Cornell Law Library Annual Report 1948

LAW LIBRARY CORNELL LAW SCHOOL REPORT FOR 1947-4R The continued large number of law students has doubled the work and has made many problems for the law library. adequate.

The physioal plant for reading space is The oubioles and seminar rooms are being

used to capacity.

Every effort is being made to main­

tain quiet and order in the Reading Room, so that the students will find it desirable for study.

In reviewing the work for the past year, the following deficiencies exist.

Our greatest need is

for a reference librarian who can be of great assistance to the students in the use of the Reading Room and the stacks.

The present operation is to have the Reading

Room in charge of a supervisor.

This has been a very

successful experiment in taking oare of the interruptions and annoyanoes caused by student assistants who formerly worked at the Control Desk during the day time hours.

We now have continuity of oontrol at the desk during the day time hours.

The very small salary which we are

able to pay a person who accepts the position of Super­ visor of the Reading Room does not permit us to have anyone who has the proper training for legal reference work.

In examining other law school libraries and

watching how they operate, we find a reference librarian is serving in every one.

This person, in every case,

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is a law school graduate who is willing to oontlnue in law library work and handle referenoe work.

This person,

in other eohools, is of great assistance to faoulty members in locating material.

It is easy to see how

much a person in this position oould do in saving detailed work required of faoulty members, as well as being a tremendous help to law students.

We are the

only Important law school that I know of that does not have such a referenoe librarian.

Another great handicap which troubles us is the lack of a secretary to look after the great amount of correspondence which is necessary in order to com­ plete our work.

We have operated for the past several

years by writing letters in long hand and by asking the assistant librarian to do secretarial work.

It is

obviously unwise to continue this practice, whioh robs the librarian and the assistant librarian of time much needed for other work.

A great amount of our time is

consumed with these details which oould be placed on more Important library problems.

Our need for someone

to do this work, even for half a day le extwmely urgent.

The growth of our library is definitely handicapped by the lack of a secretary, and the accomplishments of the staff members are greatly limited as a result.

The salaries paid to our staff members have been Improved for the next year to a slight degree, and each member expressed great appreciation.

In the

opinion of the librarian the only reason that they -

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oontinue at these low salaries Is their extreme loyalty and oonaolentioua service to our law school,

^e have

conditions on our own oampus in the Cornell University Library where a beginner obtains a salary of .*2400, with no experience.

This rule also applies in the

Agriculture Library and the Library of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

A

beginner in that position is Just out of college.

There

is an additional feature in beginning positions In those libraries that the oerson has the prospect of an annual Increase of $120 per year for each year's employment thereafter for a reasonable period.

One member of our

staff has thirteen year's experience with us and another approximately ten year's, and the least years of experi­ ence on our staff membership is two years.

The highest

salary paid to our staff members is now $8500, after thirteen years of loyal and efficient service.

It Is

realised that these salary conditions cannot be oorreoted all in one year, but it is strongly urged that annual increases be accomplished for our staff members until prevailing salaries are paid them.

If we do not

accomplish this, it is evident that we will be losing our staff members because of the high oost of living.

If one of our staff members should leave because of inadequate salary, we would have to hire a new person, with no experience, at a higher salary than the person replaoed.

Therefore, equality should be established

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In order to prevent euoh a situation arising and to remedy a salary situation which is not up to the pre­ vailing rate on this oaapus for the professional duties which these persons perform.

A large number of our briefs has remained unbound due to lack of binding materials during the war.

During the past year we were able to looate binding

facilities, and after hard work in preparing our volumes for the bindery, a large number have been bound,

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oould not afford to bind all of the briefs, bscause the aaoumulatlon represented a period of at least four ysars.

We now have the United States Supreme Court Briefs either bound or at the bindery,

fe are faoed with a financial

problem in binding the Hew York Court of Appeals Briefs.

This unusual expense has preoipltated additional flnanoial problems in our already limited budget.

All of our reports, statutes, textbooks and loose leaf servioes have increased in prioe substan­ tially during the past ysar.

The cumulative effeot upon

our already limited appropriation is a heavy one.

The

amount of our appropriation has not kept paoe with the total increase of oosts.

No advance information as to

the inoreaae in prloes la given to us until the items arrive.

Making our present appropriation oover these

Items is a real task.

W* will have to have an increase

in our appropriation in the very near future in order to maintain the quality of our library resources.

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We had great delay In completing our E. J. Marshall collection bookplate, and were greatly dis­ turbed about the length of time needed. has been well worth the delay.

The result

We feel that we have a

very beautiful bookplate which can be used for other collections by changing the inscription.

Those who have

seen our bookplate state that it is the prettiest they have ever seen.

Our textbooks have been kept up to date, and auxiliary oopies of reports and legal periodicals, whloh were oolleoted through gifts, and a few by purohase for supplementing these sets.

The large number of students

has required a larger number of copies of each item.

Our seoond collection of legal periodicals has grown through exchange and gifts, so that it is now a substan­ tial one.

It is used more and more.

we are keeping our

seoond sets up to date by acquiring seoond copies of the many new law school reviews whloh are coming Into exist­ ence.

We obtain these by exchange.

Our speolal binding

of advance sheets provides us with more available oopies of reports, and are much used.

Greater demands are made on us for up-to-theminute material in several of our problem courses.

We

have had to use every resource in looating and obtaining some of the material.

We have been able to do this

through personal oontaots, as well ae through loose leaf services.

More and more published material is appearing

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to answer the demand for quick and complete service.

The cost of them is rapidly becoming a real burden to us.

One of our needs is a set of the Congressional

Record.

We are attempting to locate this without pur­

chasing the volumes.

>*e have been able already to

oolleot a substantial part of it from various parts of the country,

We have hopes of completing it before

many months.

The library was enriched this past year by the purchase of a set of the Encyclopaedia Brit&nnloa in twenty-four volumes.

This set is continuously kept

up to date by an annual bound supplement, called the Rritannioa Book of the Year.

An article in the main

set contains ths history and basic facts of the aubjeot, while the Eritannioa Book of the Year gives the reader Important additional facts that may have oome to light slnoe then,

The purchase of this set enabled us to have

a new World Atlas at ths Control Desk.

Zt Is published

by the Encyclopaedia Brltannioa, and has a self-revising feature.

We aooessioned 2,758 volumes this past year, making a total number of 110,234 volumes in ths Law Library.

Of the number aooessioned, 1057 were gifts,

part of which were received from the following people: Reports of Decisions of the National War Labor Board 2P volumes - A gift of the Bureau of National Affairs.

Soott on Trusts - oopy three - given by Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity.

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New York Reports v.1-295 - Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of Binghamton.

New York Appellate Division Beporte v.1-270 - Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of Binghamton.

Wartime Correspondence between Pxssldent Roosevelt A Pope Pius XII - 01ft of Myron C. Taylor.

Twenty-eight volumes of v&rioue textbooks - gift of Allan H. Treman.

We added to our Bennett Collection this past year a facsimile reprint of the 1710 Bradford Statutes of New York, and a copy of the 1753-1766 Acts and Laws of Connecticut, ae well as a copy of the 1624 Revised Laws of Indiana and the 1639 December Session Laws of Wisconsin.

Ths placement work which is being performed by the librarian presents a real problem as far as library administration is concerned.

Interruptions by

law students and graduates asking placement advloe are continuous.

Lettsr writing and consultations In that

field consume a great portion of the librarian's time.

It Is a real satlefaotlon to be able to help these students obtain positions.

An lnorsaslng number of

graduates who are In law practice desire changes, and oonsume a lot of our time obtaining advloe and contacts.

The large number of students and graduates requiring this help makes one wonder If the amount of time given to placement can be spared from library work.

At a

time when the library work has been doubled, more than half the librarian's time has to be devoted to placement

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work.

The only solution demands an increase In staff.

You" librarian attended the annual convention

of the American Association of Law Llbrarlea in New York City this June.

It was a most successful meeting.

There was a large number of new law librarians there.

The personal contacts are numerous, and the meetings were well attended.

The benefits resulting from attend­

ing these meetings are very helpful to the library.

I express my sincere appreciation to the entire law faculty for their cooperation and Interest.

Suggestions from the faculty and the students are always appreciated.

I acknowledge the fine work and

undivided loyalty of each member of my staff, without which the many activities during the past year oould not have been accomplished.

Respectfully submitted,

July 9, 194P

Lewis W. Morse, Law Librarian

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C° f V

June 24, 1948

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CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY INFORMATION REQUESTED FOR VARIOUS ANNUAL REPORTS Please complete this form and return to S. A. McCarthy, Cornell University Library, before July 1 5 , 1 9 4 8 . *& U t)

1.

Name of library

2.

Librarian

3.

Report for the year

4.

Number of volumes lent for home use exclusive of reserve books

5.

Number of reserved books: used in library y io A & Z tn Jl lent for overnight or weekend use ><■>

6.

Number of interlibrary loans:

Reference:

8.

, ~\ 0. ~W. /? V 7 - ^

borrowed from other libraries. ~Ylo A s^ a^ J . loaned to other libraries ~>!c n. <’*>«<’

. p .j No. of general questions * 0 No. of search questions (using 15 min. or more) No. of bibliographies compiled 'Mtnu

Number of volumes at beginning of year

! & 7, H 7 S _____________

Number of volumes added by purchase________ / F t ' S _________ _____ 7 ______________

*0.

Number of volumes added by gift o-r exchange /

*1*

Number of volumes lost or withdrawn from records _ ± L ___________

13.

Newspapers currently received: by gift or exchange

U.

15.

•

Periodicals currently received: by gift &«— exetemge

by subscription total__ E _

$6 0

by subscription to

total

2 7 0

Library income: ^ a. appropriation /<?, 0 6 0. crv b. income from endowments / 1 2 1#. «> c. gifts d. fees, fines, etc. e. total f. reappropriated balance from previous year_______ _ g. total funds available^ //; Z Z *<>______ __ Funds available for purchase of books, periodicals, binding for next year * /<?. c o c . e>c (OVER)

:

/ vo J l H L w

_

'jAf'7,i?yr

17.

Library expenditures a. Salaries of library staff 7 '[ r * ? " ~ ^ L b. Wages of student assistants f'a ^ T c. Books______ _________________ d. Periodicals e. Binding ) f. Supplies and eauiument^ * fg. Other_______________________ h. Total___________ ____________

18.

Library Staff Number of professional staff members Number of clerical staff members____

td <?U+A. J5 â&#x2013; Acrtn*i_ This report prepared by

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