This article compiles the results reported from informal surveys circulated via the ALL-SIS listserv from mid-May to the end of December 2010. Questions posed via the forum which received minimal response or which sought qualitative or narrative responses that could not be readily quantified have been omitted.
In this reporting period, by far the most discussion was engendered by a question regarding teaching Westlaw Next (WLN) versus classic or traditional Westlaw (WL). An inquiry on student wages also garnered numerous responses.
Legal Research Teaching & Materials
Question: Are any schools teaching WLN exclusively
Summary: 82 respondents –
| # responses | Also mentioned issues regarding … | |||
| … law firm adoption | … lack of printing | … missing content | ||
| Primarily or excl. WLN | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Both* | 42 | 11 | 4 | 3 |
| Primarily or excl. WL** | 29 | 7 | 2 | 0 |
No descr. of teaching |
4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 82 | 21 | 9 | 5 |
* currently teaching both or with firm plan to teach both
** currently teaching only “classic” WL with no plans to teach WLN
Source: Sara A. Sampson, Head of Reference at Georgetown Law Library.
Posted Nov. 10, 2010. Subject: The summary of “Is your school teaching only WestlawNext?”
Faculty/Student Services & Programs
Question: Wage scales for student library workers
Summary: 27 respondents –
Mean across all categories = $10.21
Median across all categories = $10.00
|
Number of responses* | ||||
| Pay rate** | Circulation, Clerical, etc. |
Supervisory, Filers, etc. |
RAs, law stu- dents, etc. |
total | |
| $7.25 | 3 | 3 | |||
| $7.50 | 2 | 2 | |||
| $8.00 | 1 | 1 | |||
| $8.10 | 1 | 1 | |||
| $8.15 | 1 | 1 | |||
| $8.25 | 1 | 1 | |||
| $8.50 | 3 | 3 | |||
| $8.95 | 1 | 1 | |||
| $9.00 | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||
| $9.50 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| $10.00 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 13 | |
| $10.30 | 1 | 1 | |||
| $10.50 | 1 | 1 | |||
| $11.00 | 1 | 1 | |||
| $11.30 | 1 | 1 | |||
| $12.00 | 1 | 4 | 5 | ||
| $12.32 | 1 | 1 | |||
| $12.63 | 1 | 1 | |||
| $12.00 | 3 | 3 | |||
| $12.20 | 1 | 1 | |||
| $13.00 | 1 | 1 | |||
| $21.13 | 1 | 1 | |||
| total | 48 | ||||
* Several responses stated different wages or wage ranges for different categories of workers, while others only specified a wage or wage range for one or two categories; thus the total number of responses (48) is higher than the number of respondents (27).
** Where wages for a category of workers was stated as a range, the arithmetic mean was used.
Source: Liz McCurry, Electronic Resources/Reference Librarian at Charlotte School of Law Library.
Posted: Aug. 6, 2010. Subject: Results from Student Worker survey