The biggest news in the legal publishing field is the sale of West to Thomson in February for $3.45 billion. If you've been paying any attention at all, you know: (1) this is not final; (2) the Dept. of Justice, considering this merger from an antitrust perspective, has not yet approved the merger (as of 4/24/96); (3) many law librarians have expressed their concern that, with this merger, competition in legal publishing will become even less and higher prices are sure to result, as they already have, e.g., the increase in cost of American Jurisprudence 2nd supplementation since Thomson purchased LCP; (4) law librarians have expressed their concern that AALL has not voiced an official opinion about the merger (read: doesn't AALL care?); (5) in legal publishing, there is (or will be) Thomson and the rest, the rest themselves being subject to purchase and merger; and, (6) isn't all this stuff (cases, etc.) on the Internet, for free? I don't claim that these are the only issues, but acquisitions librarians are probably concerned most with number (3), the possibility of increased costs. Where can you read about it? See Kendall F. Svengalis' article "Thomson Tightens the Vise" in vol. 22 #3 (Spring 1996) issue of State, Court & County Law Library Newsletter; also reprinted on Law-lib April 9, 1996. Mr. Svengalis has also recently published The Legal Information Buyer's Guide and Reference Manual, Rhode Island Press (17 Mosher Drive, Barrington RI 02806; 1996; $79.95). And, AALL does care. Pat Kehoe's President's Columns, which will appear in the AALL Newsletters (April and May issues), are reprinted on Law-lib April 17. Mr. Kehoe also had a posting on April 18 on Law-lib which further addressed this issue.

In looking over my recent columns for this newsletter, I note that I have written a lot about acquiring materials in media other than books. For those who are interested in updating their collection development policies to cover these materials, Library Collection Development Policies: a Reference and Writers' Handbook by Richard J. Wood and Frank Hoffman (Scarecrow Press, 1996) has some helpful information. Part One of this book covers "rationale, implementing a policy, and policy components of collection development policies." The CD-ROM format is addressed briefly at pages 40-41 and the reader is then referred to the policies of three libraries which are included in Part Two.

The California State University at Sacramento policy has collection development policies for books with software, electronic information services and goals, and network-based materials. There is also a form collection policy for media materials, which includes CD-ROM.

The New Mexico State University policy includes a section on budget, purchase negotiations and licensing of non-book materials. Perhaps most helpful and detailed is a checklist for electronic information resources which includes sections on selection criteria, product considerations, vendor considerations, and technical considerations.

Law library policies are represented by the Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas at Austin policy. Electronic format, cost, access, and ease-of-use are addressed.

Has the traditional materials budget changed to reflect the costs of purchasing other materials in the electronic age? Read Allen, Frank R., "Materials Budgets in the Electronic Age: A Survey of Academic Libraries", 57 College and Research Libraries 133 (March 1996). The author sent questionnaires to 230 academic libraries; 76.9 percent responded. To make a long story short, most of these academic libraries still allocate most of their budget to purchasing materials, not "nondata resources." "The survey defined the term materials budget as that pool of funds used in the library to acquire and provide access to materials and sources of information." The second question in the survey asked what "types of expenditures were funded out of the materials budget." Sixteen choices were given, beginning with the obvious (books, serials, videos, CD-ROM) and continuing on with, for example, computer hardware, computer software maintenance, OCLC, binding, ILL expenses, and wages. Allen states that it is these latter expenditures which libraries need to be concerned about, especially if the university or college administration believes that these costs can be absorbed in the traditional materials budget, with little increase in same.