We (small solicitors firm) have just lost our admin/HR manager and her jobs are being redistributed, one of things I’m looking at is our reference library. We spend quite a lot on books for stuff that isn’t used much so I was wondering if there’s somewhere that has stuff online that we can subscribe to rather than ordering hard copies?

Just use PLC.

(And loads of the publishers hold stuff online too – Lexis Nexis, Butterworths, etc.)

Sorry chap what’s PLC?

We use Lexis Nexis as our main supplier at the moment, have had a look at their online library and one of the fee earners is going to have a go with their free trial to see if it is any good.

Don’t forget the good old National Library, the NLS has loads of electronic journals on “walk-in” access so I hear. Not sure if English one is the same.

As I recall from the olden days of academic librarianship legal periodicals and books tend to be pricier. Must be that hourly rate when they write the articles.

Another vote for plc (practicallaw.com) although it depends on your practice area. I use it far more than lexis which we also have but which I don’t find nearly as useful.

try these chaps, an answer for everything

http://singletrackworld.com/

some university libraries have memberships for the public. I don’t know if they would include access to the online databases and catalogues (like nexis), but it might be worth a look and could work out cheaper.

Subscriptions to this stuff is a nightmare: it’s easy to get sucked into costly subs for stuff that strongly-opinionated people think is useful but never actually used by the drones that do most of the research. Don’t exclude the possibility of buying per-article if you don’t use subscription services that much. Do get LexisNexis/WestLaw in to give you free training – if you have it, you might as well use it.

I assume you’re also fully conversant with BaILII? And do you have a good law school library nearby?

Must be that hourly rate when they write the articles.

You don’t get paid hourly rate when writing chapters/sections/articles – it’s an honour and a matter of prestige to do it (at least, that is what the partner tells the junior when they’re given this dogturd of a non-billable task in which the partner gets the byline/CV credit). There might be a fee involved but unless you’re some small town practitioner it’s not nearly as worthwhile as billable work.

Another vote for plc (practicallaw.com) although it depends on your practice area. I use it far more than lexis which we also have but which I don’t find nearly as useful.

Even when I worked in a v big firm with piles of know-how and PSLs, I still used PLC as my first port of call.

It does depend on practice area, and can be a PITA to find what you want now and again, but being inhouse it’s my only source of know-how (and the 2 or 3 intelligent colleagues I have…).

I know konabunny (holds up sarcasm sign)