Collection development/management
One of the greatest impacts of technology in academic law library is the transformation of legal materials from print to electronic; as a result there is total reliance on the new format. This chapter identifies the types of legal materials that are found in the collection of an academic law library. It describes the steps that are taken to acquire and manage collections in these libraries including foreign, comparative and international law materials.
Keywords
Collection development policy; primary resources; secondary resources; library budget; legal publishing; foreign; comparative and international law
The law library collection
The academic law library collection is distinctly unique but very expensive to manage and update. Unique in the sense that some the materials being used in the law school library are the ones the law students continue to use when they graduate and start working as practitioners. Law reports and statute books are common tools that are used by legal practitioners as they need to cite precedents from these materials in order to be successful in their career.
Materials found in academic law libraries
It is important for any librarian working in the law library to understand the nature of the collection. A librarian should be able to identify and know how to work with these materials. Reference librarians will be required to show students how to work with different materials. Technical service librarians will be interested in being able to identify the materials whether they are responsible for ordering or cataloguing; they should be able to distinguish between a book, journal, law report or an electronic resource. Law materials come in both print and electronic formats; but lately there has been a drastic impact through technological advancements as many resources are now available electronically. Many academic law libraries have replacing them with a large number of their print subscriptions, mostly journals and law reports online versions. Users of the academic law library will be interested in using the identified materials for their research. Because the law is constantly changing and new legislation is being passed all the time, academic law libraries need to regularly update their collection. Smith (2010) noted that the law is an integral part of a constantly evolving social landscape and a study of the law promotes accuracy of expression. Legal researchers constantly want to keep abreast of any new developments in their research areas so it is important to always keep track of any newly published materials especially in newer subject areas.
Legal materials are classified as Primary and Secondary sources in most Common Law countries.
Primary sources are very important in the collection of every academic law library. They constitute the persuasive and binding authority of lawmakers and the court. Cohen and Olson (2013) describe primary resources as the official pronouncements of governments and lawmakers that form the basis of the legal doctrine. In the legal profession there is a lot of emphasis and reliance on judicial precedents and statute law or the principle of stare decisis. This is a standard skill-set of a lawyer; the ability to be able to persuade the court with other cases in order to win an argument. New statutes and regulations are being written and modified all the time; they will be referred to by the courts and applied by government to the citizens.
Primary sources
Primary sources contain the actual statement of the law. They are the original work of lawmakers and members of the judiciary. They can be found in bills, statutes, regulations, law reports, constitutions and treaties.
Law reports – Law reports contain decisions and judgments of the courts, with some published by the courts and others available through commercial publishers. In some jurisdictions there are official publishers of law reports. One example is the Supreme Court of Canada which publishes its judgments in the Supreme Court Law Reports. Note that this law report contains only cases that are heard in the Supreme Court of Canada. Other commercial law reports such as the Dominion Law Report will also carry reports of the Supreme Court of Canada in their publication with permission. There is also the All England Law Reports which are published by a commercial publisher. This law report contains cases heard in different levels of courts in United Kingdom from the House of Lords to the high courts. In the United States, West Publishing is the leading publisher of case reporters and is organized by geographical location.
Matters heard before administrative tribunals are also available in print through commercial publishers or published by the tribunals. In the digital age, many of these decisions are available on their websites. Selected courts and administrative tribunal decisions for some jurisdictions are available on Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) such as AustLII, BaiLII, CanLII, SafLII among others.
Unreported judgments or cases – It is important to understand that not all cases that are heard in courts are reported or published in law reports; these cases are referred to as unreported judgments. This means that cases that fall under this category will not be found in any law report. In some jurisdictions law reporters will only publish the cases that are heard by the highest court of the jurisdiction. These unreported judgments can only be accessed by being requested directly from the court houses. LexisNexis Quicklaw carries a lot of unreported decisions from Canadian provincial courts in its database. The LIIs such as AustLII, BaiLII and CanLII all make available unreported judgments from some jurisdictions. And in Nigeria the practice is for law reports to publish cases heard before the highest courts: the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the Federal Court of Appeal, and not those of the lower courts.
Legislation – Legislation is made for the citizens by publicly elected officers. They include statutes, regulations and legislative materials. Statutes are laws that are made through the law-making process which differ in every jurisdiction. Regulations are subordinate legislation that provide the details of how a statute is enforced by the government.
Legislative materials include bills, debates, committee reports and journals.
Bills are part of the law-making process and they include all the details of how a law came into existence. They include all the discussions that took place among law-makers before they agreed to write the law. In some instances where a bill does not become law, the bill gives the history of why this happened and it then becomes a reference for the future. The bill-making process varies in each jurisdiction which means that the number of pages and the format may vary.
Debates are published transcription of conversations that take place in the legislature of different countries. These debates give the details of what each law-maker said in the law-making process.
Committee reports and journals provide details of questions that are asked by law-makers in the law-making process. They help citizens understand the reasons why a law was promulgated in the first place; these reports and journals describe the activities of the law-makers who reviewed the law and drafted it.
Treaties – Treaties are documents that contain agreements that are signed between countries. They constitute binding agreements between nation states on mutually agreed upon interests such as trade, immigration, employment among others.
Gazettes & Government Documents – These are government publications containing announcements about government activities including the promulgation of legislation. For example, in Canada, Part II of the Canada Gazette contains Regulations while Part III contains the Acts of Parliament. In smaller jurisdictions in Africa, South America and the Caribbean available government documents are limited to government gazettes, Hansards and committee reports. Most government documents for the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and the European countries are now mostly available in electronic format.
Case law and legislation are available through different sources. They are available through the courts, government printers and commercial publishers. In many jurisdictions especially Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and the United States legislation is made available electronically on government websites; the turnaround time for making new laws available is usually very fast, ranging from two business days to one month. The Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) of the world also make legislation and case law freely available on the Internet. The government sites and legal information institutes provide access to primary resources dating from the early and late 1990s to the present. One of the developments in legal publishing is for commercial publishers and academic institutions to make available in digital format historical and early law reports and legislation. For example, HeinOnline provides access to digitized historical legislation and legislative materials for the United States. Also, LLMC Digital has digitized several volumes of historical legislation and case law from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries such as Nigeria, Kenya and selected countries in the English-speaking Caribbean.
The following is a list of government websites that provide access to primary resources:
Federal justice - http://laws.justice.gc.ca/
This is the website of the federal government of Canada and it provides access to federal laws. It is available in English and French. Each province has its own website and they are linked to the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII).
Bills & Debates - http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/
This is the website of the Parliament of Canada and it provides access to bills and debates before the Senate of Canada and the House of Commons.
Legislation – http://www.legislation.gov.uk
This website carries the official statutes for the United Kingdom, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Bills – http://www.parliament.co.uk
This website provides access to bills that are before the Parliament with an archive of the earlier ones.
Legislation & Bills - https://beta.congress.gov/
This is the website of the United States Congress with access to legislation, congressional record and committee proceedings.
Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) – The Legal Information Institutes is a collaborative project that provides free access to legal information on the Internet. It covers about 123 jurisdictions and I have chosen to discuss the selected ones below:
Australian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) – This database provides access to legal information of Australia, including secondary sources.
Asian Legal Information Institute (AsianLII) – AsianLII covers 28 Asian countries providing access to legislation, case law, law reform reports and law journals.
British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BaiLII) – BaiLII contains case law, legislation, books and law commission reports for the United Kingdom, England & Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Ireland, Court of Justice of the European and the European Court of Human Rights. This database uniquely highlights leading case law by subject.
Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) – CanLII provides access to legislation and case law from the Supreme Court of Canada, Federal courts, provincial courts and administrative tribunals. It features noting up tools that can help researchers find the latest updates to legislation as well as offering tools that identify cases that have cited sections of a legislation and legislation that is cited in cases.
Commonwealth Legal Information Institute (CommonLII) – This database provides access to case law and legislation from 60 Commonwealth and common law countries. CommonLII also includes access to the English Reports 1220–1873. Many of the Commonwealth countries are developing countries where law reporting and publication of legislation is very inconsistent therefore making it difficult to access; but the collaborative efforts of the legal information institutes has assisted in creating free access to them.
South African Legal Information Institute (SAFLII) – SAFLII provides access to case law, legislation and secondary resources from 16 southern and eastern African countries. This includes materials from regional institutions like the East African Court of Justice.
Cornell Legal Information Institute (CornellLII) – CornellLII provides access to United States Code, Supreme Court decisions, Code of Federal Regulations and other state legal materials. One of its unique features is the Wex legal dictionary and encyclopedia.
Legal Information Institute of India (LIIofIndia) – This is one of the newer additions to the legal information movement. It provides access to the Indian Code, state legislation, case law from the Supreme Court, High Courts and tribunals, treaties and journals. LIIofIndia features LawCite, a tool which shows the citation history of cases, legislation and articles.
World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) – WorldLII provides a single search engine for legal information from AustLII, BaiLII, CanLII, HKLII, Cornell LII and PacLII.
Many law libraries rely on these websites because of the extensive coverage especially for foreign jurisdictions and so you will find that some academic law libraries have cancelled some of their major subscriptions as a result of this development.
Secondary sources
Secondary sources contain the opinion of specialists and experts in various areas of the law. Secondary sources provide current and up-to-date information about cases and legislation; they are usually the first step in legal research as they help the researcher to understand the legal issue. A legal encyclopedia, for example, provides a broader definition and explanation of an issue by pointing and referring the reader to available legislation, case law and books. These sources are simply explanations of the law and are often cited in courts, especially if their authors are considered leading authorities in that subject area. Secondary sources are therefore considered as persuasive authority since they can influence the decisions of judges. Examples of secondary sources include:
Textbooks and treatises – They are usually written by leading authorities in the subject matter who could be academics, legal practitioners and judges. Note that there are student textbooks and practitioners’ texts. In many cases students’ textbooks are easily worded explaining the principles of law citing legislation and case law; whereas practitioners’ books are for legal practitioners and explain the theories and forms of practice. Depending on the library’s budget, practitioners’ texts may not necessarily be acquired by academic law libraries unless some titles are explicitly requested by faculty or the accreditation requirements. Textbooks come in bound or loose-leaf formats.
Law journals – They are published by law schools, bar associations and commercial legal publishers. Law journals are an invaluable component of an academic law library. The content of the articles published in law journals cover most of the current issues and ongoing debates in law. Cohen and Olson (2013) described academic legal journals as a major forum where legal academics debate and develop theories. The content of a law journal includes articles, commentaries on current leading cases and book reviews. Many leading law schools in the world publish at least one law journal named after their institution. Law journals are different from journals from other disciplines because they are usually published by law schools and edited by the students with faculty advisers. Student editors gather a lot of research experience while working in these roles and also build their research skills.
The latest trend in the digital age is for some law journals to be made available only electronically, especially on open access initiative websites. Examples of these journals include – Web Journal of Current Legal Issues (http://webjcli.org/) and the German Law Journal (http://www.germanlawjournal.com/). HeinOnline provides the largest online access to digitized journals and law reviews dating back to the 19th century.
Legal Periodical Indexes – Indexes help legal researchers to efficiently locate journal articles. Some of the indexes contain abstracts while others provide full text access to the articles. Examples of legal periodical indexes include LegalTrac, Legal Source formerly called Index to Legal Periodicals, Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, and Index to Canadian Legal Periodicals.
Legal encyclopedias – Legal encyclopedias provide extensive and detailed explanations of the theories and issues of law using references on how they have been applied in case law, legislation, articles and textbooks. They are usually published as multiple volume series and are updated with new areas and topics of law. Each volume covers different subjects of law and the authors are leading experts in these areas. The most common series of legal encyclopedia published in many Commonwealth countries is the Halsburys Laws series; there are the Halsburys Laws of England, Halsburys Laws of Australia, Halsburys Laws of Singapore, Halsburys Laws of Nigeria and the most recent is the Halsburys Laws of Canada.
Other examples of legal encyclopedias are the American Jurisprudence which focuses on the law of the United States and the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest.
There are also practice encyclopedias which contain forms and precedents that are used by legal practitioners but may be needed in academic law libraries. Examples of these include the Encyclopedia of Forms and Precedents and O’Brien’s Encyclopedia of Forms and Precedents. These volumes contain samples and templates of forms that are used by legal practitioners such as contract forms and court forms.
Law dictionaries – Legal terminologies are different and can be complex as some of the words originate from the Roman and Latin languages. Law dictionaries provide the definition, meaning and translations of these terminologies.
Examples of law dictionaries include the following:
1. Black’s Law Dictionary – This dictionary predominantly covers legal terminologies of the United States.
2. Osborne’s concise law dictionary (the first edition is available for free on the Internet archives - https://archive.org/details/conciselawdictio030371mbp) – It covers legal terminologies from the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries.
3. Stroud’s Judicial Dictionary of Words and Phrases – This is a practitioner’s dictionary but is used in academic law libraries as well. It covers the terminologies of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries.
4. The Dictionary of Canadian Law – It covers the legal terminologies for Canada
5. The Nigerian Law Dictionary – It covers the legal terminologies for Nigeria.
Theses and dissertations – These are the academic publications of post-graduate submitted to the institution as part of the requirements to fulfil the completion of advanced degrees. They constitute a fundamental resource for students in the graduate program. Depending on the library policy they are usually bound volumes found in a separate area of the collection or in the institutional repository. More recently theses and dissertations are being digitized by individual institutions and are available electronically; some institutions have partnered with Proquest who make it available as part of a database.
Audiovisual resources – These resources come in the form of microfiche, microform, videos, CDs, DVDs. Legal fiction is available on DVDs and they are very popular and heavily used in many academic law libraries. A lot of historical legal materials are available in microform and microfiche. Videos and CDs have become obsolete with more emphasis on DVDs, talking books, online streaming etc.
Special Collections – The materials designated as Special Collections in most academic law libraries include older materials originally published from the jurisdiction where the library is located that are over 100 years old, faculty publications, casebooks, manuscripts, reports and festschrifts. Each library has its own policy for materials to be found in this area of the library. Depending on the size of the library, Special Collections materials are stored in a room inside the library or in a special part of the library and there are restrictions and special policies for user access.
Past Exams – Students often want to consult past examination question papers. The law library will usually coordinate with the Student Services Department of the School to make them available. The latest trend is to digitize them and make them available through the student’s portal on the Law School’s website.
Loose-leaf materials
Because of the changing nature of the law, some publications have to be updated periodically as soon as new information is available or changes are made to the law. Loose-leaf materials are issued as updates to whole works, this requires that the new information is added and the old one is discarded. The rising costs of these materials have seen them gradually being phased out in academic law libraries as subscriptions to many of these titles are being discontinued.
The traditional format of primary and secondary legal resources was originally print; however with technological advancements, the legal publishing industry has introduced significant transformation with the introduction of new formats. Electronic books are very common among legal publishers such as Oxford, Cambridge, Irwin Law Books, LexisNexis Butterworths, Thomson Reuters, HeinOnline among others. The academic law librarian must understand the trends in legal publishing in order to be able to recommend and acquire materials in the collection.
The academic law library collection is defined by the following:
1. Library Budget – The size and amount of the library budget plays a highly significant role in defining the size of its collection. The amount of money that is available in the budget will be the yardstick for measuring how much will be spent on collections. In a centralized system the law library is treated as a branch library and will get the same amount as the other libraries in the system. Depending on the administrative structure, the law library may not necessarily receive more funding even though materials are known to be very expensive and highly priced. In an autonomous administrative system there will be direct input and control from the Law School on the law library’s budget. This will also depend on the level of support given to the library by the Law School’s administration. Some Law Schools have been fortunate to have library-centric, proactive and supportive Deans who always fund the law library from any fundraising initiative they have embarked on. However, the bottom line is that the more funding that the library has at its disposal, the more it is able to spend on acquiring materials for its collection. Academic law libraries worldwide have been severely impacted by declining economies and this has resulted in library closures and assimilation of law collection with the main library collection.
2. Courses offered in the Law Program – Law Schools tend to have different subject focus depending on the specialization or areas of research of their professors and research, which means that they don’t have the same course offerings. However, note that there are some compulsory courses which are taught in universally all schools such as Constitutional, Criminal, and Legal Writing and Research Some law schools may have faculty with research interests in International Law, Employment and Labour Law, Legal History, Intellectual Property and Corporate Law. As a result, the course offerings may be centred on these subject areas. This implies that the library collection must be very strong in these areas. If the law school is offering graduate programs, steps must be taken to ensure that the collection is able to support the needs of students in this program.
3. Requirements of Accrediting Bodies – As discussed in chapter one, accrediting bodies have a strong role to play in the existence of law programmes all over the world. One of the standards and a requirement of the accreditation bodies is that academic law libraries should have specific materials in their collection. These standards vary in each jurisdiction; in some instances, these organizations provide lists of required materials that they expect to find in these libraries. Academic law libraries in the United States and Nigeria continue to ensure that their libraries meet these standards.
4. Number of Students – The number of students in a program plays a critical role in determining the number of copies that the library will acquire for its collection. These numbers have a strong influence on decisions when signing contracts for electronic access for multiple users or multiple copies of heavily-used and core materials.
Managing academic library collections
Collection development is the building and managing of the library’s collection in print and electronic format. Technological advancements have seen the transition of many law resources in electronic and digital formats. Gregory (2011) observed that: “The fast-growing user preference for electronic resources has severely impacted the collection development budgets of most libraries. Because the new electronic library resources usually do not completely supplant existing materials, purchasing them does not eliminate the cost of buying print formats.” The trend is shifting towards having an electronic law library collection can be attributed to the following reasons:
1. Shrinking library budgets – The financial climate continues to impact organizational budgets and this does not leave out libraries in academic institutions, law firms, judiciaries and other types of law libraries. In addition to shrinking library budgets, academic libraries have been faced with high exchange and inflation rates as many materials are acquired from overseas. As a result many law library directors or administrators have been forced to weigh their options when making collection development decisions.
2. Reductions of library space – Many law libraries have experienced space reduction which has mostly resulted in the loss of shelf space. In some academic law libraries where the library is situated in the law school building, library space has been taken over to accommodate the law school’s needs. While in law firms, the cost of real property has forced many organizations to reduce library space to accommodate their financial constraints. In either of these situations, the introduction of electronic and digital formats is a supportive alternative method of providing library resources to users. However, in the academic library where library space is still a necessity, it has continued to be a major challenge when the library is unable to provide adequate study space for its users. However, some may argue that library space may be irrelevant as many of the library collection are now available electronically and as a result users may not need to physically go to the library.
3. Trends in legal publishing – As mentioned earlier in this chapter, a lot has changed in the legal publishing industry in the last decade with technological advancements. A librarian managing a law library collection should have a sound knowledge of and high level of familiarity with trends in legal publishing. A strong business acumen combined with negotiating skills will be helpful and useful during the collection, development and management process. Legal publishing over the years has seen a lot of technological improvements such as the extinction of formats like the CD-ROM and the introduction of online and digital space with perpetual ownership. The advent of the Internet paved the way for information being freely available, legal materials can be accessed anywhere and anytime. Legal publishers have continued to digitize legal materials by giving varying options to academic law libraries. The trend now is for academic law libraries to rely more on electronic information. Bernstein and Canaan (2013) have concluded that as more information is provided electronically, the day of the print collection is fast becoming a thing of the past. With changes in world of legal publishing, academic law libraries are left with no other choice but to adapt to these developments. Many law reports, law journals and statute books have been digitized which means that academic law library directors have no other option than to subscribe to them. Then there are the legal information institutes that are making this information available on the Internet for free. An example of this is the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) funded by practicing lawyers in Canada. CanLII provides access to Canadian cases and legislation from the Federal, provincial and territorial governments. The availability of these resources even though they do not carry historical information will help supplement access to legal information in the era where libraries are facing significant budgetary cuts and space challenges.
A librarian working in academic law libraries needs a clear understanding and knowledge of all the issues that may impact the management of the library's collection. Law Schools tend to create and introduce additional programs and courses. The librarian needs to plan the library budget accordingly to accommodate these demands.
Law library collection development policy
A collection development policy is a document that defines and describes what the library acquires in its collection. This document will identify the library’s objectives in building its collections to support the law school’s academic objectives. Having a collection development policy is a professional way of building and managing the library’s collection. According to Gregory (2011) the purposes of a collection development policy are to inform and direct library processes in acquiring and making resources available to users as well as serving as a protection for the library against challenges to its procedures and resources. This means that the collection development policy protects the library from challenges arising from complaints of library users about the library collection. Pickett et al (2011) described collection development policies as an effective communication tool and a document that helps libraries demonstrate accountability to its stakeholders. Garavaglia (2013) defined the collection development policy as a blueprint or architectural drawing needed to build the collection. In the United States the ABA accreditation standard Section 606–6 requires that law school libraries should create and formulate collection development policies for their collection.
The collection development policy should be written by the head of the library after due consultation with librarians and library staff. The input of faculty members who may be members of the Library Committee may be very relevant when preparing the document. It is critical and important to have the input of librarians and library staff as they are the ones dealing directly with library users and will have an idea of the usage of library materials. For example, reference librarians will know how often they refer students or faculty to some databases, circulation staff will have an idea of how often particular books were charged out as well as the number of holds and be able to recall the demand for certain titles by users at the Circulation Desk. Technical services librarians and staff will be able to add their input on the usage statistics of databases received from vendors and service providers. Faculty input is important because they will be able to lend their voice at management meetings or when necessary to justify why the law library budget must be consistently increased every financial year.
A good collection development policy will help define the scope and breadth of materials and resources available in the library. This policy will be drafted with the specializations and needs of its users in mind. In other words, acquisition of materials will be made to support the law school’s curriculum and the research focus of the faculty. For example, in an academic or research law library, the collection development policy will feature the research areas of the law school professors, its graduate and undergraduate students and research centres that are affiliated with the law school. In the law firm, the collection development policy will focus on the practice areas and specializations of the practitioners. Collection development policies should be updated periodically and as needed; they should not be personalized to the likes and dislikes of library administrators. For example, a typical collection development policy should include the continuous acquisition of the primary resources for the jurisdiction such as law reports and statutes. Or the compulsory acquisition of materials published by law professors in that institution in the case of an academic law library.
Suggested guidelines that can be considered when writing a collection development policy for an academic law library:
• Identify your users – This involves the library director and the librarians identifying the primary users of the library collection and the purpose. For example, in an academic library, the practice is to identify faculty, undergraduate, post-graduate and researchers as the primary users of the collection. This section of the policy may also need to identify and highlight the strong areas of research in that institution. In some law schools there may be more focus on taxation and constitutional or corporate law by the faculty, in which case the collection will be very strong in those areas.
• Identify the format of materials to be acquired – This part of the policy may address decisions on the type of format that the library will acquire whether it is in print or in electronic. This decision is usually determined by the amount of funding available in the library’s budget, the availability of library space and the price of the resources. Given the trend in legal publishing with digitized periodicals such as journals, law reports and statutes; many academic law libraries are opting for electronic versions rather than print.
• Assign collection development responsibilities to librarians – In large academic law libraries, where you have about 4 or 5 professional librarians the practice is to assign subject areas for them to maintain. They will work under the guidance and consultation of the library director who gives approval and signs off on their recommendations. These librarians sometimes work with faculty members when they are making selections in their subject areas so as to get a specialist opinion. However, in smaller law libraries, collection development tasks will be the sole responsibility of the Manager/Librarian.
• Make policies on the number of copies – It is a good practice to have a written policy on the number of copies to be purchased when buying print materials. Again, this is determined by the size of the library’s budget, the number of users and space available for library growth. This will include policies on the number of copies the library will be acquiring for course readings.
• Identify a policy on gifts, replacements and weeding – It is always helpful to have a clearly written policy on the library’s practice of gifts and donations. It is a common practice for libraries to receive donations of all kinds from different donors, especially estates of legal practitioners or retired legal practitioners; but clearly not all the materials will be useful to the library. A common practice is to have the donor send an itemized list with the titles that they wish to donate. A library may decide to accept some titles that are not available at all in its collection or it may decide to replace stolen or damaged copies of certain titles but usually it is best to see the list and identify what is useful and relevant. Librarians should learn to turn down donations and gifts to their collections. In this section of the policy, it may be helpful to identify when library titles that are damaged or missing from the collection should be replaced. For example, if certain pages are missing from the 1st edition of a required title in the reading list; should the library look to buying the 1st edition from a used book seller or buy the latest edition of this title? This part of the policy should also state when the library will weed out its collection. Weeding as a library activity is discussed in a latter part of this book. This will include statements on whether the newer editions of textbooks will be moved from the Reserve collection to the General collection.
• Identify a policy on Special Collections and Rare Books – Many law libraries have designated materials that are categorized as “special collections and rare books” but this definition varies in different countries. A part of the collection development policy forms a great place to define and identify the components of this section of the library’s collection.
• Make a policy on when the collection development document will be updated. It is important to identify how often the document will be revised even though there should be a level of flexibility as new situations arise all the time.
• Identify cooperative agreements with other institutions. Academic law libraries usually have mutual agreements with law libraries to loan each other materials from their collections. These agreements usually ensure that the loan period for the materials borrowed is implemented by the lending library.
Pickett et al noted that many libraries do not commit the time and labour required to write collection development policies, nor review and update them. While sharing their experience about the revival of the collection development policy statement at Texas A&M University, they suggested that long-term planning that targets the promotion and management of this tool will evolve with the organization and not become an optional activity. It is important that the collection development policy should be reviewed and modified periodically to regularly adapt to changing circumstances, according to Knudsen (2011).
Collection development policy documents for most academic law libraries in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom are available on their websites. Law libraries in the following leading law schools have made their collection development policies available on the Internet:
1. Lilian Goldman Law Library, Yale University
3. Goodson Law Library, Duke University Law School
4. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Law Library
5. Cornell University Law Library
6. Edward Bennett Williams Law Library, Georgetown University
7. Kresge Law Library, University of Notre Dame
8. Washington University Law School Library
2. Squire Law Library, Cambridge University
3. Bodleian Law Library, Oxford University
1. Nahum Gelber Law Library, McGill University
2. Osgoode Hall Law School, York University
3. William R. Lederman Law Library, Queen’s University
4. John & Dotsa Bitove Family Law Library, Western University (formerly University of Western Ontario)
Selection process
The selection of library materials is the joint responsibility of the head of the library and the librarians in the team. The recommendations received from faculty members, students - especially graduates - and researchers also play a critical role in the selection process. Depending on the size of the library and the number of professional librarians that are available, each librarian may be assigned different subject areas in the library’s collection to manage. This task involves updating all print or electronic resources by ensuring that the library’s collection is current and meets the needs of its users. Another deciding factor in selecting library resources, especially in print format, is to weigh the purchase cost of the material against the cost of requesting that material through inter-library loans. The librarian may present their recommendation to the library director who can either approve or disapprove it.
It is a common practice for law libraries to post a suggestion for purchase form on their website where recommendations may be submitted electronically. These requests automatically go to a designated staff member who reviews and follows the appropriate library policy before a decision is made on whether or not to purchase the material.
Selecting electronic resources
As noted earlier in this chapter, the shifting trend in many academic law libraries’ acquisition practices from print to electronic resources is due to developments in legal publishing and emerging technologies. One of the drawbacks of this trend is that in fiscal and accounting terms electronic resources are classified as expenses while print materials i.e. books are considered as capital. Nonetheless, many academic law libraries are adopting this option as they are facing a lot of financial cuts and there is a constant demand for library space. Many institutions that have collection development policies have revised them to reflect this trend. It is important that librarians demonstrate some critical skills when selecting electronic resources. Vendors are marketers and tend to present attractive bundles with short term cost savings. The librarian, before making decisions, must weigh the pros and cons of each product. The following factors should be considered when making decisions about electronic resources:
• Cost – Before making a decision about acquiring electronic it is always best to analyze the cost implication to the library’s budget by considering a number of issues. For example, if a book is available in print and also as an eBook; what will be the cost benefits to buying the eBook rather than the print and what are the conditions placed in the contract for this purchase? Alternatively, if it’s a law report that the publisher is now only making available electronically at an astronomical and unreasonable price, will it eat into the library’s budget? Some of the things to consider in this situation will be whether or not the cases can be found elsewhere either on free or government websites. Another consideration is whether or not a subject-specific law report is a main focus of researchers in the law school. The librarian should factor in all these issues before making a decision.
• Read available reviews from other institutions – Reviews are now available on popular legal blogs where law librarians share their views and opinions about new resources. Librarians as information providers don’t hesitate to share their experiences through these media. They have proved to be very useful and invaluable to some of us! Some librarians have also used listservs to gather opinions and suggestions about new electronic resources; such answers have been collated and posted for the use of others.
• Contact other professionals – Asking for other people’s opinion is never a bad idea, especially if it’s going could to save you from making a big mistake. If this is a new product, ask what other libraries are going to purchase and their reasons; compare notes with them if your user types are similar. This can assist a great deal with decision-making.
• Gather the opinion of in-house team – If your library is a big one with more than two professional librarians in your team; it will be helpful to gather the opinion of other members of the team, get everyone to review the product. The members of your team can involve the faculty members they work with and get their opinions about the product. There are also listservs for different groups through the various professional associations where opinions can be gathered.
• Always ask for a trial and demo – Many vendors provide a trial for their new products; some also offer demonstration sessions. Creating time for a demo with members of your team allows you to ask questions and get more information from the vendor. Participating in some of these sessions has helped me to identify some potential issues that I would not have picked up otherwise.
Selection tools
Librarians use different methods to receive information about new publications from publishers. The following are examples of selection methods that are used in academic law libraries:
• Publisher’s website and social media tools – Publishers use technology as a marketing tool to reach out to their stakeholders by posting information about their latest publications on their website. It is a common practice to set up email alerts to receive announcements about new publications. And lately they send out tweets or post messages on other social media sites. One of the advantages of using publisher’s websites is that information is received instantly, unlike when catalogs and brochures have to be mailed out and sometimes get lost or take longer to reach their intended destination.
• Book Jobbers and Specialist Booksellers – The practice in many academic law libraries is to outsource the supply of books and serials to book jobbers and specialist booksellers. This entails the library contracting out the supply of law materials to the book jobber; part of the responsibilities in the agreement is that the book jobber will ensure that the library receives all the latest editions of titles in its collection as well as other relevant publications as they become available. Each library has its own terms and agreements; some book jobbers may supply only books and not periodicals. These suppliers also classify, catalogue, label and process the materials making them shelf-ready by the time they arrive in the library. Many academic law libraries in these hard financial times are using this option as it saves them a lot of money. The use of book jobbers for legal acquisitions has worked very well in academic law libraries with a centralized system as many of them have either phased out their Technical Services Department or this department never existed in the first place. Examples of the book jobbers are Yankee Book Peddler Inc. (YBP), HeinOnline and Gaunt Inc, Books in print, Coutts.
Specialist booksellers are often contracted to supply materials for the library’s Special Collection and Rare Books. It is a common practice for them to supply manuscripts, letters, festschrifts or any rare legal materials.
• Using specialist booksellers - Examples of specialist booksellers include Wildy and Sons Ltd, Law Book Exchange and Meyer Boswell Books Inc. Using specialist booksellers ensures that the library buys the right material and it saves a lot of time for libraries where there is no Special Collection and Rare Books librarian.
Acquisitions
This is the process of ordering and buying books, serials and electronic resources. Acquisitions are carried out by any of the following methods:
1. Direct purchase of materials from publishers – The Acquisitions department can make a purchase directly from publishers, booksellers and online services such as Amazon. These purchases are made as the need arises.
2. By subscription, standing orders or approval plans – This is the most popular method of acquiring library materials. The Acquisition department sets up subscription, standing orders and approval plans for serials and books. As the majority of legal materials are published on a periodical basis, the library sets up these services in order to receive the latest publications. Approval plans are set up with book jobbers like YBP, HeinOnline and Coutts to receive publications as and when they are available based on a defined budget.
The Acquisitions department is responsible for the managing of invoices, payment of bills, and coordinating and processing materials when received. These activities are carried out by recording invoices in the integrated library system or by using other external databases. Some libraries still use a manual system using slips received from vendors. Examples of electronic acquisitions can be found in library systems such as SIRSI and VOYAGER. The electronic system allows a coordination and inventory of library materials; all the records are linked together for cataloguing, circulation and library catalogue. Users from the library catalogue are able to trace the history of print materials that are available in the library collection. For those using the manual system, the records are filed away in filing cabinets; a major disadvantage of this is that the records are prone to disasters such as floods and fires or can be misplaced.
The Acquisitions department is usually in the Technical Services area in many academic law libraries. Acquisitions involve some basic bookkeeping skills to ensure that the library’s account is coordinated as well as having a great sense of organization. This area of the library ensures that books and periodicals on standing order are received on time; in addition, this area is responsible for monitoring financial records to make sure that publishers and book vendors are paid as and when necessary.
Weeding
The library’s collection development policy will include a section on the library’s weeding activities. Weeding a library’s collection involves removing materials that are out of date with newer editions or damaged materials from the shelves. Each library will have its own weeding criteria, involving steps and roles for staff in different areas. For example, it is the duty of the Circulation staff to remove weeded materials from the shelves and then pass it on to Technical Services cataloging staff who will update the records in the integrated library system or relocate the material to another part of the collection. In an academic law library, weeding is done during the quiet period when students are on holidays and when there is less traffic on the shelves. Usually, librarians will be assigned different areas in the collection to weed; this involves taking a look at the books available and ensuring that the library has current editions of each title. In a library with an extensive collection, some of the older materials may not necessarily be discarded and thrown out of the collection; they may be moved to other areas of the library such as the Special Collections. Weeding may also be necessary where a library is downsizing its collection and it’s necessary to create more study space for users. This seems to be a trend in some academic libraries in which case electronic materials are being substituted for print. For example, some libraries are no longer collecting print versions of United States law reports and statutes since they are freely available online or through commercial vendors. Another example is discontinuing statutes and law reports that are available through the Legal Information Institutes like CanLII, AustLII etc. This step frees a lot of library space and allows each library to utilize space and resources as they want. As is expected, librarians will need to carry out a lot of weeding in order to come to such decisions.
Copyright & licensing
Information technology has changed the way we access library materials and this has impacted policies and procedures. Since the majority of resources are now in electronic format and are born digital, libraries must pay a great deal of attention to copyright and licensing agreements that are to be signed with publishers and vendors. Depending on the size of the library and administrative arrangements, the law library and the main library usually have a joint responsibility in managing copyright agreements for some electronic resources. It has become a common practice to have a librarian who is in charge of managing all digital and electronic resources, is responsible for all copyright and licensing documents and liaises with the head of the library.
Inter-library loans
The inter-library loans service allows the borrowing and lending of library materials between related institutions. Each library sets its own policy for the operation of this service. Many libraries don’t allow their materials to travel too far but it is a very useful cost-saving alternative that has provided researchers with access to the gaps in the collection of their home institutions. Technology has created options for efficiently managing interlibrary loans as most libraries no longer use fax machines to send or receive book chapters and articles; these materials can be scanned and sent as email attachments or even loaded in document delivery software. An example of this software is Relais which allows library staff to send electronic documents to users. Users are able to send and receive materials through this software, marketed by Relais International (http://www.relais-intl.com/). Many academic law libraries use the inter-library loans service to manage the gaps in their collection by giving users an option to access resources not available to them. They also use it to sustain the escalating costs of legal materials, making it impossible for academic law libraries to acquire all the materials they need in their collection. The service is constantly patronized by professors and graduate students.
Resource sharing & cooperative collection
Libraries have been transformed enormously by technology and this has also impacted the various activities in providing library resources. Resource sharing and cooperative collection are collaborative activities by libraries with the same interest. One of the main advantages of resource sharing and cooperative collection is that it helps libraries to save costs by creating a means through which each library benefits from available resources. Through this medium, libraries come together to ensure that financial resources are well managed by supplying library materials among institutions. Lately, libraries have come together to collaborate on and spread the cost of electronic resources as a means of ensuring that institutions that would not ordinarily purchase a database are able to acquire them. This is done through series of negotiations with vendors and publishers. Examples of such collaborations are:
NELLCO (New England Law Libraries Consortium) http://www.nellco.org/.
NELLCO was the idea of a group of law library directors who wanted to address reciprocal inter-library loans services and the escalating costs of library collections in their various law libraries in the New England area of the United States. Over the years, it grew to become one of the most unique law library cooperative collection and resource sharing networks in the world. The consortium is now open to any law library in the world and it has expanded its services to accommodate emerging technologies.
RACER (Rapid Access to Collections by Electronic Requesting) http://spotdocs.scholarsportal.info/display/sp/RACER.
RACER is used to provide lending and borrowing services among member libraries in Canada through interlibrary loans. It is an initiative of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) so it is not limited to law libraries. The service allows member libraries to search their catalogues and request materials. Users (i.e. faculty and registered students of member libraries) are able to create individual accounts where they can monitor the status of their requests.
Scholars Portal - http://spotdocs.scholarsportal.info/display/sp/About.
Scholars Portal is another initiative of the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL). It provides access to electronic resources such as e-books, journal articles and data to faculty and students of participating institutions.
SABINET (http://www.sabinet.com/) – This is a subscription-based service that provides access to South Africa legislation and case law. It is one of the more successful stories of access to electronic legal information.
Managing the foreign, comparative & international law collections (FCIL)
In a globally-connected world where the subjects of different nations increasingly reside overseas, foreign, comparative and international law becomes highly relevant. As a result of global migration, legal information becomes an essential commodity for research as well as for answering questions about jurisdictional issues such as marriage, divorce, children, trade, investment etc. For example, Canada and the United States have one of the most diverse populations in the world so over the years there is a great demand for law libraries to build their collections around legislative, statutory, case law and treaties of different jurisdictions. There is a demand among legal researchers for laws of different countries of the world from Europe to Asia, Africa and also in different languages. Another reason why an academic law library may want to build its foreign, comparative and international collection is the demand from foreign graduate students who often need to use legal materials from their home jurisdictions as part of their research.
Another contributory factor to the development of foreign, comparative and international law materials in academic law libraries is the growth and creation of different international organizations which has resulted in new literature. Rumsey (2007) noted that over 30 years ago, the area of foreign, comparative and international law was just a small area. All these organizations have created materials of various types and will have to be made available for researchers. Examples of these organizations are the International Criminal Court, the European Union, Caribbean Community, African Union, and the World Trade Organization.
Building and maintaining academic law library collections in this area has posed a lot of challenges to libraries around the world. In developed economies such as Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, funding may not be a major problem to access materials from emerging economies in Africa or some parts of Asia. However, it is the other way round for law libraries. For example, in Africa the collection and building of foreign and comparative law collections has a very high cost as a result of currency exchange rates. The library budgets in these libraries are not as robust as those in more developed countries. Many academic law libraries in the United States have a librarian dedicated to this role called the Foreign, Comparative and International Law Librarian. In other jurisdictions, collection development responsibilities are shared among all the librarians in the team. In some of these instances, the librarians may have connections to foreign jurisdictions and are able to provide expert knowledge for the acquisition of legal materials from these jurisdictions.
Garavaglia (2013) identified nine basic tools for building and maintaining a foreign, comparative and international law collection. One of them is an understanding of the different types of legal system such as the common law, civil law and the religious legal system i.e. Islamic law, Roman law, Jewish law and canon law. The Globalex website has extremely useful readings for law librarians who want information about the legal systems of different countries. Globalex contains legal research guides written by professions from over fifty countries as well as guides for international organizations. FCIL librarians often consult the Foreign Law Guide edited by Thomas H. Reynolds and Arturo A. Flores which is useful as it helps them understand the legal systems of the world and the available legal materials. The ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources in International Law (ERG) and the ASIL Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL) are useful resources for sourcing international law materials.
A thorough knowledge of the structure, organization and functions of international organizations such as the United Nations, European Union, African Union and International Court of Justice is paramount. Another tool identified is related to networking. Garavaglia suggests that by connecting librarians with an interest in FCIL, law faculty with specializations in FCIL and graduate students not only with FCIL research interest but who are originally from jurisdictions whose materials you need for your collection. Connecting with a network of students from developing countries where it is always difficult to acquire legal materials will go a long way in assisting FCIL librarians. FCIL librarians should also take advantage of foreign visitors to their libraries who may have information about legal publishers and booksellers in their jurisdictions (Knudsen 2011). Information about foreign, comparative and international law is facilitated by different professional associations such as the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) through the Foreign, Comparative and International Law Special Interest Group (FCIL-SIS) and the International Association of Law Libraries (IALL). The AALL FCIL-SIS organizes informative sessions and seminars at the organization’s annual conference, ensuring that there is a focus on subject matter. The IALL holds its annual conference in different countries, allowing members and participants at the conference an opportunity to learn about the hosting jurisdiction’s legal system. This is also an opportunity for members to build their network of librarians, publishers and booksellers. These two professional associations, through their email listservs, assist members in locating and finding difficult international and foreign materials; the activities on this media have been a true networking success story. The websites of these organizations provide professional tips and materials on the collection development of FCIL materials.
Another skill-set that is needed by a librarian responsible for foreign, comparative and international law is the knowledge of one of the major foreign languages such as English, French, Russian, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic. This is because each jurisdiction has its own language and the legal materials will be published in the official language. For example, legal materials from the Republic of Latvia and Republic of South Africa will be written in Latvian and English respectively.
Conclusion
This chapter has discussed collection development and management practices in academic law libraries. It described and identified the materials that are found in these collections as well as selection and acquisition practices. It also discussed collection development policies and their significance in academic law libraries collection development. The nature of the law library collection has changed in the last twenty years with academic law libraries trending towards electronic resources as a result of the global financial climate and developments in legal publishing.