Cornell Law Library Annual Report 1941

LAW LIBRARY CORNELL LAW SCHOOL

REPORT FOR ly4Q-ly4l

LAW LIBRARY CORNELL LAW SCHOOL Report for ltf40-41

The Law Library has spent a profitable and success­ ful year.

I call It profitable In the sense that we have

created many opportunities for saving money In our appropri­ ation by the careful purchase and trading of books.

Some­

times the amount Involved appears to be small, but at other times It is large.

The total, however, is satisfying and

allows us to have some books In our collection which we otherwise could not afford.

I believe It 1ms been a success­

ful year beoause our library is gradually molding Into a more workable unit.

We are constantly trying to arrange books so

that a person may find the law with the least amount of effort.

We constantly receive comments that our library Is

very usable, and it appears to be much appreciated from that point of view.

We have added a number of periodicals and reports in our faculty library which is located on the second mezza­ nine floor.

This appellation clings to this collection from

the days of Boaruman Hall when this material was located in the hallway by the faculty offices.

Numerous additions of

books have been made In several Important fields of law.

Auxiliary copies are also obtained where the use demands that we supplement our sets.

Our oolleotion has increased 8,8*8 volumes, of which 383 volumes were gifts.

We also received an additional

1,864 volumes as gifts some of which will be kept for auxil足 iary purposes to replaoe volumes In our oolleotion when they are worn.

In some Instances they will supplement our regular

oolleotion.

A majority of theee gifts will be used for

trading and exchange purposes arid will not be aooeasioned.

Our library Is growing very nicely and at present has a total of 85,813 volumes, plus those in our duplicate oolleotion.

We have been able to obtain a few expensive treatises and statutes during the past year.

This has been

accomplished only after a gooa deal of figuring and negotiat足 ing so that we could purchase them as reasonably as possible.

Personal friendships made at law school and law library con足 ventions have assisted us a great deal In effecting consider足 able economies and savings.

STATE AND FOREIGN REPORTS After several years of negotiating and planning success has finally been obtained In completing exchanges with libraries whereby we will obtain, indefinitely, Georgia, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia Supreme

2

Court Reports*

We have always had to purchase these at

regular prices, which amounted to a large expense.

In some

instances we can supply our side of the exchange from our duplicate material.

Success has been obtained in several of

the states due to friendships which have been established by personal acquaintances.

We have also been able to purohase

state reports at local prices in California, Iowa, Ohio, and Oregon at a saving in eaoh volume.

A substantial saving is

the net result.

Important additions to our collection are the pur­ ohase of a copy of the reprint volume of the 1833 hew York City Hall Reporter arid the reprint of Volume 4, hew York qj_v 11

Procedure Reports, new series.

Ihls latter volume was

discovered and reprinted due to some research whloh we made in this field.

We were also fortunately able to purchase Volumes 88-137, inclusive, of the British and Foreign State Papers and Volumes 1-Ba, Tasmanian Reports, with our special library fund.

GIFTS We have had a very productive year in securing 1,8B4 gifts.

Our annual appeal to the alumni which is in­

cluded in a letter containing the annual bill sent to the members of the Cornell Law Association brings increasing

3

results.

I am pleased to enumerate the following more im­

portant gifts: Charles K. Bardie* Estate, approximately BOO volumes of periodicals and textbooks.

Louis Dawson, ’lJ, Mutual Life Insurance Company, New Xork City, do cases of books containing approximately oOO volumes of periodicals, session laws, and statutes.

Goodwin, Nixon, Hargrave, Middleton & Devans, Roonester, New York, 7 oaBea of books containing approx­ imately 500 volumes of textbooks and oasebooas.

Bernard Flexner, New York City, o volumes of complete reoord of the Saooo-Venzettl Case.

A. Lawrence Abrams, *28, Binghamton, New York, 82 volumes of textbooks.

Louis Pierce, Rochester, New York, 40 volumes of New York Session Laws.

Harry V. Clements, *04, Auburn, New York, 48 volumes of old English text.

William F. Fowler, *08, Lynbrook, New York, volumes New York Reports and textbooks, many of these belonged to the library of the late Ernest W. Huffout.

William E. Beloate, *80, Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, 4l volumes of statutes, etc.

Professor Paul J. Kruse, Ithaca, New York, la volumes of casebooks.

Flovd W. Mundy, Jr., New York City, 83 volumes of Mundy'a Earning Power of Railroads and Studies in Securities.

Morris P. Glushlen, *31, Washington, D. C., a complete set of the Deolslons and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board with continuations.

Morris Goldstein, *15, Buffalo, New York, 100 volumes of texts and reports.

4

B&lph Gregg, *38, Buffalo, New fork, several FACT booklets of the Better Business Bureau.

Edward J. Elliott, *88, New fork City, 3* Issues of Cornell Law Quarterly.

Elmer H. Lemon, *18, Newburgh, New York, 41 volumes of Laws of New fork.

We had a splendid example of assistance to our library during the past year.

We have constantly attempted

to secure looal material from friends and alumni. q I*

Our file

the University of Omaha Night School of Law Bulletin,

which was published from 1*33 to 1*87, had never been com­ pleted, nor could we purchase the one issue which we lacked, Mr. Laurens Williams, *31, attempted to secure this for us in Omaha but without success.

He wrote letters to friends

and as a last resort advertised in the looal legal paper and then in the Nebraska Supreme Court Journal.

A person in

Seward, Nebraska, saw the advertisement and sent the desired Issue to Mr. Williams who, In turn, gave It to us. pletes our file so that we may bind It.

It com­

This periodical may

be minor, but It is only representative of the detail In­ volved In completing a number of them.

Our collection of

legal periodicals is so complete that we exert every efrort to keep it at Its present high standard.

A splendid and much appreciated gift was made by Professor Gustavus B. Robinson of Volumes 1-13, Modern

5

Philosophy Series.

Some of these volumes are now out of

print and Impossible to purchase.

This gives us two complete

sets.

EARL J. BENNETT SESSION LAW COLLECTION we have made some Important additions to this col­ lection.

There hag always been the need of the early Rhode

Island Session Laws between the years 17*7 and 1800. been impossible to obtain original ooples of them.

It has A reprint

was made of these years ago and now the reprint has become scarce.

We never have been able to afford the reprint.

We

were made a special offer and fortunately were able to pur­ chase the 18 volumes at a reasonable price by oomblnlng the Income from the Bennett Fund (#233.75), the George J. Tansey Fund (#472.83), and the balanoe (#8*.42) from our regular appropriation.

This Is the largest purchase that has been

made for this collection and allows us to complete the Rhode Island Session Laws from the beginning of the colony to the statehood.

We have also been fortunate In securing folio volumes.

three

One is the Acts of Assembly passed In the

Province of Maryland containing the laws from 1882 to 1715, printed In London by John Basaett, 1723. by exchanging duplicate material.

This was obtained

Another Is the Laws of

the State of North Carolina by James Iredell, published in 17J1.

It is the first compilation of laws of North Carolina

after its statehood.

The third is the Aots ana Laws of Hie

Majesty's Colony of Connecticut In New England, 175a.

It

contains a revision of the laws and also contains a reprint of the laws from October, 1750, to May, 17o8, and original folio session laws from October, 1758, to May, 1771.

These

are scarce volumes and fill important gaps in our collection.

PERIODICALS Several new legal periodicals were published during the year.

They are:

Alabama Lawyer Defense Foreign Commerce Weekly International Reference Service Journal of the Brooklyn Bar Association Jurist Legislative Briefs Legist Loyola Law Review Monthly Review - Railroad Retirement Board News Bulletin of the Iowa State Bar Association Railroad Retirement Board - Law Bulletin La Revue de Barreau de la Province de Quebec

7

Our most noteworthy accomplishment in this field during this year was the completion of our file of the New York Law Journal. umes for years.

We have lacked several of the early vol­ They are very soaroe and it is extremely

difficult to locate them.

A few years ago we were fortunate

in finding a few voluaes.

We secured the remaining volumes

in the gift from Mr. Dawson of the Mutual Life Insurance Company.

This gives me a feeling of extreme personal satis­

faction.

The American Journal of International Law is out of print in several volumes.

With generous help from our

Professor 0. K. Robinson and the Charles k. Burdick Library we collected a large nucleus for a second set.

We traded,

purchased and negotiated until we completed an entire second set which has been pound.

As an entire set it is worth a

substantial sum of money.

After much persistency and work, we have succeeded in completing our files of the Bulletin of the National Tax Association, Houston Bar Journal, University of Omaha Night

School of Law Bulletin, and The Pleader.

We have had to

have photostatic copies made of some issues, but we arrange for these on a gratuitous basis through the local utility company which does some of this work for us in exchange for some favors we can do for them.

a

Important collections have

been added to our eets of The Annals of the American Academy of Polltloal and Social Solence, and Trusts and Estates.

The most Important development In this field Is the oolleotlon and binding of more than 150 volumes of duplicate periodicals. collection* law reviews.

These have been placed In our faculty

We have already gathered the principal leading We collect these volumes by exchange and gift.

We invest very little except to purchase an Issue or two in order to complete a volume.

The need ol this collection is

becoming acute as our regular sets are wearing out.

Legal

periodicals are becoming scarcer as the years go by.

We

have to loo* ahead and realize that the constant and heavy service that is made of regular volumes will ultimately call for replacements.

This Is the purpose in view, as well as

supplying a need for law reviews on the seoond mezzanine.

The war has oast upon us the additional burden of searching for Issues which do not arrive.

We have been suc­

cessful so far in completing our volumes, but there is always great detail necessary in searching for them.

BAH ASSOCIATION REPORTS We have added several Inexpensive reprints of some early reports of various bar associations.

This has per­

mitted us to oomplete our collection In a few states. have Kept puce with the ever increasing number of bar

We

association Journals,

The Integrated bars have resulted In

two bar associations* reports in some states, the old volun­ tary bar association having continued.

This means reports

from each organization which we have had to locate.

ATTORNEY GENERAL REPORTS AND OPINIONS Our collection in this field is very good. *eep paoe with the new volumes as they appear.

We

We have

gathered a very useful set.

JUDICIAL COUNCIL REPORTS We began our collection of reports in this field in its infancy.

We have collected every report of the

various state Judicial Council reports.

This has been

accomplished through our research in this field arid seeping it up to date.

Our published material is a guide to what

should constitute a complete collection of reports.

A grad­

uate student who has worked in this field during this year has congratulated us on the completeness and usefulness of our material.

There has been no organized attempt to make available Information as to what a law library should have In the field of federal Judicial oounclle and oonferenoes.

a

federal conception of Judicial oounolle has arisen ae well a. state judlolal oounolle. the past.

Some reports have been made In

Under the new federal statutes the various federal

10

Judicial circuits are now required to have annual oonferenoes.

There is also the newly created position of Administrative Office of the United States Courts.

We are at present col­

lecting every published address given at these conferences, every report of the proceedings, and reports of the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. $6 will ultimately have a complete collection in this library.

It will be one of the few in the country.

Material

will be available for an article in this important and rapidly growing field.

RAILROAD AND PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION REPORTS We have collected a large amount of material in this field.

We are ready to publish our research showing

the development of the various state railroad and public utility commissions, their ohanges, and their present status.

Our oolleotion has bsen made with our rassaroh as the basis.

TAX COMMISSION REPORTS "State Tax Commissions —

Their History and Reports

has appeared In Installments In the monthly Issues of taxes, a national legal periodical published by the Commerce Clear­ ing House.

Each Installment oontalns a complete report on

at least one elate.

It Is a fundamental study and .111

ultimately cover all of the states and territories of the

United States.

We are building our collection on this

foundation and feel that It is becoming outstanning and provides an excellent background for all of the various state tax statutes. governmental administrative departments

The growth of these departments lias been tremendous.

It has required a good deal of worn in keeping up with their studies, services, bulletins, orders, decisions, and opin­ ions, and various publications by them.

We feel that we

have done this and have a fine collection.

CATALOGING A year of accomplishment has been recorded in our cataloging department.

We had hoped to have some competent

N.X.A. assistants during this year, but the quality has not been good.

Student complications and distraotions have

practically eliminated what little extra assistance we had for our regular oataloger. alone.

She has carried on practically

The proximate number of books in our library whion

are cataloged to date are 77,*16. a, 5 ^

books cataloged.

During the year there were

Necessary Information for cataloging

books has been taken on 1,000 volumes. tinuations cataloged is 1,003.

The number of con­

Temporary oards have to be

included in the catalog awaiting official Library of Congress

12

oards, and 414 temporary cards were typed.

The number of

Library of Congress cards included in our collection during the last year was 3,088. headings typed here.

All of these printed cards have had

Also, l.isOtf oards have been typed for

our oatalog and l,e58 oards have been filed during the past year.

During this year we have completed the cataloging of the Bennett Collection of Session Laws and Statutes and the entire periodical collection.

Room is about completed. date.

The International Law

Current cataloging is kept up to

We are doing all that can be done in order to provide

a complete and accurate catalog,

w© hope that it will be the

beginning point for information in our library.

Our oataloger also publishes the monthly list of new accessions and includes in that the leading articles appearing in current law reviews.

A copy is distributed to

each member of the faculty * EXHIBITS An exhibit for our Heading Room for the lb4l Com­ mencement period will be prepared.

We will take this oppor­

tunity to display some interesting class pictures, portraits, and valuable old volumes.

In the past the display has been

very favorably reoeived.

13

MISCELLANEOUS The following miscellaneous items are complete and stand as valuable accomplishments in our library during the past year: There ha8 been a need for a complete set of the rederal Anti-trust Decisions and the Treasury Deolslons under the Internal Revenue Laws of the United States,

we scoured

the Federal Anti-trust Deolelons from the general Library on permanent loan.

We found that they did not have a complete

oolleotlon of the Treasury Decisions - Internal Revenue.

They very Kindly loaned us what they had, and we will under­ take to purchase the missing volumes.

Our table lights In the Reading Room have been re­ placed with modern lighting.

This change has been received

with much gratitude by the students.

We have had requests for proceedings and reports of various stats constitutional conventions. that there Is no collection on the oampus.

I have found We have under­

taken during the past year to secure a. many volumes as we can in each state by exchange or gift. have a very fine oolleotlon.

W. hope In time to

This material Is absolutely

necessary to anyone who Is doing research In law.

As the

years go by the earlier material Is becoming very difficult to obtain.

14

We have had requests for Legislative Journals.

I

find that there la no collection of these on the campus for any state other than New ¥or&. any of these volumes.

We cannot afford to purchase

We are locating those that we can by

exchange or gift and hope ultimately to have the nucleus of a collection. ®e have ma.de a complete inventory of our duplloates.

Every item Is listed on a oard.

We are no« preparing dupli­

cate lists whloh we hope to eend to various la. llbrarlee for exchange purposes.

This should produoe great benefits

to us slnos some of the volumes oan be liquidated for oash.

We have aleo made a oomplete Inventory of the library of our former dean, the late Charles K, Burdlox.

.<e

typed lists of all the boohs, periodicals, circulated them, and assisted In liquidating those that could be sold.

I felt tl.at a study should be mude of the various opportunities presented of purchasing varicus current state statutes, revisions, compilations, and codes.

Purchasing

problems which arise are the competing companies In each state, obtaining in-state and out-of-state prices, the cost of hasping these eete up to date, and ho. annotations may be obtained for them.

All of this information has been pub­

lished and comprises the May, U A , U * . of the haw library Journul.

15

We have oiled, greased, and repaired 3,000 volumes during the past year.

This treatment adds to the appearance

of our Reading Room and Keeps the hooKs in muoh more usable condition.

V/e have received several comments about the fine

condition in which our boohs are Kept.

This expenditure

saves us ultimate repairs.

PERSONNEL Our staff has managed its responsibilities during the past year.

One Improvement in the future which should

be made is to have a full-time mature person in the Reading Room who Will have complete charge and eole responelblllty of maintaining and taking oare of referenoe requests and keeping aooount of the many duties In the Reading Room In a more buelneee-llke manner.

Of oouree, nothing can oe none

until economic conditions Improve,

we have found by e v i ­

dence that student assistants at the Control Desk do not do the work completely satisfactorily.

APPROPRIATION We are able to get along on our limited approprlatlon and are grateful for what we have curing these trying times.

As a matter of record, however, we should say there

is no law school library In the country, that I have found of our sloe, that operates on as small an appropriation as we have.

The increasing demand for the expense for loose

16

x,ÂŤf services, the steady flow of new treatises and textbooks cause us much figuring in order to keep up with our needs.

activities

It was my privilege last summer to attend the annual meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries at Toronto.

It was an opportunity to receive help in a

number of law library problems.

It was also an opportunity

to make new friendships and to renew old ones.

This is an

extremely important thing in our work since it enables us to obtain reports, periodicals, seeelon la... and man, other items from many parte of the country on exchange or gift which we otherwise would hot obtain.

It repays us many time,

over for what financial Investment we maae.

I have served

a. President of this association during the year laaO-Iuel and will preside this month at the annual meeting at Old Point Comfort, Virginia., I also had the privilege of attending the annual meeting of the Association of Amerloun Law Schools In December.

We had a mid-winter meeting of our library asso­

ciation at the same time.

It afforded me an opportunity to

mist with our Executive Committee and officers as well as to attend some of the round tables on legal and law library problems.

17

X express my very sincere appreciation to the entire law faculty and to members of the Law Library Committee for their cooperation and help.

Each member of my library

staff has been very conscientious and has done excellent work.

Without this assistance we could not have had as suc­

cessful year.

Respectfully submitted,

June 11,

Lewis W. Morse