Basics of Law Librarianship

Deborah Panella, Ellis Mount

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136554797
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Here is an essential introductory guide on all aspects of law librarianship written especially for non-law librarians, library school students, and beginning law librarians. Although there are several excellent practical handbooks and numerous articles on specific topics of law librarianship for practicing law librarians, Basics of Law Librarianship is the only resource that addresses the information needs of the student or new law librarian. Author Deborah Panella, managing librarian of a large, prominent New York law firm, explores the major areas of law librarianship. She covers vital topics such as the legal clientele, collection development, research tools, technical services, impact of technology, and management issues, and describes what makes law libraries different from other special libraries. She has written a clear, readable volume without excessive detail or the use of special terminology. The bibliography of law library literature and the index add enormously to the book's value as a major reference.

Chapter 1

The History and Nature of Law Libraries

HISTORY OF LAW LIBRARIES

The history of law libraries has been well researched and reported.¹ Law libraries of limited scope have existed since ancient times, when priests memorized the few “written” law books and preserved the original works. In this country, law libraries existed even in colonial times. They began as the private collections of individual lawyers. Until the 19th century, they actually contained few law books. Most “law” collections actually consisted of books on philosophy, ethics, history, politics, and the social sciences. The few law titles in these collections were, in fact, English law books, and a library of 10-20 volumes was considered to be a good library. Although there are references to law books as early as the mid-1600s, less than 30 law books had actually been published in America by 1776. The first volume of cases from United States courts was published in 1789, and in 1885, nearly 100 years later, there were still only 3,798 volumes of law reports. Today, there are over 65,000 cases reported annually by West Publishing Company alone, resulting in over 3,000,000 cases available through West. Their National Reporter System alone increases by over 200 volumes annually.

The development of shared law libraries followed shortly after U.S. law reports began to be published, but the Library of Congress was not really the first such library. In 1800, the Library of Congress was established for the President, Vice President, and members of Congress, although the Justices of the Supreme Court were not allowed to use it until 1812. Not until 1832 was the law book collection segregated, and not until 1873 was the Supreme Court Library established as a separate facility for use by the Justices.

The first known organized law library in the United States was the Law Library Company of Philadelphia, formed in 1802. Members purchased stock at $20 per share, which enabled them to use the law collection and to socialize with other prestigious members of the company. Shortly thereafter, in 1804, Boston’s Social Law Library was formed, requiring a subscription fee for access to the collection. Similar institutions across the country were then established, including the New York Law Institute (1824), the Detroit Library (1838), the Chicago Law Institute (1839), and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (1870).

The earliest public law library, the Allegheny County Law Library in Belmont, New York, started in 1806. State and county law libraries were usually part of the state library system rather than independent facilities and collections, so their history is difficult to track. Most seem to have developed during the mid-1800s.

The first known law school library, that of Harvard University, was established in 1817 when the school established a separate law department and law book collection as part of the library. As late as 1900, however, only six law school libraries existed. Law school students elsewhere were expected to use practitioners’ libraries.

Even the practicing lawyers’ libraries at this point remained libraries of private individuals. The private law firm library, or corporate practice library, developed in the early 1900s.

Law librarians, of course, are even newer than any of these law libraries. The first libraries were developed, maintained, and organized by the lawyers themselves. As the collections grew and the interests of the members expanded, it became necessary for a caretaker to be hired. This person was usually trained in the law rather than in library science, a tradition that has been hard to break. In part, having a librarian trained in the law was due to the legal profession’s belief that only lawyers could read and organize a law collection. Of course, another factor was that the first school of Library Science did not open until 1887, when Melvil Dewey began the Columbia School of Library Service.

As early as 1899, the Cravath law firm in New York had hired a file clerk who had been trained at the Columbia University Library. Law schools began to hire librarians in the 1920s, and by 1950, the one-person library was quite common. As late as 1972, however, a survey of law firm libraries indicated that approximately half of the librarians were lawyers, and half were graduates of library science programs. Even today, although the library degree is required for nearly all librarian positions in public and academic institutions, many other law library positions can be filled instead by lawyers or nonprofessionals. Conversely, in law school libraries, many positions now require both the library and law degrees. Today the American Association of Law Libraries boasts a membership of over 4,100 law librarians.

TYPES OF LAW LIBRARIES

The easiest way to distinguish among various types of law libraries is to describe their clientele, for that provides the essence of the differences among the libraries themselves. There are law libraries that serve the private sector (private law firm and corporate legal department libraries), those that serve law students (academic law libraries), those that serve practicing lawyers in the community (bar association libraries), and those that serve judges and lawyers and the public in legal districts (court, county, and state law libraries). There are also governmental libraries, such as the Department of Justice Library, and special libraries in correctional institutions to serve the inmate population. Obviously, these categories are not clear cut; many law libraries actually serve more than one population. For example, many state, county, and court libraries serve judges, practicing lawyers, and the public, and could therefore be considered public law libraries, while others have more restricted use. Nonetheless, the categorical breakdown of law libraries allows us to compare and contrast their operations and to illustrate the variety of law library responsibilities.

Private Law Libraries

The private law library is generally a department within a law firm or private law practice. The largest law firms now have more than 1,000 lawyers, with legal practices in nearly all fields of law. Furthermore, they may have branch offices nationally and internationally. The libraries that exist to meet the needs of these mega-firms may be quite large, with annual budgets greater than $1 million, staffs of 25 or 30, and branch libraries in other domestic or foreign cities. Perhaps more common, though, is the one-person or one-professional library, serving a small to mid-sized law firm. In fact, many private law libraries still exist without any librarian because they are small enough to be maintained by the lawyers, paralegals, or secretarial support within the firm or law office. Also in this category of private law libraries are corporate law libraries, which support the in-house legal staff within a company or corporation. As with law firm libraries, their size varies greatly, although they rarely reach the size of the major law firm libraries.

A feature of the private law library is the emphasis on obtaining obscure or massive amounts of information, often in a hurry, and often without regard to the cost. This “no holds barred” approach to research requests means that most librarians are creative and resourceful researchers who can remain efficient and effective under a high degree of stress. This environment is intolerable to those who like to teach, however, since emphasis is clearly on providing the answer rather than explaining how to do it.

Another feature is the collection’s currency. Few private collections contain much historical law material. Their emphasis is on the practical needs; that is, the tools needed to practice law today. Theoretical and developmental materials are rarely found in abundance in private law collections, and the actual collections will vary tremendously from library to library. There are no minimum standards for the private law firm or corporate legal department library, since they exist solely to support the needs of the parent organization.

Based on an unofficial count of libraries listed in the 1989-90 AALL Directory and Handbook,² the American Association of Law Libraries counts among its members over 850 law firm libraries and 125 corporate legal department libraries. Over half of the membership of AALL is now made up of librarians in law firms and corporations.

Academic Law Libraries

All law schools in the United States have law libraries to support the research needs of the faculty and students of the institution. The American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools have set minimum standards for the collections and staff of accredited law schools. Institutions whose libraries do not meet the minimum standards will lose their accreditation. Standards for the Approval of Law Schools were first developed in 1881 by the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar. Since then, the standards have been amended numerous times to reflect the changing expectations and demands of the legal profession.

One significant feature of academic law libraries is their emphasis on research, both historical and theoretical. These collections include many ancient and colonial documents which form the basis of our Constitution and laws today. These collections are intended to support the needs of faculty and students for critical review and analysis of law systems. For example, comparative legal materials describing similar laws and legal systems of various countries abound in law school libraries, although they are less frequently found elsewhere.

Most academic law libraries today are faced with tremendous collection development problems. The proliferation of published law reports and treatises has made selection a difficult problem and resource sharing a necessity. Between 1960 and 1970, the collections of the ten largest law school libraries grew 42%, but the rate of growth among the more established law libraries has declined since then.³ While major law libraries used to take pride in their exhaustive collections, these research institutions have become more selective in their purchases as legal publishing continues to flourish.

In a growing number of law school libraries, the library directors have both the library and the law degree. Librarians in academic environments are often required to publish, and they are often the standard-setters for the rest of the law librarian profession.

There are nearly 200 law school libraries listed in the 1989-90 AALL Directory and Handbook. In 1986, the average academic law library collection consisted of 264,349 volumes. The largest law school library, at Harvard University, contained 1,565,926 volumes, compared with the smallest reported law school library with 71,105 volumes. The average number of full-time professionals on the staff was 10, with a high of 32.7 and a low of 2. The largest law school library budget was $4,128,227, while the smallest was $76,844.⁴ The percentage of law school budgets devoted to the law school library is presently about 18%, as it has been for at least the last ten years.⁵

Bar Association Libraries

Bar association libraries began as private social associations supported by membership contributions or subscriptions. Many of these associations were essentially private clubs, and their collections and services varied depending upon the needs of their members. The bar associations today are open to any lawyers who are admitted to practice in a geographic area (usually a court district). Today’s bar association libraries still vary in size and scope, depending upon the funds available from the members of the bar and their members’ influence in determining the collection focus. Most of these libraries combine an excellent historical collection from private donations as well as their own early histories (which often pre-date academic law libraries) with vast reference collections for practitioners. These bar libraries serve all members of the parent association, including individual lawyers and those affiliated with large law firms. Additionally, many judges and court clerks may use bar libraries to supplement the collections of the court libraries. In many bar libraries, books may not leave the premises, so material is always available to the library patron.

The staff in bar association libraries may consist of one librarian and a clerical assistant, or there may be large staffs of librarians and assistants. These librarians must often have knowledge of all fields to meet the needs of the variety of lawyers who use the library.

Government-Sponsored Law Libraries

Government-sponsored law libraries are widely varied in size and purpose. An unofficial count of the libraries in the 1989-90 AALL Directory and Handbook indicated that there are presently over 200 such institutions. Supported by public funds, these federal, state, county, and court libraries are usually open to the public, but exist primarily to meet the needs of judges, lawyers, and government officials.

The largest group of government-sponsored law libraries is the court or county law library. Librarians in these libraries must handle various patrons, from the respected judge with 20 years on the bench to the citizen interested in suing his neighbor over a broken fence. There are nearly 400 individual members of the state, county, and court special interest section of AALL.

Another division of government library is that which meets the needs of a particular agency or department. Although these libraries are relatively few, they are an important group of law libraries. Among the most prominent of these are the libraries of the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

One fairly distinct type of government-sponsored law library is the prison law library, which exists to serve the prison inmate population. Several court decisions have established guidelines for prison law libraries. In 1977, the Supreme Court of the United States, in Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817 (1977), stated that prison authorities were obligated to provide adequate law libraries or other forms of legal assistance. Although interpretations of this decision vary, many prison systems have improved their libraries since 1977, and other court decisions have attempted to define “adequate” contents of law libraries. Many associations, including the American Association of Law Libraries and the American Bar Association have addressed prisoners’ needs as well.⁶

Prison law libraries are often not staffed by a professional librarian. Most are staffed by corrections officers, volunteers, or the inmates themselves. Although some prison law libraries contain adequate core collections, they remain inadequate because the staff lacks training in their use and updating requirements. In some jurisdictions, the on-site collections are quit...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Haworth Series on Special Librarianship
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• About The Author
• Series Editor’S Comments
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1: The History and Nature of Law Libraries
• Chapter 2: The Nature of the Legal Field and the Legal Clientele
• Chapter 3: Collection Development
• Chapter 4: Technical Services
• Chapter 5: User Services
• Chapter 6: The Impact of Technology on Law Libraries
• Chapter 7: Management Issues
• Chapter 8: Personnel and Staffing Issues
• Chapter 9: Special Issues for Law Firm Libraries
• Chapter 10: Special Issues for Academic Law Libraries
• Chapter 11: Special Issues for Government-Sponsored Law Libraries
• General Bibliography
• Index