COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY GEORGETOWN LAW LIBRARY 2013 1
2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 COLLECTION PHILOSOPHY 3 COLLECTION PRINCIPLES 3 COLLECTION POLICIES 5 Collection Statement 5 Core Collection 5 Retention 5 U.S. Federal Materials 5 U.S. State Materials 6 Foreign Law Materials 7 Reference Materials 8 Study Materials 8 Subject Concentrations including International Law 8 Serials 11 Experiential Learning/Practice Materials 12 Digital Collection 12 Special Collections 13 Popular Reading Collection 14 Gifts/Donations 14 APPENDICES 15 Appendix 1. ABA Standards for Collections 15 Appendix 2. Proposed ABA Standards for Collections 16 Appendix 3. Retention Statement 18
3 INTRODUCTION The mission of Georgetown Law Library is to support the research, scholarship, and educational endeavors of the students and faculty of the Georgetown University Law Center, by collecting, organizing, preserving, and disseminating legal and law related information in any form; providing effective service and instructional programs; and utilizing electronic information systems to provide access to new information products and services. The Georgetown Law Library Collection Development Policy supports the library s mission by setting forth the philosophy and principles under which our collection is shaped and provides guidelines for decisions concerning the collection of materials necessary to support research and scholarship at Georgetown Law. The policy provides a rational framework for present collection activities and will be periodically reviewed to ensure that it meets the community s needs. COLLECTION PHILOSOPHY Georgetown Law Library is one of the largest academic law libraries in the United States. It is a research library, and as such, acquires materials to support scholarship and research in general legal topics, as well as specific legal subjects taught through our curriculum. COLLECTION PRINCIPLES The library abides by the following fundamental principles that allow it to best meet the needs of its users. Certain exceptions apply to these principles, details of which are stated in the individual policy sections. Some principles apply uniquely to one or another of the two library locations. This document is intended to provide general guidelines, and exceptions to rules may be granted under special circumstances. Principle 1. The library follows American Bar Association Standard 606 (Collection) in providing essential and other materials for the use of our patrons. See Appendix 1 for current ABA Library Standards. Principle 2. The library collects materials necessary to support teaching, scholarship, and research needs of the faculty and student body. Principle 3. The library s collection is concentrated in four broad areas: United States Law, International Law, Foreign & Comparative Law, and Interdisciplinary subjects. Principle 4. The Law Library collects materials in a mixture of print, electronic, and microform formats, with a general preference for electronic format where available and stable.
4 Principle 5. The library generally collects one copy of individual titles/sources in a single format. The library will purchase duplicates of highly requested titles, or current reprints of treatises published prior to 1935 (collected for preservation purposes). Principle 6. The library seeks to avoid duplication, including content duplication by the same or multiple publishers, and generally limits holdings of print secondary sources for a specific subject area or U.S. state jurisdictions outside of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. Principle 7. The library minimizes the purchase of print serials such as periodicals, loose-leaf publications, supplemented books, and practice guides. Principle 8. The library places the highest priority on materials that have both short- and long-term research value.
5 COLLECTION POLICIES Collection Statement The library collects legal, law-related, and other interdisciplinary titles at levels designed to support the use and research of the law faculty and students. Within the parameters of the Collection Principles enumerated above, the Georgetown Law Library generally collects all legal materials that have scholarly value; law-related or other interdisciplinary materials of value to academic legal scholarship or research; materials that are relevant to the research or scholarly components of seminars, courses, or extracurricular activities at the Law Center; and materials that are relevant to our clinical programs, institutes, and administrative offices. Core Collection The library maintains a core collection of essential materials that serves as the foundation for any law library or legal researcher. The library uses the ABA standards 1 for holdings of core collection materials as a guideline for collecting core sources. The library holds core legal materials in a mixture of print, electronic, and microform formats. Retention The library s documentation of retention practices is set forth in Appendix 3 below. U.S. Federal Materials The library s print collection of federal primary and secondary legal materials includes current, updated and historic sources of the following: all versions of the United States Code, the United States Statutes at Large, the Code of Federal Regulations, and federal administrative decisions, finding aids, tools, legal encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, 1 2012-2013 ABA Standards for Approval of Law Schools, Standards 601-606, Collections, http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/resources/standards.html.
6 selected loose-leaf services (print and electronic) and other explanatory materials, Congressional sources, and other relevant titles. Federal government documents are selected on the same general basis as other library materials and are integrated into the collection. Georgetown Law Library is a selective library of the Federal Depository Library Program, selecting approximately 6.95% of depository titles. Selected United States government documents, and hearings and reports from select Congressional committees are made available electronically, or in print through the Federal Depository Program. U.S. State Materials The library collects materials for selected states 2 and the District of Columbia. Included in the collection of state materials for selected states are both current and historic primary legal materials, basic practice materials, and all significant treatises. Collecting levels are highest for local jurisdictions: the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. Special attention is also given to New York and California. Materials for the remaining 36 states are not collected, with the exception of legal research titles. The dominions, territories, possessions and other jurisdictions formally affiliated with the United States are not treated as states for purposes of this policy. Materials collected for the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia include all versions of state codes and advance legislative services, session laws, case reports, court rules, Attorney General opinions, professional responsibility opinions, administrative codes, state encyclopedias, multi-volume practice sets, the state register, specialized form books, selected treatises, general forms, bar journals, bar association reports, jury instructions, and all treatises on the topics of legal history, professional responsibility and legal research. Materials for New York and California include one current annotated state code (version is selected for its reputation and content), session laws in microform or electronic format, case reports, court rules, Attorney General opinions in microform or electronic format, professional responsibility opinions, administrative code, state encyclopedia (premier title), multi-volume practice set (premier title), the state register (electronic format), selected basic treatises, general forms, specialized forms, bar journals, bar association reports, jury instructions, and all treatises on the topics of legal history, professional responsibility and legal research. Materials for other selected states include one current annotated state code, session laws in microform or electronic format, case reports, court rules, Attorney General opinions in microform or electronic format, professional responsibility opinions, administrative code, 2 District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia (local jurisdictions), California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas
7 state encyclopedia (premier title), multi-volume practice set (premier title), the state register (electronic format), selected basic treatises, bar journals in microform and electronic format, and all treatises on the topics of legal history, professional responsibility and legal research. Publications of states known for legal treatment of particular subjects, such as Delaware for corporations and Florida for estate law, are collected at a high level in those specialized areas. State government documents are selected on the same general basis as other library materials and are integrated into the collection. Superseded primary state materials are retained in the Historic Core section of the library. Foreign Law Materials The foreign and comparative law collection includes primarily materials which compare the laws of different countries or a subject treatment of the laws of other jurisdictions. Jurisdictions of interest are drawn currently from the industrial and emerging-market jurisdictions, a pattern established in connection with a focus on trade law in the curriculum as well as in the accompanying international collection. The library maintains current foreign law collections for France, Germany, Great Britain/England and Wales and Mexico in their vernacular languages at a research level. Chinese and Japanese primary law is collected selectively with a focus on commercial law and in the form of bilingual materials. Jurisdictions such as India and several Anglophone African countries are represented by selective primary law acquisition and electronic formats predominate, as these jurisdictions have been added to support interest in developing countries rule of law and work with human rights, particularly the rights of women. Religious law- canon, Islamic and Jewish- forms a strong collection in English or bilingual editions of primary sources of the law together with English monographs and serials. Translations into English of major codes or statutes for any jurisdiction of the world may be acquired. The library generally does not collect foreign law at the sub-federal level for federal states other than Canada, for which Ontario and Quebec primary law are collected. Secondary materials may address regional or sub-federal legal issues or systems. Additional foreign law materials are acquired as needed to support comparative and international law research.
8 Reference Materials The library collects atlases, bibliographies, catalogs, collective biographies, thesauri, dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias, research guides, handbooks, quotation collections, indexes, yearbooks, and almanacs, with an emphasis on legally themed materials to support current research and coursework at the Law Center. The library maintains a Teaching Skills Collection. The preference for online materials includes reference materials. Study Materials Collection The library collects selected current study materials such as hornbooks and nutshells, and current Legal Research and Writing titles. Subject Concentrations The Georgetown Law curriculum and the research of the faculty are regularly monitored for new subject areas of interest. Librarians designated as Selectors regularly review specific subject areas and recommend titles for purchase in those areas. Selectors are also charged with the analysis of their subject collections. The collection includes works on topics taught in the curriculum and designated as selection topics for both law and related interdisciplinary titles. These subjects are collected at an Instructional Support level, defined as adequate to maintain knowledge of a subject required for limited or generalized purposes... [including] a wide range of basic monographs, complete collections of the works of more important writers, selections from the works of secondary writers, a selection of representative journals, access to appropriate non-bibliographic databases, and the reference tools and fundamental bibliographical apparatus pertaining to the subject. 3 This definition is used as a guideline for selection. The library also maintains several approval plans, including our major one from Baker & Taylor YBP Library Services (YBP). Through the YBP profile, the library seeks to receive all published scholarly U.S. legal monographs and selected foreign and international monographs designated as being at or above an academic level. Non-legal titles related to the subjects listed in this section which are scholarly and designated at or above an upper academic level are also received selectively on the YBP approval plan. Also, Selectors receive YBP s electronic notifications of new titles in their subject areas. Current selection topics in the law of the United States are Administrative Law (including 3 Office of Mgmt. Studies, Ass n of Research Libraries, Manual for the North American Inventory of Research Library Collections (1985 ed.).
9 the Executive Branch, Government & Politics, and Election Law & Campaign Finance), Alternative Dispute Resolution and Mediation, Animal Law & Welfare, Banking & Credit, Bankruptcy, Bioethics, Civil Rights and Social Policy, Business and Corporations (including Accounting and Entrepreneurship), Commercial Law and Contracts, Constitutional Law & History, Consumer Law, Criminal Law & Criminology (including Criminal Justice and Procedure, Domestic Violence, Juvenile Justice, and Prisons), Cyberspace Law, Disabilities Law, Economics, Education, Empirical Research and Statistics, Employment and Labor Law, Energy and Public Utilities, Entertainment and Sports Law, Environmental Law and Regulation and Technical Environmental, Ethics & Professional Responsibility, Family Law, Federal Indian Law, Finance, Gender Law, Immigration, Insurance, Intellectual Property, International & Comparative Law, the Judiciary, Jurisprudence & Philosophy, Law and Literature (including Film and other media), Law & Science (including Health and Medicine Policy), Legal History, Legal Process (Trial and Appellate Advocacy), Legal Research and Writing, Legislation and Legislative History, Maritime Law, National Security Law, Poverty Law, Property (including Historic Preservation, Housing, and Land Use), Psychiatry and Psychology, Securities & Financial Regulation, Sociology, Taxation, Telecommunications, Torts, Space Law, and Water Law. Subjects of faculty research are high interest topics and are collected at a Research level for both legal and relevant related non-legal titles. The Research level definition that the library uses as a guideline includes materials that are major published source materials required for dissertations and independent research, including materials containing research reporting, new findings, scientific experimental results, and other information useful to researchers. It is intended to include all important reference works and a wide selection of specialized monographs, as well as a very extensive collection of journals and major indexing and abstracting services in the field. 4 As a general matter of policy, the library acquires titles specifically requested by faculty for their work. Current faculty research subjects include Constitutional Law and History, Criminology, Economics, Ethics, Finance, International and Comparative Law Jurisprudence and Philosophy, Law and Science (including health and medicine policy), Legal Education, Legal History, National Security Law, Securities and Financial Regulation, Sociology, and Taxation. Where relevant, retrospective titles have been purchased for faculty research subjects, but historic titles have not yet been systematically collected. International Law is both a major subject collection (divided into several important subtopics which are the focus of this collection) and, with comparative legal materials, forms a separately-housed body of materials within the Georgetown Law Library. Public international law, which governs the relationship between sovereign nations, the relationship between those states and individuals or groups, or relations with and within international organizations, is as a whole collected 4 Id.
10 through its primary and secondary sources 5 at the research level. Treaties and treaty law, the Law of the Sea, and the Law of Outer Space are considered part of the modern subdivisions of public international law and are included in this collecting level. Private international law, originating in conflicts of the laws of sovereign nations and related questions of the laws to be applied, appears in the collection both in traditional secondary sources, such as treatises that collect customary rules for resolving these conflicts internationally, and also in primary materials such as treaties and agreements which seek to harmonize and unify such rules at the level of treaty law; major examples include the work of the Hague Conference on Private International Law and many areas of the K schedule such as international criminal law, international family law, and materials relating to trade and the international sale of goods. These materials are collected at the research level. Several other areas of international law, under the more recent designation of transnational law, are collected at this modified research level to support faculty research. These areas include international economic and financial law, international trade law, international environmental law, international health law, human rights law, and refugee law. The collection includes documentation from many international organizations with strong roles in the hard law of treaty regimes or the soft law of regulatory guidelines and recommendations. These include the United Nations and specialized or related organizations (such as the International Labour Organization), the World Trade Organization, the Organization of American States, human rights organizations, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Official documents from other bodies, such as the European Union or the World Intellectual Property Organization, are acquired more selectively. The library is not a depository for any organization but rather acquires materials by subscription or standing order. 5 Art. 38 (1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice defines these sources as followed, with brackets indicating their material type in the library s collection: The Court, whose function is to decide in accordance with international law such disputes as are submitted to it, shall apply: a. international conventions, whether general or particular, establishing rules expressly recognized by the contesting states [primary law: treaties and their direct commentaries]; b. international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as law [secondary materials such as yearbooks and digests]; c. the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations [represented by collections of or access to primary law as foreign and comparative law]; d. subject to the provisions of Article 59, judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists of the various nations, as subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law. [ primary law in the form of international case law and other decisional documents of arbitral or monitoring bodies; secondary materials such as treatises that include major classics of international law theory and doctrine and equivalent modern works such as monographs of leading scholars and articles or reports in peerreviewed journals or American legal reviews].
11 Serials The library provides access to legal periodicals, non-legal periodicals, legal loose-leafs, supplemented treatises, special subject law reporters, annuals, proceedings, practice guides, and other secondary legal and non-legal serials appropriate to support the research needs of the Law Center. Serials are held in a mixture of electronic, print and microform formats. 1. Primary Legal Serials. The library collects one print copy of primary legal materials unless there is a significant research, pedagogical or practical reason to purchase multiple copies. Exceptions include annotated versions of the United States Code, for which multiple copies are held for different library locations, and multiple code versions for local state jurisdictions (District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia). Superseded primary materials are kept in the Historic Core collection. 2. Periodicals. The library provides access to all periodicals appropriate to support the research and educational needs of Georgetown Law. i. The library collects, in a variety of formats, the titles indexed in the Index to Legal Periodicals and the Current Law Index as well as other titles identified as having significant research value, or which support curriculum and research needs of the institution. ii. The library prefers the electronic version of periodicals. iii. The library collects the print version of a periodical where: a. The journal is published by Georgetown Law, or b. The journal is one in which the available electronic version is inadequate to display the articles content (e.g., graphs) c. The journal is deemed to be the premier or most significant journals in their field of interest where (i) the most current issue is not available in pdf format, or (ii) there is lag time between content appearing in print and appearing in an html electronic format. Unbound periodical issues are retained or discarded according to the decision recorded in the OPAC record for each title. 3. Legal Loose-leafs, supplemented treatises, special subject law reporters, annuals, proceedings and other legal serials. The library minimizes the purchase of print serials such as loose-leaf publications, supplemented books, and practice guides. However, those titles not available electronically are collected as needed to support the subject collections. Retention for these types of serials is decided on a case by case basis, and is reported in the title s OPAC record. 4. Secondary and other legal serials. The library maintains a limited number of print secondary and other legal serials in any subject area unless there is a significant reason to maintain more than one print resource. The library will rely on electronic access to secondary sources as a general rule. Exceptions include the possible increase of general practice guides for states (decision pending for increasing experiential and practice materials). Retention for these types of serials is decided on a case by case basis, and is reported in the title s OPAC record.
12 Experiential Learning/Practice Materials (policy to be developed) The library will collect experiential learning and practice materials to support the clinical and practical curriculum of the Law Center, including appropriate CLE Materials for local jurisdictions and other jurisdictions as needed. Digital Collection The library makes electronic documents available as part of its collection. 1. Born Digital a. The library, as part of the Chesapeake Digital Preservation Group (the Chesapeake Project), selects born-digital documents to preserve. 6 The library s contributions consist of secondary legal sources, such as reports and studies from commissions, task forces, agencies, organizations, scholarly societies, and lobbying groups. The library s collections are primarily topical and thematic, based on research and educational areas of interest at the Law Center. Additional collection areas include law-related publications produced by and about the District of Columbia, and select high interest reports and studies produced by federal commissions. 7 Documents selected by Georgetown Library are added to the library s collection. 2. Archives a. The library administers and collects materials for the Georgetown Law Scholarly Commons, http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/, a repository of the scholarly works of Georgetown Law Center. 6 The Chesapeake Legal Preservation Group, http://cdm266901.cdmhost.com/. 7 The Chesapeake Project, Collection Plan, http://cdm266901.cdmhost.com/policies/legal_collectionplan_0510.pdf.
13 Special Collections The library s Special Collections department acquires, preserves, and provides access to rare books, the Archives of Georgetown Law, manuscript collections, the art of Georgetown Law, and a special collection known as the National Equal Justice Library. Rare Books The library purchases rare books and manuscripts related to and about legal history. Currently, the library primarily collects works that support the Georgetown Law Center s curriculum and research interests. Among the subjects collected are American, English, Scottish, and Canadian legal history, international law before 1870, Ecclesiastical and Canon law, Jewish law, slavery, maritime law, freedom of speech and related topics, health law, and Roman law. The scope of the collection will change to address future research interests of the Law Center. Law Center Archives Within the Special Collections department, the Law Center Archives contains all diverse materials that chronicle the history of the Law Center. This includes works authored by faculty, and documents, images, digital files, and other related materials created by Law Center administrators, departments, research centers, institutes, and clinics. The Law Center Archivist selects the materials to preserve, and maintains the appropriate level of access based upon the confidential nature of each document. Manuscripts Collection The Manuscripts Collection contains personal collections of letters, files, documents, law school notebooks, early drafts of laws and other materials related to legal history or the history of Georgetown Law, mostly donated by alumni and friends of the Law Center. National Equal Justice Library Georgetown Law acquired the National Equal Justice Library in 2006 as a donation from the Consortium for the National Equal Justice Library, Inc. (CNEJL). The collection is devoted to preserving the history of public interest law and legal services. It includes books, administrative files from legal services providers, oral histories, images and digital files, documents and other related materials. This collection has grown steadily from donations from public interest law organizations since 2006. Based upon the subject scope of the collection, the NEJL Project Archivist determines which materials to acquire, and solicits donations from public interest lawyers and organizations. The NEJL Project Archivist promotes NEJL as a central place to preserve the materials.
14 Popular Reading Collection The Popular Reading collection is made up of selected titles of newspapers (legal and non-legal), popular magazines, novels and other non-literary fiction, non-scholarly biographies and other non-fiction, and popular law-related DVDs. Generally, Popular Reading materials are selected for their potential interest, information and enjoyment for law students and faculty. Gifts/Donations The decision to accept a gift of materials for the library is made by the Collection Development Librarian or the Associate Law Librarian for International and Foreign Law, depending on the subject of the materials. Where donations fit within collection development guidelines, they will be added to the collection. Individual titles are added to the general collections and shelved according to subject. Donated materials are not kept together unless they can be classified as a special collection, where the titles have unique or historical significance.
15 APPENDIX 1. ABA CURRENT STANDARDS (2012-2013) Available at http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/resources/standards.html.
16 APPENDIX 2. ABA PROPOSED STANDARDS (HTTP://WWW.AMERICANBAR.ORG/CONTENT/DAM/ABA/ADMINISTRATI VE/LEGAL_EDUCATION_AND_ADMISSIONS_TO_THE_BAR/COUNCIL_REP ORTS_AND_RESOLUTIONS/20130222_NOTICE_AND_COMMENT_STANDAR DS_CHS_6_7.PDF AS OF 8/20/13) Standard 606. COLLECTION (a) (b) The law library shall provide a core collection of essential materials through ownership or reliable access. The choice of format and of ownership in the library or a particular means of reliable access for any type of material in the collection, including the core collection, shall effectively support the law school s curricular, scholarly, and service programs and objectives, and the role of the library in preparing students for effective, ethical, and responsible participation in the legal profession. A law library core collection shall include the following: (1) all reported federal court decisions and reported decisions of the highest appellate court of each state and U.S. territory; (2) all federal codes and session laws, and at least one current annotated code for each state and U.S. territory; (3) all current published treaties and international agreements of the United States; (4) all current published regulations (codified and uncodified) of the federal government and the codified regulations of the state or U.S. territory in which the law school is located; (5) those federal and state administrative decisions appropriate to the programs of the law school; (6) U.S. Congressional materials appropriate to the programs of the law school; (7) significant secondary works necessary to support the programs of the law school; and (8) those tools necessary to identify primary and secondary legal information and update primary legal information. (c) In addition to the core collection of essential materials, a law library shall also provide a collection that, through ownership or reliable access, (1) meets the research needs of the law school s students, satisfies the (2) demands of the law school curriculum, and facilitates the education of its students; (3) supports the teaching, scholarship, research, and service interests of the (4) faculty; (3) serves the law school s special teaching, scholarship, research, and service objectives; and (5) is complete, current, and in sufficient quantity or with sufficient continuing access to meet faculty and student needs.
17 (d) The law library shall formulate and periodically update a written plan for development of the collection. (e) The law library shall provide suitable space and adequate equipment to access and use all information in whatever formats are represented in the collection. Interpretation 606-1 The appropriate mixture of collection formats depends on the needs of the library and the law school. A collection that consists of a single format may violate Standard 606. Interpretation 606-2 Reliable access to information resources may be provided through: (a) databases to which the library or the parent institution subscribe or own and are likely to continue to subscribe and provide access; (b) authenticated and credible databases that are available to the public at no Charge and are likely to continue to be available to the public at no charge; or (c) participation in a formal resource-sharing arrangement through which materials aremade available, via electronic or physical delivery, to users within a reasonable time period. Interpretation 606-3 Off-site storage for non-essential material does not violate the Standards so long as the material is organized and readily accessible in a timely manner. Interpretation 606-4 Cooperative agreements may be considered when determining whether faculty and students have efficient and effective access to the resources necessary to enable the law school to carry out its program of legal education and accomplish its mission. Standard 601 is not satisfied solely by arranging for students and faculty to have access to other law libraries within the region.
18 APPENDIX 3. RETENTION Primary U.S. and State Materials Retention Generally, one copy of a superseded primary federal or state legal document is moved to the Historic Core location of the library. Duplicate superseded volumes are discarded. Includes individual volumes of the legal and administrative codes and older editions of code sets. 1. U.S. session laws are kept until received in microform. 2. All superseded pocket parts to the codes of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia are kept in Historic Core. 3. Session Laws for District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia court reports are kept for two years and discarded; session laws for federal and other state court reports are kept for one year and discarded 4. Slip laws for all U.S. jurisdictions are discarded when permanent volumes are received. Primary International and Foreign Materials Retention Materials such as digests or similar large sets or finding aids, legal encyclopedias, and similar historic sets and historic statutory material reside or are transferred to the Historic Core location when completely superseded. 1. British and Canadian digests are sent to Historic Core upon the replacement of a complete edition or set, unless the publisher s instructions or common practice in those jurisdictions requires retention for continuing cross-reference. Volumes may be retired there as new volumes fill in with reissues which completely supersede contents on a cumulative basis 2. South African superseded encyclopedias and historic statutes reside in the Historic Core location and volumes may be retired there as new volumes fill in with reissues which completely supersede contents on a cumulative basis. 3. Similar treatment would be accorded any comparable set or legal encyclopedia acquired for any jurisdiction in print. Serials Retention 1. Unbound journal issues and loose-leaf journal issues are retained or discarded according to the decision recorded in the Integrated Library System (ILS) record for each title.
19 2. The default for all journal titles is that they are bound when cancelled, or when superseded by a new edition, however, during the massive cuts to loose-leaf subscriptions in the past two years, the binders have remained on the shelf and are to be marked subscription cancelled or with other explanatory language. 3. The default for all journal titles is that they are held for binding until a complete volume is available, and then bound. A change to this policy will be explored. 4. Newspaper issues are retained according to individual ILS records. The default is that only the current issue is retained. Reference Collection Materials Generally all versions of law-related materials will be kept in Reference while superseded versions of non-law materials will be weeded or moved to the stacks. International Reference Collection Materials Only current editions of titles selected for International Reference will be retained in the International Reference section, with each superseded edition retired to the International library stacks or Williams Library stacks. Exceptions would include abbreviations guides for foreign legal systems and historic dictionaries or shorter encyclopedias or treaty indexes and the like. Selective casebook titles are retained in International Reference until a new edition is added (see under 1 in the Casebook section, below). Casebook, Casebook Supplements, and Other Law Center Class Materials 1. Casebooks and Supplements currently used by Law Center classes. o Casebook titles are moved to the stacks when a new edition is published, or, for titles not currently used in a class, within five years of the publication date. o Casebook Supplements are discarded when the accompanying Casebook is moved to the stacks. o Casebooks in international or comparative law are placed in International Reference with one additional copy purchased for the Reading Room Reserve casebook collection. Casebook Supplements for these titles are also discarded when the accompanying Casebook is moved to the International stacks. 2. Other titles currently used by Law Center classes are moved to the stacks when not required or recommended in the following academic cycle (fall semester to fall semester).
20 Popular Reading Collection The monographs in the Popular Reading Collection are weeded and discarded on a regular basis to ensure the collection s continuing interest to the students, staff and faculty of the Law Center. Williams Stacks The titles in the Williams stacks are retained until weeded. Titles are weeded to remove duplicates, unused titles in disrepair, or where it is determined that the material is no longer desirable or necessary for the collection. Wolff Stacks The titles in the Wolff stacks are retained until weeded or superseded and subject to transfer to storage (currently denominated the Historic Core) as memorialized in the ILS record for that title. Duplicates are less common for this international and comparative collection and so retained in the stacks. Titles in disrepair which can be replaced, selected earlier editions in poor condition, and materials determined no longer desirable or necessary for the collection may likewise be weeded. Lost Monographs When a book in either library location is declared lost, it is replaced unless 1) it would have been weeded from the collection, 2) the library has multiple copies and there is little recent circulation activity, or 3) the subject is no longer emphasized in the Law Center s curriculum or scholarship.