executive director Kate Hagan’s explained, "AALL did ask West to participate in the Price Index this year, but they declined to do so. Therefore, we did not accept any sponsorship from them for the 2009 Annual Meeting. This policy does not prohibit West from exhibiting at the Annual Meeting or from advertising in our publications."

AALL’s sponsorship policy allows for "the right to refuse any offer of sponsorship at its absolute discretion."

West defends withdrawal from Price Index
Anne Ellis, senior director, librarian relations, Thomson-Reuters, responded August 7 to several law library discussion lists, agreeing with Hagan’s explanation for West’s sponsorship absence. 

She explained, "It has been West’s position for many years that the retail pricing model laid out by the Price Index for Legal Publications does not accurately reflect the prices our customers typically pay… we approach pricing on an account-by-account basis – which, by the way, is not uncommon in the industry."

Anger over costs, pricing structures
This situation has brought some long-simmering hostilities to the fore which may shed some light on AALL’s action. Law librarians have been long frustrated by rising prices and convoluted price structures, as demonstrated by comments on LLB.

Hodnicki, Butler County Law Library (Hamilton, OH) director, wrote," Finally (Hopefully) Some Backbone from AALL… "It’s time to tell the Company that business as usual is unacceptable; that a 32.1 percent operating profit margin is unacceptable."

Joe K. Stephens, law librarian, State of Oregon Law Library, concurred: "Only West is so disingenuous as to insist that their published prices do not reflect their real prices because of the wonderful breaks they give us on pricing... If this feeble line of argument is the best West can offer in explanation of their willingness to destroy the price index, then we will draw our own conclusions… I suggest that perhaps we are the best judges as to whether the price index is useful to us."

Hodnicki ultimately concluded that both sides must work together for practical reasons, hoping for a middle ground so law librarians can "judge the pricing of different vendors--especially since most of us have to present these complicated pricing models to attorneys and administrators."

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