Penn State Dickinson School of Law

Acquisitions Policy for Information Resources

Goal

The Library tries to bring together all the materials and resources necessary to thoroughly train law students in the skills of legal research and to make available, either through ownership or borrowing arrangements with other libraries, all the materials and resources necessary to support the curricular and research interests of the Dickinson School of Law community.

Background

Library collection development is an art not a science. From past experience and knowledge of the interests of the library’s users, it is possible to know with some certainty many of the resources they will need, but the needs and interests of the community are constantly changing with new faculty, new course offerings and the development of new subject areas in the field of law. To provide resources to meet the users needs it is necessary that the selector of materials for the library make informed guesses as to what those needs might be. The collection should be developed so that the library has a broad coverage of the entire field of law and more complete coverage in areas where the curriculum and research interest of the community are intense. Some attention must also be paid to the preservation of information so that it will be available to researchers in the future.

General Guidelines for Collection Development

Where the same information is available in different formats (paper, microform, electronic), the selector will take into account the cost.
The Library is obligated by its status as a U.S. Government Documents Depository Library to maintain the materials acquired through this program and make them available to the general public.
The Library has some reciprocal obligation to collect and preserve materials that will be of use to other libraries as we expect them to maintain materials upon which we rely. We have ongoing commitments to participate in cooperative arrangements with other libraries.
The items listed below are intended as a guide for the collection of information resources for our Library:
1. All Pennsylvania legal materials are acquired. Where necessary, multiple copies, sufficient to meet the demand are acquired.
2. Federal Materials: all federal case decisions, all federal statutory materials, and all federal administrative regulations and decisions are acquired. Access to federal materials available over the internet is maintained on public use terminals. DSL is a partial U. S. Government Documents Depository Library. Selection of Depository materials is covered by a separate policy.
3. Other States: A statutory code for each state, administrative codes for selected states, attorneys general opinions for all states and selected official court reports are acquired. Internet access to state legal materials is maintained.
4. Bar Association Materials: The American Bar Association Package Plan and most state bar journals are acquired.
5. All of the West National Reporter System with Decennial, Regional, Pennsylvania and selected other states' digests are acquired. These support the teaching of legal research
6. Legal Periodicals: All journals indexed in the Index to Legal Periodicals, most materials indexed in Legal Resources Index, and selected journals indexed in the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals are acquired.
7. Bibliographies and Indices: Basic acquisition tools (e.g., Books in Print, Standard Periodical Directory), standard legal bibliographies, periodical indices listed in item 6, and most Shepard Citators are acquired. Indices for UN Documents, European Union Documents, and U.S. Government Documents are purchased.
8. Hornbooks and Casebooks: All hornbooks are purchased (in multiple copies where demand warrants). Casebooks and other classroom materials are not collected unless little else is available on the subject.
9. Treatises are purchased guided by the following emphasis in subject areas. Treatises which involve frequent and expensive updating unsupported by curricular needs or research interests are avoided.
  1. Subject areas of strong emphasis:
    1. Advocacy
    2. Commercial Law
    3. Constitutional Law — especially U.S. Supreme Court materials including biographies of Justices
    4. Human Rights
    5. International Law
    6. Professional Responsibility — including comparative law materials
  2. Subject areas of intermediate collection efforts:
    1. All other subjects offered in the curriculum
  3. Subject areas of only general interest:
    1. Canon Law
    2. Criminology
    3. General Works
    4. Trials
10. British and Commonwealth Materials: Selected English statutes, caselaw, digest and materials of historical importance are acquired. Canadian, Austrialian, New Zealand and other Commonwealth materials are acquired selectively. Lexis is relied on for more complete coverage.
11. Foreign Law: Cases and statutes from a few selected jurisdictions are acquired. Codes from civil law countries (especially those from which we draw LL.M. students) are purchased. Emphasis is placed on Austria, France, Italy and Germany.
12. Legal Newsletters in specific subject areas are not purchased except in unusual circumstances such as a lack of other sources of information in the field. Such circumstances include specific faculty projects or moot court competition problems.
13. International Documents: United Nations, European Union and Unidroit materials are collected.
14. Looseleaf Services: at least one looseleaf service for each subject in the curriculum is acquired if such a service is available. These may be in paper, digital or both formats, if interest and use warrant.
15. Computer Assisted Legal Research: Lexis and Westlaw are provided for students, faculty, and staff, including access from home. This access is provided over the internet along with home internet access for all students who have the necessary hardware. Other CALR systems may be made available based on cost and value.
16. Every effort is made to acquire all materials necessary to support faculty research interests and to support those seminar subjects in which the students do intensive research.
17. Clinic Library: A branch library is operated in the Clinic Offices with a basic practice collection with emphasis on Family Law and Disabilities Law.
18. Popular Culture Materials: To enrich the law school experience the Library collects videotapes of popular films that either illustrate the image of lawyers in our society or supplement the curriculum. On a very selective basis books of a popular or generally enriching nature are purchased.

Revised: May 15, 2000