Books Are Dead, Long Live Books?

The idea of discussing collecting foreign, comparative, and international law (FCIL) materials with a "books are dead" paradigm came from a non-FCIL librarian colleague who has worked in a law firm library setting where the paradigm is in play. Law firm libraries have been reducing their print collections and focusing more on electronic resources. Academic law libraries are experiencing space crunches, sometimes as a result of library space being repurposed for other law school uses. One of the reasons driving this "library space recovery" move is the philosophy that "books are dead" - no one uses print resources any more as everything they need is available in electronic format. And if something they need is not in electronic format, it might as well not exist as law researchers won't use them anyway. Hence, "books are dead" or might as well be dead. Therefore, law libraries do not need to provide space for books.

So, what does the "books are dead" paradigm mean for the present and future of foreign, comparative, and international law (FCIL) collection development? How do we go about building non-book FCIL collections that meet the research needs of users today?

In this blog discussion, I'll talk generally about the implications of a "books are dead" paradigm are generally to law libraries.

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Lyo.