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Collection Development Policy

Collection Development Policy: Introduction

The Lillian Goldman Law Library collects books, serials, electronic resources, and other  materials primarily to support instruction and research by current and future Yale Law School faculty and students.  A secondary but important purpose of our collection is to support legal research and scholarship by members of the Yale University community, the regional community of lawyers, and legal scholars from throughout the world.  

 

Collection policy reflects the Yale Law School's theoretical orientation, its strong tradition of interdisciplinary studies involving the social sciences and the humanities, and its longstanding interest in law viewed from a global and historical perspective.  We favor publications that take a scholarly or critical approach. We favor items published by university presses and other publishers who produce scholarly or authoritative materials. Works that are primarily oriented toward practicing attorneys or are produced by publishers with such an orientation are generally disfavored.

 

The above general principles guide some specific goals that we are committed to pursuing even in an information climate in which our budget is more constrained than in the past:

 

●  Continue to collect electronic legal resources of significant value to our faculty and students, unless a resource is prohibitively expensive.

 

●  Continue to comprehensively collect scholarly monographs for United States law and for public international law and human rights in the English language.

 

●  Continue to have one of the premier collections of legal history materials in the world. This means we will collect rare law books extensively, retain older materials, collect reprints, and collect current secondary sources on legal history extensively.

 

●  Continue to collect foreign-law materials extensively in order to serve the current and future research needs of our faculty and students and to enhance nationwide access to such materials.

 

●  Collect the social science, humanities, and general monographs most in demand by our faculty and students, to the extent that budget permits.

 

Increasingly, library acquisitions will take the form of providing access to materials through licenses to electronic resources rather than ownership of print.  Other forms of access to materials, such as reciprocal arrangements with other libraries for interlibrary lending and cooperative collection development, will probably also become more important. 

 

We are strongly committed to supporting the research and instructional needs of Yale Law School faculty and students.  Within reasonable limits imposed by budgets and our duties as stewards of University resources, we will purchase materials requested by law faculty, even though they may be expensive, duplicative of the University Library, or nonlegal in subject matter.  Even for requests by law students, we will attempt to purchase needed materials that are not overly expensive and not too far afield from law-related subjects.

 

The Lillian Goldman Law Library collects books, serials, electronic resources, and other  materials primarily to support instruction and research by current and future Yale Law School faculty and students.  A secondary but important purpose of our collection is to support legal research and scholarship by members of the Yale University community, the regional community of lawyers, and legal scholars from throughout the world.  
Collection policy reflects the Yale Law School's theoretical orientation, its strong tradition of interdisciplinary studies involving the social sciences and the humanities, and its longstanding interest in law viewed from a global and historical perspective.  We favor publications that take a scholarly or critical approach. We favor items published by university presses and other publishers who produce scholarly or authoritative materials. Works that are primarily oriented toward practicing attorneys or are produced by publishers with such an orientation are generally disfavored.
The above general principles guide some specific goals that we are committed to pursuing even in an information climate in which our budget is more constrained than in the past:
●  Continue to collect electronic legal resources of significant value to our faculty and students, unless a resource is prohibitively expensive.
    
●  Continue to comprehensively collect scholarly monographs for United States law and for public international law and human rights in the English language.
●  Continue to have one of the premier collections of legal history materials in the world. This means we will collect rare law books extensively, retain older materials, collect reprints, and collect current secondary sources on legal history extensively.
●  Continue to collect foreign-law materials extensively in order to serve the current and future research needs of our faculty and students and to enhance nationwide access to such materials.
    
●  Collect the social science, humanities, and general monographs most in demand by our faculty and students, to the extent that budget permits. 
Increasingly, library acquisitions will take the form of providing access to materials through licenses to electronic resources rather than ownership of print.  Other forms of access to materials, such as reciprocal arrangements with other libraries for interlibrary lending and cooperative collection development, will probably also become more important.  
We are strongly committed to supporting the research and instructional needs of Yale Law School faculty and students.  Within reasonable limits imposed by budgets and our duties as stewards of University resources, we will purchase materials requested by law faculty, even though they may be expensive, duplicative of the University Library, or nonlegal in subject matter.  Even for requests by law students, we will attempt to purchase needed materials that are not overly expensive and not too far afield from law-related subjects.

The Lillian Goldman Law Library collects books, serials, electronic resources, and other  materials primarily to support instruction and research by current and future Yale Law School faculty and students.  A secondary but important purpose of our collection is to support legal research and scholarship by members of the Yale University community, the regional community of lawyers, and legal scholars from throughout the world.  

 

Collection policy reflects the Yale Law School's theoretical orientation, its strong tradition of interdisciplinary studies involving the social sciences and the humanities, and its longstanding interest in law viewed from a global and historical perspective.  We favor publications that take a scholarly or critical approach. We favor items published by university presses and other publishers who produce scholarly or authoritative materials. Works that are primarily oriented toward practicing attorneys or are produced by publishers with such an orientation are generally disfavored.

 

The above general principles guide some specific goals that we are committed to pursuing even in an information climate in which our budget is more constrained than in the past:

 

●  Continue to collect electronic legal resources of significant value to our faculty and students, unless a resource is prohibitively expensive.

 

●  Continue to comprehensively collect scholarly monographs for United States law and for public international law and human rights in the English language.

 

●  Continue to have one of the premier collections of legal history materials in the world. This means we will collect rare law books extensively, retain older materials, collect reprints, and collect current secondary sources on legal history extensively.

 

●  Continue to collect foreign-law materials extensively in order to serve the current and future research needs of our faculty and students and to enhance nationwide access to such materials.

 

●  Collect the social science, humanities, and general monographs most in demand by our faculty and students, to the extent that budget permits.

 

Increasingly, library acquisitions will take the form of providing access to materials through licenses to electronic resources rather than ownership of print.  Other forms of access to materials, such as reciprocal arrangements with other libraries for interlibrary lending and cooperative collection development, will probably also become more important. 

 

We are strongly committed to supporting the research and instructional needs of Yale Law School faculty and students.  Within reasonable limits imposed by budgets and our duties as stewards of University resources, we will purchase materials requested by law faculty, even though they may be expensive, duplicative of the University Library, or nonlegal in subject matter.  Even for requests by law students, we will attempt to purchase needed materials that are not overly expensive and not too far afield from law-related subjects.
Collection Development Policy: Format and Duplication Guidelines

Materials are collected chiefly in print or digital format.  Print or microform are currently used as media for backfile retention of materials.  

 

Collection Development Policy: Serials

Digital format is preferred, as long as:

●  The resource exists in a stable, citable format (such as pdf with original pagination)

●  The resource is hosted by an established vendor or a governmental entity whose ability to archive and preserve is reliable.

 

Collection Development Policy: Databases

These are acquired in a number of different ways, especially through the New England Law Library Consortium; sometimes costs of law-related or governmental resources will be shared with other Yale libraries.  We negotiate for universitywide IP access whenever feasible, but when necessary databases are acquired for Law School community use only.  

 

Collection Development Policy: DVDs and Multimedia

Purchased to serve general research/collection needs, such as documentaries with a legal focus, or at the request of Yale Law School faculty or students.  We have a collection of popular law-related films that is housed in the Library for the use of the Yale community only.  The Library also subscribes to Audio Casefiles, which provides students with audio readings of cases and trial recordings and transcripts.

 

Collection Development Policy: Microforms

Not routinely acquired.  Purchased only when material of significant research value is not conveniently available in other formats or where there is a compelling processing or archival need. 

 

Collection Development Policy: CD-ROMs

Strongly disfavored.  Purchased only if the material is essential to a research or curricular need.  CD-ROMs received along with print materials are stored in the back pocket of the print item and noted in the catalog record.

 

Collection Development Policy: Future Trends

As new formats and new methods of accessing information become available and our patrons’ needs change, we will adjust our collection development accordingly.  Emerging categories include: datasets; software; documents, reports, and court filings in electronic and print formats; one-shot online access to articles and other resources; and archival materials.

 

Collection Development Policy: Policy on Duplication

For disciplines other than law, the Library relies heavily on other Yale libraries, unless faculty and student interests are strong enough in an area, and our budget sufficient, so that we need to duplicate University Library coverage in the area and can afford to do so.  The subjects in which such duplication is most likely are the following (see “Nonlegal Subjects” section below for more details):

 

criminal justice

economics

history

international relations

philosophy

political science

women's studies

 

Duplication of formats will be less feasible if budgets become tighter, but for now we will collect some materials in both electronic and print formats when patron needs or archival considerations require this.  Multiple print copies may be acquired for high-use titles.  See “Monographs and Treatises” and subsequent sections below for policies on multiple copies of Yale Law School faculty-authored books, YLS publications, and casebooks.

 

Collection Development Policy: Law Reviews and Legal Periodicals

The great majority of significant law journals will be acquired, according to the criteria below (but periodicals that are very expensive or commercially published will often not be acquired even if they fit within the criteria).  Over time the print categories will be gradually reduced.

 

Acquire in print:

●  Yale Law School publications.

●  Publications only available in print.

●  Approximately 100 most-cited of the main law reviews of U.S. law schools and approximately 100 most-cited of the specialized U.S. legal periodicals. 

●  Periodicals that Yale Law School faculty wish us to acquire in print.

●  Select specialized periodicals that are premier publications in fields of substantial interest at Yale Law School.

 

Access only in digital format:

●  Titles, not falling within the categories above, that are up to date and in a stable, citable format (such as pdf with original pagination) and are hosted by an established vendor or a governmental entity whose ability to archive and preserve is reliable.

 

Collection Development Policy: Nonlegal Journals

Preferred format is digital.  Library will provide access when needed by faculty or students for current research or to support the School’s research programs, unless the journal is prohibitively expensive.  Where possible, the Library relies on the holdings of other Yale libraries or interlibrary loan arrangements.  Nonlegal journals desired by Yale Law School faculty for routing will be acquired in print but will generally not be bound or retained.

 

Collection Development Policy: Newsletters

Newsletters, especially current-awareness digests of current cases, are generally not subscribed to.  Exceptions may be made where the newsletter covers a subject or organization of specific interest to our faculty or students, or where a faculty member has explicitly requested that we subscribe.  Newsletters will be retained and bound only when they are of long-term research value. 

 

Collection Development Policy: Looseleaf Services

Because of the expense and filing labor required by looseleaf services and the preference of most of our patrons for online sources, we collect only those print services that are basic tools in subjects of research interest to our faculty and students, and that are reasonably priced.  The recommendations of faculty members with an interest in the area of coverage will be given great weight.  Online versions of looseleaf services are subscribed to when they are likely to be useful to patrons and are reasonably priced.

 

Collection Development Policy: United States Government Documents

The Law Library is a selective depository (selecting 7% of items) in the U.S. government depository program.  The Government Documents Center collects federal documents more extensively (84% of items). 

 

We do not generally acquire U.S. state documents, only doing so for items requested by patrons or items of unusual importance.  The New Haven Free Public Library is a Connecticut state depository.

 

Collection Development Policy: Foreign and International Documents

Our preferred format is digital for foreign and international documents.  For United Nations documents, we rely primarily on the United Nations website, AccessUN, and Yale’s Government Documents Center, which is a partial U.N. depository.  For European Union documents, we rely primarily on the European Union website, Justis, Lawtel, and the Government Documents Center (an EU depository) for access.  We also rely on the Government Documents Center for Food and Agricultural Organization (full depository) and Canadian (selective depository) documents.

 

Collection Development Policy: Monographs and Treatises

As indicated above, we favor monographs with a scholarly or critical approach, and books published by university presses and other publishers who produce scholarly or authoritative books.  Works that are primarily oriented toward practicing attorneys or are produced by publishers with such an orientation are generally disfavored for print acquisition.  We do, however, attempt to collect the one or two leading practitioner-oriented treatises in each major area of United States law unless cost or low level of interest at Yale Law School make relying on Westlaw and Lexis or another database preferable.  Treatises that are in looseleaf format or have expensive supplementation are also disfavored.  Books in disfavored categories may be acquired if they are authored by distinguished scholars.

 

Works by current Yale Law School full-time faculty members are always collected.  Nine copies of such books are obtained, one for the Faculty Collection, one for Permanent Reserve, and seven for the stacks.  If the faculty work is a new edition of a title already held or an expensive item or a serial, fewer than nine copies may be collected.  If a faculty member contributes a chapter or essay or other small part to a compilation, far fewer than nine copies of the book may be collected and the book will generally not be included in the Faculty Collection. 

 

Collection Development Policy: Student Papers

We receive two copies of Yale Law School dissertations in hard copy, one of which is circulating and one of which is noncirculating, and also receive two microfiche copies of each from Hein as part of Hein's Legal Theses and Dissertations set.  Exemplary J.D. student papers may be added to our collection if a faculty member requests this.  Student papers receiving Yale Law School prizes are also added to our digital Legal Scholarship Repository.

 

Collection Development Policy: Yale Law School Publications

We try to collect all Yale Law School publications, generally two or three copies of each.  These are primarily classed in the YL collection in the Rare Books cage, although some copies may be classed in the open Library of Congress collection.  We also try to collect all books whose content is relevant to Yale Law School's history.  Alumni books that are donated to the Law School are added automatically, and we will generally purchase other alumni books if they have any relevance to our collection. 

 

Collection Development Policy: Reference Sources

Preferred form is digital unless print is required to maintain archival access or for ease of use.

 

Collection Development Policy: Casebooks

We acquire all casebooks published by Foundation, West, and Aspen, and selectively purchase ones published by Carolina Academic Press and other publishers.  Criteria for selective purchase include books used as texts in Yale Law School courses (multiple copies may be purchased for those used in popular classes), books authored by Yale Law School faculty, books requested by faculty, books by distinguished scholars, and books covering an area in which there are few other secondary sources.  

 

Collection Development Policy: Other Legal Education Materials

We acquire all Nutshells published by West.  We also acquire all West Hornbooks directed at students, and selectively acquire their Hornbooks directed at practitioners, and their Concise Hornbooks.  Other series for law students by West, LexisNexis, Wolters Kluwer, and other publishers are collected selectively.  Outlines and exam preparation materials are not collected.

 

Collection Development Policy: Law for the Layperson

We purchase all national titles published by Nolo Press on a package plan.  Other books about law directed at laypersons are purchased if they seem to be works of high quality in areas likely to benefit our patrons.  We do not generally acquire undergraduate texts or books directed at graduate students or practitioners in professional fields other than law (for example, books directed at medical students or physicians, or directed at accounting students or accountants). 

 

Collection Development Policy: Package Plans

We subscribe to the following package plans:

American Bar Association (also Hein microfiche set)

American Law Institute (also Hein microfiche set)

Council of Europe

Education Law Association

National Institute of Municipal Law Officers

Nolo Press (national titles) 

 

Collection Development Policy: Casual Reading

The Law Library maintains a small, selective print collection of popular magazines and newspapers for student and faculty use.  These are retained for a limited time only.  There is also a Popular Reading area, part of the permanent library collection, of books about law and literature or law and film.

 

Collection Development Policy: Faculty Office Copies

Because of limitations imposed by University policies and the structure of our online acquisitions system, we are unable to purchase materials for the personal or exclusive use of faculty members or students.  Materials are often purchased at the request of Law School patrons and routed to them, but such materials are subject to recall by other patrons.  More than one copy of an item may be purchased if multiple patrons are interested or likely to be interested in it.

 

Collection Development Policy: United States Session Laws

We collect and retain two print copies of United States Statutes at Large and one print copy of United States Code Congressional and Administrative News.  We collect and retain state session laws only for Connecticut (official and West) and New York.  Advance legislative services are collected only for Connecticut.

 

Collection Development Policy: United States Codes

We collect one print copy of United States Code, two print copies of United States Code Annotated, and one print copy of United States Code Service, retaining superseded volumes for each of these.  For state codes, we collect and retain a print annotated statutory code of every state and territory and the District of Columbia.  For Connecticut, the official code is acquired in addition to the West edition.

 

Collection Development Policy: United States Legislative Documents

Congressional publications are only rarely acquired in hard copy.  We subscribe to Congressional Universe, LexisNexis Hearings Digital Collection, and the comprehensive CIS microfiche collection.  We rely on THOMAS for Congressional bills and resolutions, and on various online sources for the Congressional Record.  Compiled legislative histories are not generally acquired; exceptions may be made for certain subjects such as copyright.   We do not generally collect state legislative documents.  

 

Collection Development Policy: United States Municipal Codes and Ordinances

We rely on access through Westlaw, Lexis, and the Internet, except for New Haven and New York, which we continue to get in paper.

 

 

 

Collection Development Policy: United States Administrative Materials

For the Federal Register, we rely solely on online sources.  The only state administrative register we collect is for Connecticut; we rely on Westlaw, Lexis, and the Internet for all other states.  We collect and retain one print copy of Code of Federal Regulations.  Connecticut is the only state administrative code received in hard copy.  For all other states, we rely on Westlaw, Lexis, and the Internet.

 

We obtain bound series of adjudications of federal administrative agencies that are clearly relevant to the research needs of our patrons, some in official versions and some in privately published versions.  We rely on Westlaw, Lexis, and the Internet for state administrative decisions.

 

Collection Development Policy: United States Judicial Materials

We collect and retain the following federal reporters in print, in most cases because they are not available online in pdf form:

 

Federal Claims Reporter

Federal Reporter (advance sheets only)

Federal Rules Decisions

Merit Systems Reporter

Military Justice Reporter

Supreme Court Reporter

United States Reports (two copies)

Veterans Appeals Reporter

 

All official state (including District of Columbia) and territorial court reporters are acquired.  The only West reporters received in paper are Atlantic Reporter, California Reporter, and New York Supplement.  Otherwise, we rely on Westlaw pdfs for access.

 

We collect and retain print copies of federal court rules as part of subscriptions to federal statutory sets.  For state court rules, we collect and retain one print copy for each state.  Federal judiciary agency reports are collected and retained in print if there is extensive patron interest in the title.

 

United States Supreme Court briefs are received by us in hard copy as a depository of the Court, and are received on microform in a comprehensive subscription (published by LexisNexis).  Selected cases are included in the Landmark Briefs and Arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States subscription. We maintain a microform subscription to the set of Oral Arguments of the United States Supreme Court.  Connecticut Supreme Court and Appellate Court briefs are received on microform.

 

The only digests that we collect and retain are Connecticut Digest and Supreme Court Digest.  For citators, we collect in print and retain only Shepard’s Acts and Cases by Popular Name, Shepard’s Connecticut Citations, and Shepard’s Law Review Citations.

 

Collection Development Policy: United States State Practice Material

We do not collect state legal encyclopedias in print, relying instead on Westlaw and Lexis.  Formbooks are collected in print only for Connecticut and, to a limited extent, New York.  We collect and retain print for only a few state bar journal titles.  For all other states, we rely on HeinOnline.  Jury instructions are collected in print for Connecticut and a few of the largest states only.

 

We maintain a nearly comprehensive collection of print treatises on Connecticut law.  An extremely limited number of general and specialized treatises are collected in print for other states, principally New York and California.  Otherwise we rely on Westlaw and Lexis for state treatises.  We do not generally collect continuing legal education publications in print.

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Collection Development Policy: Criminal Justice

The Law Library is the primary collecting unit at Yale for criminology, criminal justice administration, penology, police science, and forensic science.  In particular, we purchase significant books of a scholarly or innovative nature, as well as significant books on “true crime” or famous trials.  We collect only lightly in the areas of social work with delinquents and criminals, police science, penology, and juvenile delinquency, and also collect foreign-language materials only lightly.

 

 

Collection Development Policy: Economics

We collect scholarly or otherwise important books relating to the economics of regulation, taxation, antitrust, contracts, corporations, securities, and intellectual property.  We also purchase books specifically requested by Law School faculty.

 

Collection Development Policy: History

In the area of United States history, we collect widely books pertaining to legal and constitutional history, including books on the history of legislation, regulation, civil and human rights, and feminism.  Papers and biographies of judges and lawyers are collected extensively, as well as those of political figures who had a major influence on legal history.  British legal history is collected along similar lines, but the history of other nations is covered much less thoroughly.  History books are collected more extensively when the historical interests of Law School faculty members require us to do so.

 

Collection Development Policy: International Relations

To complement its comprehensive collection of international law, the Law Library collects a substantial number of monographs (principally in English) in the field of international relations. Major areas of interest include international relations theory, the history of international relations and American foreign policy, current American foreign policy, international organizations, regional organizations, diplomacy, disarmament, and conflicts and their peaceful resolution. The Law Library depends heavily on the University Library for serials and databases in this area, though it does maintain subscriptions to a few major international relations journals that are routed to faculty.  

 

Collection Development Policy: Library and Information Society

We purchase United States books and journals directly relevant to law librarianship or to government documents unless they are unusually expensive or poor-quality.  Books relating to cataloging are bought if the Head of Cataloging believes them to be useful.  Some books and journals relating to general librarianship and information science are collected, but general journals are usually not bound or retained and for the most part we rely on the University Library to collect in the library/information science area.

 

Collection Development Policy: Literature

The Law Library extensively collects nonfiction books relating to law-and-literature.  We also purchase major works of law-related fiction, both those of high artistic merit and bestsellers.  Among books relating to literature, the more interesting ones are shelved in the Popular Reading collection.

 

Collection Development Policy: Medicine and Science

We purchase significant books on health care policy, bioethics, and medical jurisprudence if they are likely to be of interest to law faculty or students.  Significant books on science and technology and government policy in these areas are purchased if they are relevant to research interests of our faculty and students, such as environmental law or information policy.  In addition, books on computer technology may be acquired if they are helpful to library or ITS staff.

 

Collection Development Policy: Political Science

The Law Library collects actively in the area of political science.  See Philosophy and Ethics (above) for our policies with regard to political theory.  We acquire scholarly and other useful books of significance relating to the Constitution, the judiciary, legislation, and regulation, as well as some significant books relating to Congress and the Presidency.  Specific policy issues on which we collect books include:

 

Animal rights

Biotechnology policy

Censorship

Children’s rights

Civil liberties

Civil rights

Disabilities rights

Drug policy

Environmental policy

Feminism and women’s rights

Financial crises

Foreign relations of United States (constitutional issues)

Homosexuality (political or philosophical issues)

Immigration

Information policy and e-government

Journalism (free speech or other law-related issues)

Labor relations

Native American rights

Nonprofit organizations

Pensions

Social security

Taxation, federal budget, public finance

Welfare state

 

We also collect materials that cover the developing structure of the EU government.

 

Collection Development Policy: Sociology, Psychology, and Anthropology

We generally rely on the University Library to collect books in the areas of sociology, psychology, and anthropology.  We will purchase books if they are specifically requested by law faculty or if their subject matter intersects with law (such as housing policy, anthropology of law, or forensic psychology).  In addition, there are some specific policy areas of particular interest to our patrons in which we purchase significant books, including children’s rights, drug policy, homosexuality, immigration, negotiation, and the welfare state.  See Criminal Justice (above) for description of our collecting policies on criminology and penology.

Collection Development Policy: Women's Studies

We collect books on women’s studies that relate to legal issues or to the research interests of law faculty and students.  Some of the topics of books we purchase include suffrage, liberation, violence against women, sex crimes, participation and representation of women in politics, feminism and religion, reproductive issues, history of women and the family, and women and the professions.  

 

Collection Development Policy: Foreign Law

The Law Library maintains a focused foreign law collection.  Because of the proliferation and increasing cost of worldwide legal materials, we must emphasize certain countries in our collecting.  In addition, the Internet has made available more primary sources from countries around the world.  We rely heavily on the collection development efforts of our cooperative partners in the Northeast Foreign Law Librarians Cooperative Group (NEFLLCG), as well as the foreign legal materials in the University Library.

For the larger jurisdictions of Europe and Latin America, the Law Library has historically collected a wide range of legal treatises. Legal history, constitutional law, civil rights, and environmental law receive a special emphasis in the collection, but many other subjects are collected, including civil law and procedure, criminal law and procedure, commercial law, administrative law, and other areas of public and private law.

We emphasize the languages of English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian in our collecting, and for many jurisdictions no materials are collected in the vernacular. Gifts to the Law Library, however, afford a diversity of languages in the collection.  We depend upon the Sterling Memorial Library to acquire legal materials in difficult vernacular languages such as Arabic or Japanese. 

 

Collection Development Policy: United Kingdom

The Law Library has a comprehensive historical British law collection, with many of the older volumes in the rare book collection.  The historical collection is also supplemented and supported by online databases (Early English Books Online, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Making of Modern Law: Treatises, etc.) and the microform sets for eighteenth, nineteenth-, and early twentieth-century legal treatises from Research Publications.   Also, the Library regularly purchases reprints of historical law books.


The Library maintains extensive holdings of collection of current treatises, including Scottish works, selected in conformity with the general criteria established for American treatises, emphasizing scholarly content, the reputations of authors and publishers, and subject

needs.  While we seek ot have an outstanding collection of national-level materials from the United Kingdom, some areas will be treated more comprehensively than others.  We place particular emphasis on legal history, legal philosophy and jurisprudence, constitutionalism, and corporation law, and try to have a strong selection of significant works on the other areas of the law.

 

Most student texts and casebooks are not collected.  Practitioner-oriented materials and expensive multivolume looseleaf treatises are rarely acquired.  We collect even-numbered editions of basic English law treatises, such as those in the Sweet & Maxwell Common Law Library, when funds are available, pursuant to an agreement with Harvard Law Library, which collects the odd-numbered editions.  We have historical collections of most academic law journals, as well as a less comprehensive collection of privately published law reviews and journals.


The Library collects the Statutes in Force (microfiche) and the annual session laws (HMSO edition and Law Reports edition), supported by Lexis and, for very recent legislation, by Lawtel. We collect Statutory Instruments in print.  For access to legislative materials, we rely on the University Library.  With respect to law reports, the Library holds the incorporated Council of Law Reporting court reports (four series), together with the Weekly Law Reports, the privately published All England Law Reports, and a few topical reports, such as Lloyd’s Law Reports and Criminal Appeal Reports.  We maintain the law-finders Halsbury's Laws of England, Halsbury's Statutes, and Halsbury’s Statutory Instruments in print, although replacing the print versions with online versions is under investigation.

 

Collection Development Policy: Canada

The Law Library collects Canadian legal materials less extensively than it does British materials, but still strives to have an adequate collection.  The Library also subscribes to the Quicklaw database, and Canadian law has a significant Web presence.  We rely on online sources for the Statutes and Statutory Instruments.  We collect Dominion Law Reports and Canada Supreme Court Reports in print, and hold a few topical reporters such as Canadian Human Rights Reporter and Canada Tax Cases.   The Library has historical runs of provincial statutes, codes, and court reports, but no current subscriptions.  For the Canada Treaty Series we rely on the Canadian depository copy at the University’s Government Documents Center.

For Canadian monographs, special attention has been given to the treatment of constitutional issues, but significant books are purchased on a wide range of topics.  Ontario is the only province for which monographs, albeit relatively few, are collected. Expensive looseleaf sets are rarely acquired.  We collect the significant Canadian law reviews and journals, but not the practice-oriented ones.   Government documents are rarely collected.

 

Collection Development Policy: Australia and New Zealand

For Australia, we no longer collect session laws, but the Statutory Rules are kept current.  We subscribe to some court reports such as the Commonwealth Law Reports and Australian Law Reports.  Some topical court reports are available online and not collected in print.  Two digests are collected: Australian Digest and Australian Legal Monthly Digest, as is the encyclopedia Laws of Australia. State primary sources are spotty in print, but there is a fabulous Internet source for Australian legislation and court reports, Australasian Legal Information Institute AustLII .

We collect significant Australian law reviews and journals, both academic and commercially published.  The Library purchases legal treatises relevant to the research interests of our faculty and students. Many of our looseleaf subscriptions have been cancelled.

The collection of New Zealand statutes and statutory regulations is current, as are the New Zealand Law Reports.  Treatises from New Zealand are  collected in the standard collection foci: legal history, constitutional law, human rights, and environmental law. 

 

Collection Development Policy: Europe

The Law Library emphasizes Europe in its collection development, and within Europe focuses on a core number of major countries: France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands (in English), Portugal, and Switzerland are collected to a much lesser extent. Materials are collected in both English and other relevant Western European languages. With  rare exceptions, the Law Library does not collect in Dutch, Greek, Hungarian, Romanian, or the Baltic and Scandinavian languages, and purchases very little in Russian (though its historical collection has many Russian titles) and other Slavic languages. As part of its NEFLLCG cooperative collecting responsibilities, the Law Library supports Vigorous Collecting Responsibilities (VCRs) for Italy, Spain, Croatia, and Sweden (the last, only English titles). Monographs are collected from wide-ranging subjects for these VCR jurisdictions and the core jurisdictions, but are more limited in scope for the other countries. 

In addition to its extensive monographic collection, the Law Library subscribes to a limited number of foreign language law journals, as well as codes, session laws, and court reports.  Many of the primary sources are becoming available online, often for free. In the past few years, we have greatly bolstered our collection by subscribing to a number of fee-based foreign law databases.  The Law Library does not subscribe to gazettes.  The Slavic- language jurisdictions in particular, but other jurisdictions as well, are supported by the collections in the Sterling Memorial Library.

English-language treatises about the political and legal systems of Russia and Eastern Europe are acquired in lieu of treatises in the Slavic vernacular.  Very few journals, codes, session laws, or looseleafs are collected. 

 

Collection Development Policy: European Union

The Lillian Goldman Library has an extensive collection of European Union materials in English and to a lesser extent in French, German, and Italian, but we still probably only collect a small fraction of what is published. The Library further relies on the online access to primary law and EU published reports and monographs provided by the EU itself.  There are significant materials on both Lexis and Westlaw and we subscribe to Justis's Celex database, Lawtel, and European Access Plus, online databases that focus on the EU.  The Library currently collects the Official Journal on microfiche and has both official and unofficial reports in paper.  The Law Library is supported by the depository of European Union documents at the University’s Government Documents Library and the very capable reference services provided by the GDC.

 

We add several hundred monographs to the collection each year covering a broad spectrum of topics, but some topics such as banking, labor, and taxation are only minimally collected. Reflecting the focus of the Law School faculty and students, the Library concentrates the collecting of monographs on constitutionalism, especially structure, philosophy, jurisprudence, and federalism.  We also collect a small number of journals that specifically focus on the EU. The monthly European Access provides a useful index to the literature. 

 

Collection Development Policy: Africa

The Law Library collects a very few monographs from Africa.  It belongs to the Library of Congress Cooperative Acquisitions Program for East Africa, which also provides a small number of journal titles.  There is little jurisdictional focus other than Kenya and South Africa.  This small collection is complemented by the acquisition of a number of Western European and American treatises that treat legal topics, and is also supported by several fee-based databases. 

 

Collection Development Policy: East Asia

The Law Library comprehensively collects treatises on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean law published in English.  Subject emphasis is placed on constitutional law and rule of law, legal history, administrative law, judicial reform and the legal profession, criminal law and procedure, civil law and procedure, and human rights.  Antitrust and competition law, environmental law, commercial law, laws relating to corporations, taxation, insurance, and securities are selectively collected. 

 

For China and related jurisdictions, we collect print materials published in the vernacular based on collection guidelines provided by the China Law Center.  Emphasis is placed on materials relating to the laws of the People’s Republic of China; treatises relating to laws of Taiwan and the Special Administration Regions of Hong Kong and Macau are selectively collected.  To facilitate remote access to research resources from the offsite facility of the China Law Center, electronic formats are favored.  Print primary sources and serial publications are selectively acquired.  We collaborate with the East Asian Library in developing print historical materials, selected primary sources, and electronic resources.

For Japan and the Koreas, we collect treatises on Japanese and Korean laws published in English.  Seminal treatises on Japanese law published in the vernacular and in the subject areas stated above are selectively collected.  Some Japanese and Korean journals and primary sources are received through gifts and exchanges.

 

Collection Development Policy: South Asia

For a number of  decades the Law Library participated in the Library of Congress Cooperative Acquisitions Program for India, and it has only been in the last year that it has terminated its participation for monographs.  We continue to participate in the serials portion of the program. With this decision the Indian collection will lose much of its comprehensiveness, but the tradeoff is a much more focused collection in the areas of greatest interest: legal history, constitutional law, environmental law, human rights, and international law.  The Indian collection is supported by the Manupatra database.  The Law Library continues to participate in both the monographs and serials programs of the Library of Congress Cooperative Acquisition Program for Pakistan. 

 

Collection Development Policy: Southeast Asia

The Law Library collects treatises in English and other Western European languages about the legal history and systems of Southeast Asia.  Otherwise, the only legal materials we collect from this area of the world come from Singapore or from occasional gifts. 

 

Collection Development Policy: Middle East

From time to time graduate students request that books be ordered from Israel in Hebrew, and we do receive a very few journals in Hebrew, but we are unable to handle the verrnacular languages,  Arabic and Persian. The Law Library does collect treatises and a small number of journals in English and other Western European languages on the legal history, the conflicts, and the legal systems of the Middle Eastern countries. The Law Library also participates in the monographic portion (only in Western European languages) of the Library of Congress Cooperative Acquisitions program for the Middle East, but this does not deliver many titles. 

 

Collection Development Policy: Latin America

The Lillian Goldman Law Library’s Latin American and Caribbean collection is quickly expanding along with the desires and needs of YLS faculty, students, and researchers.  The largest collections are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.  Chile is a Vigorous Collecting Responsibility of ours within the NEFFLCG consortium; Colombia was at one time a PCR (Primary Collecting Responsibility) within the Research Libraries Group.  Bolivia, Peru, and Venezuela are emerging and popular jurisdictions.  Although legal material from other nations is often scarce and difficult to obtain, we purchase select items when available and pertinent to the collection, especially in the area of human rights and constitutional law.  Naturally, the vast majority of legal material from the Americas is in the vernacular; we will purchase English-language material when available. 

We still rely heavily on print material in Latin America.  We purchase treatises and monographs in the areas previously mentioned (primarily legal history, constitutional law, civil rights, and environmental law; secondarily civil law and procedure, criminal law and procedure, commercial law, administrative law, and other public and private law).  For the major jurisdictions, we also attempt to collect national legislation and high court decisions.  We maintain where possible a current (within three to four years) selection of codes with commentary, especially the five primary codes:  civil, civil procedure, criminal, criminal procedure, and commercial.   We continue to receive law journals from a variety of jurisdictions, including nearly all the Latin American journals indexed in the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals. 

We do not purchase the national gazettes of Latin America and the Caribbean, nor do we purchase practice materials and university text books unless they are the only available items on a particular important topic.  Many jurisdictions produce a very small amount of legal material with a very limited number of copies making it extremely difficult to obtain.  We often receive gifts of books published by former Yale Law School graduate students living and working in Latin America. 

The Library is increasingly turning to online databases for access to Latin American law.  We subscribe to vLex Global, which is beginning to cover the law of Latin America, such as many of the national gazettes and a selection of codes, legislation, and court decisions.  We also subscribe to the InterAm database of the National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade, which contains significant national legislation focusing on business law.  There are also several open-access databases with a smattering of primary law and secondary material from the Americas.  As with print material, the vast majority of online resources are in the vernacular.

 

Collection Development Policy: Comparative Law

The Law Library strives to maintain an extensive collection of comparative law in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, though certainly more of an emphasis is placed on English materials. The collection reflects the strong interests of the Yale Law faculty in comparative law over the years. The historical collection is especially extensive. Comparative method and the history of comparative legal study are collected comprehensively, and a large number of works comparing the law of different jurisdictions in various facets of private and public law are acquired.

The International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law, and other recently published reference books, augment a collection of bibliographies, yearbooks, and casebooks. The Law Library also collects the major law journals and yearbooks in the field. Reprints of classic works are purchased as they become available. We have retained some looseleafs that focus on a particular topic of law for a number of different countries. 

 

Collection Development Policy: Roman, Ancient, and Canon Law

The Law Library acquires a significant number of currently published treatises in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish on ancient, Roman, and canon law. As part of this collecting effort, we purchase a substantial number of Vatican publications.  We also quite selectively collect law journals in these areas. 

 

Collection Development Policy: Religious Legal Systems

While there are a limited number of legal materials in Arabic and Hebrew in the Islamic and Judaic collections of the Law Library, we rely heavily on the vernacular holdings in the Near Eastern and Judaica collections of the Sterling Memorial Library. The Law Library does acquire  a significant number of monographs on Islamic and Judaic law in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, as well as a few journals relating to these religious legal systems.  To a much lesser extent, we collect materials on the legal systems emanating from the Eastern religions. 

 

Collection Development Policy: International Law

The Law Library maintains one of the major academic international law collections in the country to support research and the courses on international law in the Law School curriculum. Historically, there was an emphasis on public international law, but over the past decade there has been significant collection building in international corporate, financial, and trade law and, to a more limited extent, banking law.  The library collects materials in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. 

 

Collection Development Policy: International Primary Sources

While the library has in its collection many historical print sources, most access to primary sources is now through the Internet. Examples of print primary sources include the Consolidated Treaty Series, the League of Nations Treaty Series, the United Nations Treaty Series, and Foreign Relations of the United States.

 

Collection Development Policy: International Treatises

Each year the Law Library adds a large number of treatises on international law to its strong monographic collection on international law.  Particular strengths include works on human rights, the history of international law, boundaries, humanitarian law, international criminal law, international environmental law, refugees, treaties, and the United Nations. The treatise collection is supplemented with reference books, collections of essays, and Festschriften. 

 

Collection Development Policy: International Serials

The international law treatises are supported by a strong collection of international law journals. While there is increasing reliance on the online format, the most significant of these will be retained in paper format. New paper subscriptions are generally not initiated unless a title is requested by the law faculty.

 

The Law Library subscribes to a number of monographic serial titles focusing on international law.  Over the past few years the Library has cancelled many international law looseleafs.

 

Collection Development Policy: International Organization Documents

See Foreign and International Documents in the Guidelines for Specific Types of Material section above.  In the past the Law Library has collected compendia of international organization documents, and will do so in the future if there is a demand.  

 

Collection Development Policy: Rare Books

The Rare Book Collection houses materials that require special handling because of their rarity,

condition, monetary value, or special research value.  It includes early and modern printed

books as well as manuscripts.

 

The Rare Book Collection supports the legal history curriculum in the Yale Law School, and research in legal history and related fields by students and faculty of Yale Law School and Yale University and by researchers from the scholarly community worldwide.  The collection also supports an active exhibition program, other outreach activities, and digital initiatives.

 

Collection Scope

 

The collection has particularly strong holdings in Anglo-American law, Roman law, canon law, and early modern Italian law.  Its most significant components include:

 

  • The William Blackstone Collection, the world's largest and most comprehensive collection of the published works of Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780), author of Commentaries on the Laws of England, the most influential book in the Anglo-American common law tradition.
  • The Founders Collection, books that were once owned by the founders of the Yale Law School (Seth Staples, Samuel Hitchcock, and David Daggett) and that formed the original nucleus of the school's law library.
  • The Faculty Collection, monographs published by Yale Law School faculty.
  • Legal manuscripts from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries, including medieval treatises, English case reports, early American lawyers' account books, and nineteenth-century student notebooks from the law schools at Yale, Columbia, and Litchfield, Connecticut.
  • Approximately 4000 published trial accounts, with a special emphasis on American trials.
  • Italian municipal statutes from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries (800 printed volumes and 55 manuscripts), probably the largest such collection in the Western Hemisphere.
  • The Roman-Canon Law Collection of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, on deposit since 2006, totaling over 1600 volumes.
  • The German Law Collection of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 826 volumes acquired in 2007.
  • The Walter L. Pforzheimer Collection of books and manuscripts on copyright.
  • The Juvenile Jurisprudence Collection, over 200 law-related children's books, the gift of Morris L. Cohen, Professor Emeritus and Librarian Emeritus, Yale Law School.
  • The eighteenth-century law libraries of Lewis Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and John Worthington, an attorney in Springfield, Mass.
  • The Law Library is the official archival repository for the Supreme Court bobblehead dolls produced by the journal The Green Bag.

 

Current Collecting Fields

 

The Rare Book Collection actively collects materials in the following fields:

 

  • The works of William Blackstone (including variant editions), reprint editions, autograph manuscripts by Blackstone, student notebooks on Blackstone’s Commentaries, works based on Blackstone, works about Blackstone, and ephemera relating to Blackstone.  As funds permit, we also acquire second copies of Blackstone editions with contemporary bindings, significant annotations, or other copy-specific features that enhance the collection’s research value for legal history and bibliography.
  • American trials, including accounts prepared for the legal profession and popular accounts.  We acquire individual manuscripts, small manuscript collections, and ephemera documenting individual trials.  Excluded are large modern collections of litigation materials.  Also excluded are appellate briefs, except those relating to historically significant events.
  • Illustrated law -- law books with illustrations, or books with illustrations about the law. These include illustrations of legal concepts or illustrations of technical matters covered by the law (as found in books on mining law, water law, or patent and trademark litigation), as well as satirical images, illustrated trials, or collections of legal portraits. Law books with allegorical frontispieces or engraved title pages are of interest if the image has some legal content. Excluded are law books where the only illustration is a frontispiece portrait of the author.
  • Italian statutes -- statutes and ordinances of Italian cities, towns, city-states, and kingdoms from before Italian unification, generally from northern Italy and the Papal States, and including both printed books and manuscripts.  Of  secondary interest are statutes of guilds and general treatises on Italian law.  As the collection grows and funds permit, we will also acquire books and manuscripts on the law of southern Italy (Kingdom of Sicily and Kingdom of Naples).
  • Yale Law School -- books, student notebooks, and ephemera with significant connections to the Yale Law School, and also all serials and pamphlets published by the Yale Law School.
  • Connecticut law -- both printed books and manuscripts, including notebooks of students at the Litchfield Law School.
  • Important editions of the classic works in English, American, Roman, canon, and European law.
  • The history of the legal profession, including printed books, printed ephemera, and manuscripts.
  • Law-related children’s books.
  • Out-of-print monographs authored by Yale Law School faculty (current monographs are routinely acquired for the Faculty Collection along with other copies for the circulating collection).

 

General Policies

 

  • We strongly prefer printed books with artifactual value, such as contemporary bindings, significant bindings, marginal annotations, and provenance markings.
  • We strongly prefer materials not already represented in digital collections, or with copy-specific features that set them apart from copies available online.
  • We typically do not acquire items already held by other Yale University Library collections, with the exception of materials for the William Blackstone Collection.
  • When acquiring materials from dealers outside the United States, we insist on obtaining all required export licenses and we scrupulously adhere to the letter and spirit of applicable cultural heritage laws.