Just when  we all thought libraries were shrinking, along comes the new health care law . The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 clocks in at over 2,000 pages. I have always wondered about the ratio between the length of a statute and the volume of regulations it’s implementation will generate. Well we may have the beginnings of a metric. Yesterday I came across a photo of the health care regulations which have been generated by the Affordable Care Act  to date. As of March 13th, the new health care law has generated 20,000 pages of regulations.So the working ratio at this point is that 10 pages of regulations are generated  for every one page of law. 

Could this result in major reshifts of libraries as we try to make room for  the additional volumes of CFR?

 Could These Regs be Tipping Point for eBooks?

Since the IRS will be enforcing compliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, I am trying to envision now many volumes will be added to the already massive IRS code and regs which is compiled into a 9 volume set by one major publisher.  Will publishers be issuing the new  tax code  and regulation’s sending the books with wheeled brief case?  Or —will the sheer weight of the tax laws and regulations accelerate the adoption of eBooks by the legal profession.?