College and Research Libraries By F R E D E R I C K C . H I C K S Professional Aspects of Law Librarianship Dr. Hicks is professor of law and law librarian in the School of Law, Yale Uni- versity. WITHIN MY o w n experience I have seen public librarians as a class look askance at the professional standards of college and university librarians. T h e y in turn have looked askance at special li- brarians and p a r t i c u l a r l y at l a w librarians. T o some extent each g r o u p w a s justified in its attitude of superiority. T h e r e w a s implicit in it, h o w e v e r , a f u n d a m e n t a l error. W e spoke glibly of professional de- velopment, as though all libraries should or could be poured into the same mold, to come out rounded into shape, and stamped w i t h the hall m a r k of quality. T h e r e is of course a substantial substratum of tech- nique and doctrine applicable to all li- braries of w h a t s o e v e r kind. W e are all engaged in the same sort of w o r k looking to the accomplishment of like ends. W h e r e w e differ is in the emphasis w h i c h w e place in different kinds of libraries upon the various techniques used. T h i s emphasis is determined by the purposes f o r w h i c h the respective libraries exist. W e cannot evaluate the professional develop- ment of all kinds of libraries by standards set f o r a single dominant group, the public library, f o r example, because those stand- ards w e r e themselves chosen in response to special needs. W e must ask, f o r each group, these questions: ( i ) professional development f o r w h a t p u r p o s e ; ( 2 ) f o r the benefit of w h a t clientele; ( 3 ) to make useful w h a t kinds of m a t e r i a l ? What Is "Professional Development"? F a i l u r e to keep such questions in mind is one of the reasons w h y librarians are sometimes accused of fostering a kind of professionalism, the motto of w h i c h might be " L i b r a r i e s f o r the L i b r a r i a n s , " instead of " L i b r a r i e s f o r the R e a d e r s . " T o o easily w e f a l l into the error of m a k i n g our card catalogs chiefly f o r our o w n use, adhering to the rule " l e t the reader f a l l w h e r e he m a y . " T o o easily also w e adopt a professional attitude w i t h regard to other types of libraries, w h i c h can stifle initia- tive w i t h i n our o w n ranks. A larger n u m - ber of general librarians k n o w w h a t a l a w l i b r a r y is like than w a s f o r m e r l y the case, but still the number is small. I t is sig- nificant that there w a s no course in l a w librarianship until the summer of 1 9 3 7 . I t is significant not as an indication of the backwardness of l a w librarians, but as an evidence of the unpreparedness of l i b r a r y schools to give such training. J u d g e d by the standards w h i c h I have mentioned, law- librarians w e r e not in f a c t , until a score of years ago, deficient in professional attain- ments. I confess that a f t e r I became a l a w librarian, f o l l o w i n g seventeen years of ex- perience in f o u r other types of libraries, I w a s inclined to undervalue the profes- 221 sional achievements of my new colleagues. T h e y did not habitually talk the language of library schools, or of other types of libraries. W h e n they did use the phrase- ology, they sometimes gave it a different meaning. T h e y w e r e diverse in education, training and experience. J u d g e d by gen- eral library standards, they did not consti- tute a professional group. B u t it soon became apparent that there w e r e other and better standards by which to j u d g e them. A l m o s t to a person, they w e r e doing that which is the foundation of all successful librarianship: adapting library techniques selectively to the books and clientele to be used and served. T h e y w e r e applying li- brary skills, so f a r as they w e r e useful, to their o w n particular problems, and stead- fastly resisting the urge to adopt such skills indiscriminately, even at the risk of being thought to be unprogressive. First Stage of Law Library Development O n l y in comparatively recent library time have l a w librarians paid much atten- tion to card catalogs, to subject classifica- tion, and to notation schemes for any kind of book classification. W h y w a s this so? I t w a s not because they w e r e w h o l l y ignorant of the value of such devices in the libraries w h e r e they w e r e used. I t w a s because they already had substitutes for them which in the state of l a w library development at that time w e r e serving very w e l l . T h e i r books were listed, they w e r e arranged, and they were referred to by something like call numbers. A t the time of which I speak, l a w li- braries, w i t h a f e w notable exceptions, w e r e small, and they w e r e used almost exclusively by lawyers, judges, l a w stu- dents and professors for the purpose of reading technical l a w . M a d e up largely of sets of books—statutes, reports and periodicals—and of treatises usually called for by authors' names, no great problems of shelf arrangement presented themselves. T h e r e w a s an actual classification accord- ing to an easily understood scheme which tradition had established. C a l l numbers w e r e not needed because custom had pro- vided substitutes—the " c i t a t i o n s " used by l a w y e r s . T h e latter got their citations f r o m printed digests and subject indexes. T h i s great system of reference had already been developed by lawyers, legal w r i t e r s and l a w book publishers, and did not need to be invented by l a w librarians. L a w , for lawyers, w a s more elaborately indexed by subject in printed form than w a s any other class of literature. T h e test of a good l a w librarian w a s whether he knew this elab- orate system of reference. T h i s meant that he could concentrate most of his effort on reference w o r k — t h e important job of making the contents of the books in his library available to readers. Since so many of his necessary tools were already in printed form, it w a s natu- ral for him to w a n t his library catalog also to be printed, and so most l a w li- braries made printed books of their cata- logs, keeping them up to date on cards only until a supplement could be printed. I have said that the books w e r e clas- sified, that is, grouped by criteria of similarity. T h e printed indexes to the con- tents of sets were, and still are, arranged chiefly by subject. T h i s made subject classification of the books themselves of secondary importance. T h e l a w y e r w a s ac- customed to w o r k according to a r o u t i n e — he found his references, then got or called for the books to which his citations re- ferred. T h e librarian w a s expected to arrange the books so that each individual volume could be found as quickly as pos- 222 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES sible. T h i s result, he had learned, could best be achieved when a " f o r m " classifica- tion w a s used. T h u s the small l a w library for the ex- clusive use of l a w y e r s had its o w n tight little professional system made up of ( I ) printed subject indexes, ( 2 ) printed lists of books kept up to date by card catalogs and printed supplements, and ( 3 ) shelf arrangement suitable for quickly finding individual books when they w e r e called for by citations. T h e whole constituted a scheme for serving readers by bibliographi- cal means which the latter understood and approved. F o r the kind of library which I have described, it represented a satisfac- tory stage of professional development. M o r e o v e r , this system still has merit for handling part of a modern l a w library's problems. I look upon the above as an honorable chapter in the history of l a w library pro- fessional development, but I w o u l d be the last to say that it is sufficient today. N e w conditions demand that there be added other types of professional efficiency. G r o w t h in size of individual libraries is of itself sufficient to call for new skills. B u t this g r o w t h has been brought about not merely by adding more l a w books. T h e scope of the libraries as to subject matter has been broadened in response to demands of readers. A n interesting situa- tion has developed in which l a w y e r s are asking for non-legal and quasi-legal ma- terial, while laymen are asking l a w li- braries for legal material. T h e latter have become l a w book conscious, while technically trained readers are finding the traditional l a w book inadequate for their professional needs. T h e first of these re- sults may be attributed to steadily increas- ing activities of government agencies bringing l a w home to every citizen; the second is due largely to new methods of teaching and study in the l a w schools. T h u s , by the very standards which I have suggested for j u d g i n g the degree of professional development in any library, the l a w librarian is forced to broaden his training in order to meet new needs. N e w kinds of books, and interest in aspects of l a w different from those disclosed by the printed subject indexes, call for more elaborate cataloging and classification, and widen the field of required reference w o r k . Professional Organization of Law Li- brarians Development of the professional organ- ization of l a w librarians has been in stages which parallel those of individual librar- ies. T h e formation in 1 9 0 7 of the A m e r i - can Association of L a w Libraries w a s in response to a demand for something dif- ferent from w h a t w a s then available to the members of the A m e r i c a n L i b r a r y Associa- tion. T h a t association furnished some of the charter members of the new associa- tion, and some of them were not l a w li- brarians. T h e s e latter thought they saw in the technique and problems of l a w li- brarians something that might be of value to them in their general libraries. T h e y w e r e right in assuming that the bibli- ographical tools of the l a w are w o r t h k n o w i n g about. T h e first major enterprise of the A m e r i - can Association of L a w Libraries w a s the preparation of a printed index, the Index to Legal Periodicals, now in its thirty- third volume. It does for legal periodicals in the English-speaking w o r l d w h a t the W i l s o n indexes do for general periodicals in English. I t is a subject index according to legal headings, f o l l o w i n g the general scheme of the American Digest System. JUNE, 1940 23 7 A l t h o u g h it is primarily a l a w y e r ' s tool, the headings are, in a surprising number of instances, the same as those used in the W i l s o n indexes (see " T h e M o d e r n M e - d u s a , " Law Library Journal, 1 4 : 7 - 1 4 , A p r . 1 9 2 1 ) . I t filled a gap in the l a w - yer's bibliographical equipment, since no provision had been made for continuing the J o n e s index which then ended w i t h the year 1 8 9 9 . T h e second important enterprise w a s the publication of the proceedings of the an- nual conferences, a modest pamphlet which has n o w developed into the Law Library Journal, issued six times a year. I n the early years of this periodical, one sees attempts to improve the morale of l a w librarians, make them conscious of common problems, and bind them together into a professional group. F o r t u n a t e l y for the f u t u r e of the association, a high degree of success w a s attained. W i t h o u t such a result, it w o u l d have been impossible to c a r r y through the professional projects that had been initiated. M a n y important articles have appeared in the Journal on the technical processes peculiar to l a w li- braries, but there has a l w a y s been a pre- ponderance of bibliographical material useful as check lists, and to improve refer- ence service. T h u s the publications of the association, and the nature of its dis- cussions at conferences f o r many years conformed to the kind of professional equipment which I have described as char- acteristic of individual l a w libraries. A s times have changed, new emphases have come. Stirred by demands of readers for a different kind of service, stress has been placed on education for l a w librarian- ship. A standing committee, w o r k i n g w i t h committees of other associations, has been active, and practical results have been achieved. I n 1 9 3 7 , the Association of A m e r i c a n L a w Schools adopted an article of association which requires that all member schools shall have " a qualified librarian, whose principal activities are de- voted to the development and maintenance of an effective library service." T h e next step, n o w under consideration, is the im- plementing of this article by determining w h a t qualifications such librarians must actually possess. A report is also being prepared on the functions of l a w library positions of all grades, and on the training and compensation that should be associated w i t h the respective positions. A n o t h e r practical result, partly at least attributable to the efforts of the A m e r i c a n Association of L a w Libraries, is the insti- tution of a course in l a w librarianship, given first in the summer of 1 9 3 7 , by the C o l u m b i a U n i v e r s i t y School of L i b r a r y Service. A second course of one year's duration is announced for 1 9 4 0 - 4 1 , to be given cooperatively by the L a w School and the School of Librarianship of the U n i v e r - sity of W a s h i n g t o n . U n d e r recent presidents, the aims of the A m e r i c a n Association of L a w Libraries have been restated a f t e r prolonged discus- sion of a plan prepared by a committee under the chairmanship of W i l l i a m R . R o a l f e , l a w librarian of the D u k e U n i v e r - sity School of L a w . T h e financial condi- tion of the association has been improved (although this is a perennial p r o b l e m ) , and a standing committee on planning has been set up. T h e whole tempo of the as- sociation has been quickened, and all of its members are conscious of the n e w require- ments which n e w needs and conditions have placed upon them individually and as associates in a professional group. Experience in One Law Library I have been asked by the editor of Col- 2 2 4 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES lege and Research Libraries to be specific in illustrating the trend of events in indi- vidual l a w libraries. I can do this best by describing briefly some of the develop- ments during the last ten years in the li- brary with which I am associated. T h e ideal toward which we strive is indicated by guiding principles which are constantly reiterated to the staff, to the university administration, and to readers: A library is a collection of books, properly housed, and organized for service. It is our duty to anticipate the needs of our accredited clientele. Within the scope of the library, we are remiss if, when a book is called for, we lack it, or are unable to give satisfactory information concerning it. T h e justification for library expenditures is the character as well as the extent of the use of its collections. W e aim to make the library notable for the completeness of its files, for nothing is so discouraging to scholarship as broken sets. A s many as possible of the more commonly used books should be on the open shelves in the reading room for consultation without formality. Stack service must be maintained at all times when the library is open. T h e library must remain open as many hours as it will actively be used. [ I t is open during term time from 8 A.M. to n P.M., seven days a week.] T h e reader is entitled to every courtesy, and to all the skill that a trained staff can bring to the task of enabling him to do his own work. T h e administration and the staff must be imbued with the spirit of"SErvice, and this should show in the conduct of all from chief librarian to page. Staff and Organization In an endeavor to approach the ideal set by these principles, all persons added to the staff during the last ten years, to fill positions of professional grade, have been graduates both of colleges and li- brary courses. T h e evils of over-departmentalization have been avoided, so that the library may function as a unit. In any library there are four major undertakings, ( i ) general planning and oversight, ( 2 ) getting the books, ( 3 ) recording and preparing them for use by readers, and ( 4 ) conduct of a readers' service. These correspond to the four staff departments in this library: 1. General Administration. Policy, budg- et, recruiting the staff, salaries, payrolls, publicity, supplies, correspondence, statistics, approval of expenditures and bills. 2. Accessions Department. Orders, gifts, exchanges, handling of duplicates, checking bills, preparation of want lists and lists of duplicates. 3. Cataloging and Classification. This de- partment has charge of all processes through which a book passes from the time it comes from the accessions department until it is ready for the shelves. T h i s includes cata- loging, classification, shelf-listing, dexigraph- ing, filing cards, marking, bookplating, mending, binding and rebinding. It is be- lieved that these functions are so intimately connected that only delay and confusion re- sult from dividing responsibility for them. 4. Readers' Service. Reading room, loan desk, bookstacks, reference work, service to professors in their offices. Cataloging In the last decade the library has more than doubled in size. T h e card catalog, however, has grown from 1 2 9 trays to 670. T h i s disproportionate growth in the cata- log is partly due to the increase in the library itself, but chiefly to the facts that the scope of the library as to subject mat- ter has been broadened, the whole library is in process of recataloging, and most im- portant of all, the subjects treated in all books cataloged, legal as well as quasi- legal, are more fully represented than formerly. A guiding principle in our cataloging is that every book which is retained on the JUNE, 1940 23 7 shelves shall be f u l l y cataloged and pro- vided w i t h subject cards for both its legal and non-legal aspects. W e do not use a special legal subject heading book, because of the danger of limiting the catalogers' mental horizon to such a list. O n the con- trary, w e use the most comprehensive list available, viz., Subject Headings Used in the Dictionary Catalogues of the Library of Congress, adding to it such legal head- ings as are needed. W e do not, of course, cease to rely on the printed subject indexes (digests, Index to Legal Periodicals, etc.) referred to above. T o do so, duplicating their entries in our catalog, w o u l d show a w a s t e f u l lack of skill in using our legal tools, and w o u l d make the card catalog unnecessarily costly. B u t w e do bring out in the card catalog many aspects of the books which the scheme of such printed indexes does not cover. B y this means and by keeping constantly before us the poten- tial usefulness of all phases of our books, w e have, through the card catalog, im- mensely enriched the collection. Classification W e w o u l d g l a d l y have adopted a L i - brary of Congress scheme of l a w book classification if that had been available, and w e do use in modified form its J X schedules for international l a w . A f t e r w a i t i n g for many years for the L i b r a r y of Congress to publish its K ( L a w ) scheme, the present w r i t e r reluctantly decided to make one of his o w n for use in this li- brary. I t w a s published in September, ! 9 3 9 , w i t h the title Yale Law Library Classification ( Y a l e L a w L i b r a r y Publi- cations, N o . 8 ) after having been in use, while being developed, for nearly ten years. A t the outset, f a t e f u l decisions had to be m a d e : Should it be primarily a subject classi- fication or should it be primarily a form classification ? T h e latter w a s chosen, but w i t h provision for some subject groups, and w i t h the possibility of adding more. Should w e get up a complete scheme before w e used any part of i t ? W e de- cided to do it piecemeal, w i t h o u t regard to logical coherence in the scheme as a whole. W e w o u l d not try to duplicate in our scheme for book arrangement, the subdivisions which l a w y e r s have devised for the subject l a w . W e w o u l d make a series of separate schedules for groups of books which, for w h a t e v e r reason, w e wanted to stand together. T h e method of w o r k is described as fol- l o w s in the Introduction: In deciding upon groups of books for which schedules were to be made, the reverse of the ordinary process was employed. A general policy [as mentioned above] was first adopted, but this was not followed by a vast scheme in which the relation of each group of books to all other groups was de- cided upon in advance. Although there are in fact three main divisions of the scheme {i.e. ( i ) special subject classes, ( 2 ) Anglo- American law, and ( 3 ) foreign l a w ) , the groups that make up these theoretical divi- sions are not tied together by common sym- bols, nor are they shelved together unless it happens to be convenient to do so. Having made up a group of like books {like, ac- cording to the criteria of likeness which we adopted) which should stand together, a symbol was adopted for that group, the method of indicating its subdivisions se- lected, and the scheme for constructing call numbers chosen. T h i s process was repeated with other groups, one after the other, until the whole field had been covered. A second section is made up of schedules for non-legal and quasi-legal books relat- ing to history, philosophy, economics, sociology and political science, and a f e w other subjects. T h e s e schedules are sim- pler and less scientific than those used for 226 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES such subjects in general libraries, but they are required in order that call numbers may be made, and so that such books may not be forced into unsuitable legal schedules. T h e i r only justification is that they serve a special purpose in this library. Constructing classification schedules is no new experience for librarians, but there is a feature of the printed Yale Law Library Classification which is unusual. F o r each class, f o l l o w i n g the schedule, there is a subdivision on practice. P a r t of this deals w i t h the method of applying the schedule, w i t h directions for making call numbers, illustrated by examples. A n o t h e r part deals w i t h cataloging as ap- plied to that class—the public catalog, the official catalog and the shelf list, author and other main entries, title and added entries, cross references, subject headings, forms for tabulated cards used for series and sets, and methods of cataloging and handling pamphlets and theses. Still an- other part deals w i t h marking, stamping, bookplating and binding. F i n a l l y there are references to a f e w check lists and bibliographies useful in connection w i t h the respective classes. T h i s kind of ma- terial w a s added to the schedules because of the close relationship between catalog- ing, classification and preparation for the shelves, and because of the necessity for having in mind all phases of the w o r k in relation to each class at one and the same time. Present and Future Problems Professional development in libraries has not reached its final stage. Particu- larly is this so in regard to the adaptation of skills to particular needs. I t w o u l d be unfortunate if college and research li- braries (including l a w libraries) adopted in toto the techniques which have been thought to be standard for other libraries. Librarians are usually not free agents. E v e n in the most prosperous of libraries, they are often forced to adopt substitutes for devices too costly for them to use. P e r - haps some of these substitutes w i l l turn out to be better than those which they replace. T h e r e is still opportunity to use initiative and imagination in library w o r k . If anywhere the impact of problem on per- son can kindle a flame of invention, this flame should not be snuffed out by the imposition of set rules laid down by an authority which says, " T h i s is the only w a y to do i t . " T h e fact is that many problems hereto- fore thought to have been solved are again rearing their heads because of the g r o w t h of libraries. M e r e bigness makes some techniques inapplicable. F r e e access to shelves is a fine idea, but it cannot be ap- plied to all parts of our largest libraries because of the great cost of supervision. Connected w i t h the idea of free access is that of subject classification. T h e larger a library is the less effective is such a grouping for the reader's shelf use. T h e classes themselves are richer in material, it is true, but at the same time, the amount of material on the same subject, which for good reasons is classed elsewhere, is largely increased. Subject classification could be applied to l a w libraries more extensively than is now customary, but w o u l d it be w o r t h the cost? M y point is that in no library can a subject arrangement bring together physically on the shelves all im- portant material on a subject. I raise the question whether subject classification has not become a shibboleth by which to test excellence, erroneously leading us into costly excesses in library administration. Perhaps the conflict in most libraries is between close subject classification and JUNE, 1940 23 7 broad subject classification, rather than between subject classification and form classification. C e r t a i n it is, however, that close subject classification is a costly and time-consuming undertaking, and that its refinements provide the motive for f r e - quent reclassification. M u s t w e not recognize the supreme importance to libraries of the card catalog, especially on the subject side? I t is the only' place w h e r e any near approach to completeness of information concerning the resources of the library can be reached. E v e n here w e leave out all those fields covered by printed subject indexes—the kinds which for a long time were the l a w library's chief subject catalogs, and which, thanks to M r . W i l s o n , are of g r o w i n g im- portance in every library. I f , for the sake of argument, this is agreed to, then there arises the question of whether or not w e can improve our card catalogs. C a n w e simplify them from the reader's point of v i e w ? A r e w e sure that the so-called " d i c t i o n a r y " type is the best form ? A n d , if it is, h o w can w e make it more easily usable? C e r t a i n l y it is a misnomer, in large catalogs, to say that the cards are arranged alphabetically as in a dictionary. In this process of im- provement and simplification, can w e agree on a workable scheme for filing cards that w e ourselves can understand without refer- ence to the rule book? T h e r e is no agree- ment on so fundamental a thing as this, and the larger the catalog becomes, the more the user is confused. W h i l e I w a s w r i t i n g these words, there came to my desk the Catalogers' and Classifiers' Year- book, 1 9 3 9 . I t contains articles w i t h the f o l l o w i n g titles: " T h e L a r g e Dictionary C a t a l o g Faces D e r T a g ; " " S h a l l W e D i - vide O u r C a t a l o g V e r t i c a l l y ? ; " " C r i s i s in the C a t a l o g ; " " H o r i z o n t a l Division of the C a t a l o g ; " and, " T h e Public C a t a l o g for W h o m ? " A n o t h e r article begins w i t h the question, " H o w f a r have w e progressed since medieval days in the making of cata- l o g s ? " I t ends w i t h the w a r n i n g , " C a t a - logers . . . should beware f a l l i n g into a rut f r o m which they might be unable to climb o u t . " A l l librarians, not catalogers alone, might w e l l take this caution to heart. A n d finally, w h a t shall be done about the cost of cataloging? H o w can this mounting expense be reduced without destroying the effectiveness of the catalog? T h e answers to these questions are n o w of as much importance to l a w librarians as they are to any other kind. 2 2 8 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES