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Cataloging Legal Materials

By Melissa Bednarz. Cataloging Legal Materials. How is the Law Library different from other libraries?. The patron? The material?. The academic library contains materials designed for use by legal professionals such as lawyers, paralegals and scholars.

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Cataloging Legal Materials

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  1. By Melissa Bednarz Cataloging Legal Materials

  2. How is the Law Library different from other libraries?

  3. The patron? The material?

  4. The academic library contains materials designed for use by legal professionals such as lawyers, paralegals and scholars.

  5. Besides academic, what other kinds of law libraries exist?

  6. Public law libraries • Typically these are found in government settings. Government officials use the library to provide legal governance to their constituents.

  7. Court Libraries • Used by judges and court personnel

  8. Private • Owned by law firms. • Materials found in a private law library are based on the type of practice the law firm provides. • Elderlaw, Personal Injury, Estate, etc.

  9. Academic • No matter whether law library, graduate library or any other type of academic library, the main purpose of the library is to meet the needs of the students, satisfy the demands of the curriculum, and facilitate the education of the students. It must support the teaching, research, and service objectives of the school.

  10. Let’s focus on the academic library A law school maintains a law library that is an active and responsive force in the educational life of the law school. A library’s effective support of the school’s teaching, research and service programs requires a direct, continuing, and informed relationship with the faculty, students, and the administration of the law school.

  11. The ABA • What’s that?

  12. The American Bar Association ensures that that each library measures up to the standards put forth by the Assocation

  13. What standards? • A CORE collection consisting of: • All reported federal court decisions and reported decisions of the highest appellate court of each state. • All federal codes and session laws. • At least one current annotated code for each state

  14. All published treaties and international agreements of the United States All published regulations of the federal government and the codified regulations of the state in which law school is located. Federal and state administrative decisions appropriate to the programs of the law school.

  15. Significant secondary works necessary to support the programs of the law school Lastly, tools such as citators and periodical indexes necessary to identify primary and secondary legal information and update primary legal information.

  16. How are these standards enforced? • Site evaluations are conducted every 7 years or when special circumstances warrant.

  17. Legal Resources • Constitutions: • Basic principles and laws of a nation, state or social group that determine the powers and duties of the government and guarantee certain rights to the people in it.

  18. Statutes: Bills that have been passed by legislative bodies.

  19. Administrative Law: Rules, regulations and decisions

  20. Judicial Law

  21. Court Cases

  22. Reporters: Court reports publish the opinions and decisions handed down by the courts. The opinion explains the judges’ reasoning for their decision.

  23. Secondary Sources • Law reviews: • Publishes articles by practitioners, professors, and students in all areas of law.

  24. Legal encyclopedias: Contains overviews of specific areas of law in the U.S. It serves as an introduction and as a case and statute finder.

  25. Treatises: Present the law in a given field ( a narrow look at a particular topic of issue)

  26. Digests: Are subject indexes to the opinions handed down by the courts (case law). They provide names of cases, summaries of the cases which are known as abstracts, and the citation to the reporter.

  27. Advance Sheets Official reports of the Supreme Judicial Court AND the Appeals Court. Released PRIOR to the bound volume

  28. Pocket parts and supplementary pamphlets Accompanies frequently updated materials.

  29. Loose-leaf services The primary role of a legal loose-leaf is near instantaneous comment on current legal developments.

  30. LC Classification • All laws and legal materials are classed under “K”

  31. United States law is “KF” With the 3rd letters designating a particular state. Alabama = .A2 New York = .N7

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