Library Collection Development Plan

December, 2003

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Selections
  3. Scope of Coverage of Collection - By Subject
  4. Overview/Scope of Coverage of Collection - By Jurisdiction
  5. Specialized Collections
  6. Gifts
  7. Weeding/Deaccessioning
  1. Introduction

    This collection development plan is intended to define the collection policy of the University of Connecticut Law Library and to provide a blueprint for the maintenance and expansion of the library's collection in all formats. The policy should assist those responsible for selecting materials for the collection to understand the philosophy and rationale that guide the development of the collection. With this plan, the library will be able to allocate acquisition funds wisely, shape a strong collection, and inform the university community of the nature of the collection.

    This statement expresses the current needs of the School of Law community. Academic programs grow and change, and this plan will be revised and reviewed periodically to meet any future needs.

    1. Mission Statement
      The University of Connecticut School of Law Library's mission is to develop a collection that will support the curriculum and research needs of its primary patrons and provide outstanding information services to those primary patrons in support of their teaching, study, and scholarly endeavors. The library's primary patrons are the faculty, students, and staff of the University of Connecticut School of Law. The library's resources also are available to the remainder of the university community, lawyers, scholars, and the general public.
       
    2. Objectives
      1. Support the scholarly and instructional work of the faculty and law students.
      2. Acquire and preserve major primary, secondary, and comparative legal works of the United States, selected nations, and international organizations.
      3. Acquire and preserve other significant research material that is relevant to faculty interests and will attract scholars to the School of Law.
      4. Coordinate with other University of Connecticut libraries to the extent possible in order to share resources and provide the School of Law community with excellent access to non-legal resources.
      5. Meet the library standards of the American Bar Association, the American Association of Law Schools, and the United States Depository Library Program.
      6. Collect and make accessible archival material relating to the School of Law, its graduates, or the local legal community.
      7. Provide limited support for a collection of materials useful to non-lawyer citizens of the state of Connecticut.
    3. Responsibility
      The Director of the Law Library has final responsibility for the maintenance and development of the library's collections and services. The Director has delegated some oversight and selection responsibilities to the Associate Law Librarian for Library Services and the members of the Collection Development Group. The Collection Development Group includes the Director of the Law Library, the Associate Law Librarian for Library Services, the Acquisitions Librarian, the Foreign/International Law Librarian, the Insurance Law Librarian, the Head of Reference, and all other librarians in the Reference section.
       
    4. Collecting Levels
      1. Minimal
        Few selections are made beyond basic works and those of renowned authors in the field
      2. Basic
        Highly selective collection that introduces and defines the subject and indicates the variety of information that can be found elsewhere. The collection includes major reference tools, selected editions of important works, and a few major periodicals in the least number that will serve the purpose. This type of collection is not sufficiently intensive to support law school courses or independent study. Older editions of looseleafs and treatises will not normally be retained.
      3. Instructional
        Collection includes a wide range of monographs and periodicals of a representative nature to allow a general understanding of the subject. Reference works and secondary works relating to the subject are selective. The collection can support most graduate law classes and clinics as it includes as many multi-jurisdictional treatises as possible, selected student texts, looseleaf services, and important government documents. Older editions of looseleafs and treatises will not normally be retained.
      4. Research
        Extensive collection supports journal students, seminar students, and most faculty research needs. It includes most multi-jurisdictional treatises and looseleaf services, current and historical, and an extensive collection of monographs, periodicals, and government documents. If appropriate for comparative purposes, foreign law materials in English may be collected. Older editions of looseleafs and treatises will be bound and retained.
      5. Comprehensive
        Strives to collect all relevant works in formats and languages appropriate for the library. Older editions of looseleafs and treatises will be bound and retained.
  2. Selections
    1. Process
      The selectors include members of the Collection Development Group. The group meets biweekly throughout the year.

      Selectors have assignments to select printed material from particular sources, such as Blackwell book notices, publishers' catalogs, etc. All selectors are expected to review the incoming materials on the new book shelf in Acquisitions on a weekly basis. The Insurance Law Librarian and the Foreign/International Law Librarian will do the majority of selection in their respective areas.

      Each selector makes recommendations for purchase and forwards the appropriate material to the Acquisitions Librarian. The selectors should also note if there is a special location designated for the material, such as Reference or the Reading Lounge Collection, and whether an ongoing subscription is needed. In the occasional circumstance where the selector feels that more than one copy is needed, that information also should be indicated.

      Each selector may request the purchase of items for $250 or less. If the cost is more than that amount, or the cost of an annual subscription is more than that amount, then the item will be brought before the entire Collection Development Group for discussion.

      Microform sets will typically be more than the $250 limit set for individual selectors, but should be brought before the entire Collection Development Group in any event. Materials in audio and video formats also should be discussed with the entire group since our collection levels of these formats are not high.

      Electronic resources merit consideration from many angles and will be brought before the entire Collection Development Group regardless of price.

    2. Tools
      The library has an approval plan through Blackwell for university press U.S. legal titles. Package plans are in place with organizations such as the ABA, the Brookings Institution, and the OECD. Selectors will routinely make additional selections from the following tools:
      1. Blackwell Collection Manager online files for new law and law-related titles not received on approval
      2. Publishers' catalogs
      3. Publishers' brochures and flyers received in the mail
      4. Gaunt book slips
      5. Hein Current Publications in Legal and Related Fields
      6. Hein Cite sheets
      7. Book reviews in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, the New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, and other professional literature encountered by selectors
    3. Faculty Requests
      Requests for material made by faculty members are honored unless the cost or subject matter is beyond the scope of regular library purchases. Any selector may pass a routine request to Acquisitions, but items which fall outside the normal parameters of the collection should be brought to the attention of the Associate Librarian for Library Services and/or the Director of the Library. Normally, items requested by the faculty will be processed as part of the general library collection and checked out to the individual as needed. On rare occasions the Director may allow the purchase of items solely for the use of an individual faculty member so that they are physically housed in the faculty members' office. In general, if a resource is available electronically (including on Lexis or Westlaw) a print version will not be purchased as a faculty office copy. Access to electronic resources that permit only one individual with a password to use them usually will not be supplied to faculty members.
       
    4. Selection Standards and Criteria
      The following general criteria are used to evaluate potential new purchases:
      1. Monographs
        1. Scholarly treatment is preferred over a practitioner-oriented approach, with the exception of Connecticut state material.
        2. Strong preference is given to university-press materials and titles from other reputable publishers.
        3. Author is known for reputation in field or for quality of previously published work
        4. Compilations of primary law, bibliographies, and anthologies normally are not collected.
        5. Fills in gap in collection or enhances an already substantial collection that is being developed at a comprehensive level
        6. U.S. law school faculty publications are generally purchased unless they are very practitioner-oriented.
        7. University of Connecticut School of Law faculty publications are purchased in duplicate, with one copy for circulation and the other for Special Collections.
      2. Journals
        1. Library collects scholarly titles indexed in the Wilson Index to Legal Periodicals or the Gale Legaltrac/Current Law Index. Indexing in other reputable law-related indexes such as the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals also may be considered. High-quality English language law journals from other countries are generally purchased.
        2. Generally all substantive journals produced by U.S. law schools are collected. Commercially-produced journals are collected if they are largely scholarly in nature. Practitioner-oriented journals generally are not purchased, and journals that consist of reprinted articles from journals we already receive are never purchased. Non-legal scholarly journals are collected if they are of specific interest to law-related scholarship on the campus.
        3. Journals with long-term research value are more likely to be purchased than those with mostly current awareness value.
        4. Bar journals are purchased in a microfiche collection. No print subscriptions are purchased except for the American Bar Association Journal and those for the New England states and Boston.
      3. Updated material
        1. Scholarly nature and reputation of publisher and author
        2. Frequency, manner, and cost of updating
        3. Comprehensiveness of subject coverage
        4. Availability of material in other formats, such as online
        5. Coverage of topic in current collection
      4. Audio/Video/DVD/CD-ROM
        1. Commercial audio materials are usually not acquired unless specifically requested by a faculty member, or unless the information contained is essential and not available in other formats.
        2. Videotapes and DVDs at reasonable prices are purchased upon faculty request for classroom or research purposes in the same manner as printed materials. In addition, the library is developing a small collection of movies, both popular and educational, on videotape and DVD for classroom use and for enjoyment by the community with a limited budget each year. Titles are brought before the Collection Development Group for consideration in early fall. Approximately $500.00 is allocated for this purpose each year. DVD is the preferred format if available.
        3. CD-ROM is not a desired format in this library unless the material contained is essential and not available in any other source. Some print materials arrive with accompanying CDs, which will be housed with the volumes in the regular collection.
      5. Computer disks
        Computer disks are usually not purchased separately. Some volumes arrive with accompanying disks, which will be housed with the volume in the regular collection.
      6. Web resources
        1. The law library benefits greatly from being included in nearly all of the non-legal electronic resource subscriptions acquired by the Babbidge Library. Additional non-legal electronic resources will be purchased by the library only if the cost is low and the usage is expected to be high (such as the Oxford English Dictionary).
        2. Legal electronic resources will be evaluated by the Collection Development group prior to purchase. Cost and uniqueness of material, as well as database design and usefulness to the law community will be considered. All decisions regarding the purchase of electronic subscriptions will be made by the Collection Development Group. Any selector is welcome to bring a resource to the attention of the Collection Development Group and request a trial.
        3. License agreements that are acceptable to the library must be obtained for each electronic product. The Associate Librarian for Library Services and the Acquisitions Librarian will negotiate the license agreements as needed, with the assistance of the Director when necessary. Major considerations are:
          1. Allowances for walk-in public traffic access inside the library.
          2. IP address recognition rather than passwords
          3. No liability clauses that force the library to take responsibility for the abuse of the database by a user
          4. Availability of usage statistics
          5. Legal matters, if they arise, will be conducted in the state of Connecticut
          6. No restrictions about how the library publicizes or links to the product on its web site
      7. Microform
        1. Materials in microformat will be considered when the size, expense, infrequency of use, or unavailability precludes their addition in print.
        2. Microform is the medium of choice for retaining materials that would deteriorate quickly in paper format, i.e. newspapers, and when online versions, if available at all, are not suitable replacements.
      8. Language
        English is the preferred language in the collection. Spanish and other foreign language materials may be collected at low levels when the content is not available in English and there is a user population among the law community able to read the language. Most materials in other languages, however, are purchased only to support faculty research.
  3. Scope of Coverage of Collection - By Subject

    The following chart outlines the scope of collection development in U.S. legal subjects.

    Subject Collection Level
    Abortion Law 3
    Accounting 2
    Administrative Law (including regulation) 4
    Admiralty and Maritime Law 3
    Agricultural Law 2
    Air Law (air transportation) 2
    Alternative Dispute Resolution 4
    Animal Rights 2
    Antitrust 4
    Arbitration 4
    Art Law 3
    Banking 4
    Bankruptcy/Creditors Rights 3
    Biography
      -Judicial 2
      -Notable federal and Connecticut persons 4
    Business Organizations (corporations, agency, partnership) 4
    Children's Rights 3
    Church and State 3
    Civil Procedure 3
    Civil Rights 4
    Commercial Law 3
    Communications Law 3
    Comparative Law 3
    Computer Law
      -Criminal Aspects 3
      -Intellectual Property 4
      -Privacy 3
      -Contractual aspects 2
    Constitutional Law (but not popular treatments) 4
    Construction Law 2
    Consumer Protection 3
    Contracts 3
    Corporations
      -Finance 4
      -Business Aspects 4
    Corrections 1
    Courts (domestic), see also Federal Courts
      -U.S. Supreme Court (history and biography) 5
      -Connecticut 5
      -Procedure 3
      -Other domestic courts 3
    Criminal Law 4
    Criminal Procedure 3
    Criminology 2
    Damages-Remedies 3
    Decedents' Estates - Wills 3
    Disability Law 3
    Dispute Resolution (excluding arbitration) 3
    Domestic Violence 3
    Economics
      -scholarly treatment in areas of known faculty interest 4
      -basic scholarly treatises of a general nature 2
    Elder Law 3
    Education Law 3
    Entertainment Law 3
    Environmental Law 4
    Equity 3
    Estate Planning 4
    Ethics, Legal 4
    European Union 4
    Evidence 3
    Family Law 4
    Federal Courts, see also Courts, Domestic
      -Policy and theory 4
      -Practice 3
    Federal Government - Separation of Powers 3
    Feminist Law 4
    Feminist Theory (general) 2
    Foreign Investment 2
    Forensics 3
    Form Books (general) 3
    Gay Rights (legal) 3
    Government Contracts 3
    Health Law 3
    Historic Preservation 3
    Human Rights (scholarly works) 4
    Immigration and Emigration 3
    Insurance 5
      -Policy and Theory 5
      -Practice 5
      -Historical 5
      -Fiction 3
    Intellectual Property
      -Copyright 4
      -Trademarks 4
      -Patents 3
    International Relations (arms control, terrorism, war and peace) 3
    Judicial Administration 4
    Jurisdiction - Conflicts of Law (domestic) 3
    Jurisprudence - Philosophy of Law 4
    Juries 3
    Juvenile Law 3
    Labor and Employment Law 4
    Law and Economics 4
    Law and Literature 3
    Law and Philosophy 4
    Law and Technology (public policy and regulatory aspects) 4
    Law of the Sea 3
    Law Office Practice and Management 2
    Legal Education 4
    Legal Ethics-Professional Responsibility 4
    Legal History 4
    Legal Profession -Lawyering 4
    Legal Research
      -Federal/General 4
      -Connecticut 5
      -New England and New York 4
      -Other U.S. states 2
      -Foreign 2
      -International 3
    Legal Writing and Drafting 4
    Legislation
      -statutory construction 2
      -separation of powers 3
      -legislative drafting 2
    Legislative History
      -federal 4
      -Connecticut 4
    Librarianship
      -Law librarianship 4
      -Library science, of significant local interest 1
    Litigation 3
    Local Government - Municipal Law 2
    Media Law 2
    Mental Health Law 3
    Military Law 2
    Mining Law 2
    Native American and Aboriginal Law 4
      -New England 5
    Nonprofit Organizations (legal aspects) 3
    Occupational Health and Safety Law 3
    Oil and Gas Law 2
    Pension Law 3
    Poverty Law 4
    Privacy Law 4
    Products Liability 3
    Real Estate Law 3
    Real Property - Future Interests 3
    Religious Law
      -Islamic 2
      -Jewish 2
      -Canon 2
      -Other 2
    Roman and Greek Law 1
    Securities Regulation 3
    Sexual Orientation Law 3
    Social Policy (e.g. welfare reform) 3
    Space Law 2
    Sports Law 4
    State and Local Government
      -General 4
      -Connecticut 4
    Supreme Court (biographies and history) 5
    Takings 4
    Taxation
      -Domestic
        -Federal 4
          -Policy and theory 4
          -Practice 3
        -State and local 4
          -Policy and theory 4
          -Practice (Connecticut only) 4
    Telecommunications Law 3
    Torts 4
    Trade Regulation 4
    Trial Advocacy
      -General 3
      -Connecticut 4
    Trials
      -Analytical treatment 2
      -Reports/history of famous trials 3
    Treaties 4
    Trusts 3
    Victims Rights Law 3
    Women and the Law 4
    Worker's Compensation 3
    Zoning and Land Use Planning 4

     
  4. Overview/Scope of Coverage of Collection - By Jurisdiction
    1. United States
      1. Session laws, statutory compilations, court reporters that contain cases deemed for publication by the courts, official administrative code and regulations are purchased and maintained at a comprehensive level (5).
      2. Court rules publications, jury instructions, administrative opinions (in a variety of formats), legislative materials (in a variety of formats), digests, Shepard's citators for federal materials, encyclopedias, and restatements are collected at a research level (4). Electronic format may be relied on for administrative opinions if available rather than separate purchases of print or microform materials.
    2. Connecticut
      1. Session laws, statutory compilations, court reporters, administrative code and regulations, court rules, jury instructions, administrative opinions, legislative materials, digests, and Connecticut Shepard's citations are collected at a comprehensive level. Connecticut statutes, reports, and digests are duplicated in the Reference collection, on Reserve, and in the main Connecticut collection. One copy of all historic Connecticut materials is maintained permanently in Special Collections.
      2. Connecticut attorney general opinions are kept on microfiche and in paper as much as possible, given their irregular publication.
      3. Practice materials, treatises on Connecticut law, continuing legal education materials, and finding aids are purchased at a research level.
      4. Municipal codes of Hartford and West Hartford are maintained for local interest.
    3. Other U.S. States
      1. Annotated statutory compilations are maintained for all states and the District of Columbia, and the official version is preferred if an annotated one is available. If not, an annotated version from a commercial publisher is purchased. Microfiche services for superseded code volumes and session laws are maintained.
      2. Advance Legislative Service pamphlets will be purchased only if the subscription for them cannot be separated from that of the state code.
      3. No administrative codes or regulations are purchased.
      4. Court rules are purchased for the New England states, New York, and California. Most states' court rules are a part of their code set, so the only additional subscriptions necessary to maintain this collection policy are for the court rules of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York.
      5. Subscriptions to regional reporters and digests are maintained. No subscriptions to official state reporters are active (with the exception mentioned in item 7 below), although the collection contains a large number of official reporter volumes. State digests are maintained if there is no regional digest that covers the state.
      6. The library does not maintain a current subscription to attorney general opinions in microform or print for states other than Connecticut.
      7. West's California Reporter and West's New York Supplement are maintained as part of the National Reporter system. Digests and legal encyclopedias are purchased for California and New York. A current subscription to the New York Miscellaneous Reports is maintained since those cases are not entirely reproduced in the New York Supplement. Practice-related and other secondary materials are purchased at an instructional level for these two states.
      8. Massachusetts plays a special role due to its geographic proximity, the fact that it contains the major city in New England, and is a part of the New England Higher Education Compact. Therefore, subscriptions to the Massachusetts Practice set and a small number of topical practice-oriented materials will be maintained.
      9. Subscriptions to jury instructions are maintained for the New England states, New York, and California. At the time of this writing, no printed jury instructions are available for Vermont. State bar journals for New England also are maintained in print as well as microfiche.
      10. Treatises and practice materials for other states are purchased at a very basic level, usually as a result of a special interest such as Delaware corporation law.
    4. Great Britain
      1. Subscriptions to the primary legislative and administrative law materials in the Public General Acts, Halsbury's Statutes of England and Wales, and Halsbury's Statutory Instruments are maintained.
      2. Case law is maintained in current subscriptions to the Law Reports (all components), the All England Law Reports, Law Reports of the Commonwealth, Tax Cases, and the Criminal Appeal Reports.
      3. Current subscription to The Digest and Halsbury's Laws of England are maintained as primary case-finding tools.
      4. One legal dictionary, Stroud's Judicial Dictionary, is retained for reference purposes.
      5. Current subscriptions to treatises in looseleaf or other supplemented format are maintained selectively in the areas of intellectual property, contracts, finance, insurance, company (business) law, human rights, and antitrust. Other single volume treatises in these areas are also purchased selectively.
      6. Membership is retained in the Selden Society for access to low-cost publications in English legal history.
      7. Non-academic journal titles from the United Kingdom are generally not purchased. The exceptions are the Solicitors Journal and the New Law Journal.
    5. Canada
      1. Subscriptions to the primary law materials in the Acts of the Parliament of Canada, the Canada Supreme Court Reports, and the Canada Federal Court Reports are all maintained.
      2. Subscriptions to the Dominion Law Reports, which cover major cases of import throughout the Canadian courts, and the Canadian Abridgement as the primary case-finding tool, are maintained.
      3. With the exception of the Canadian Cases on the Law of Insurance, no other subject or regional reporters are maintained. Insurance is a major focus of our collection efforts and therefore that case reporter will be kept in print.
      4. We will rely on the Westlaw and Quicklaw services and the growing mass of literature on the web to provide access to additional Canadian cases that we do not collect in print.
      5. Selected topical looseleafs and other treatises in areas with normally high subject collection levels such as tax, business and commercial law, insurance, bankruptcy, human rights, and constitutional law will be maintained and purchased in order to provide targeted subject access to case law.
    6. Australia
      1. Subscriptions to the Acts of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Commonwealth Law Reports, and the Australian Digest are maintained. The Australasian Legal Information Institute website is a reliable source for additional materials.
      2. Other secondary materials are purchased selectively, with special emphasis on aboriginal law, business or company law, legal history, human rights, and insurance.
    7. South Africa
      1. We maintain current subscriptions to Juta's Statutes of South Africa and the South African Law Reports. These subscriptions primarily support the research areas of human rights and corporation law.
      2. Secondary materials selected will be mainly in support of human rights and corporation law, although items in other topical areas may be selected if there is research interest among the faculty for comparative purposes.
    8. Other Foreign Jurisdictions
      1. No primary materials for other foreign jurisdictions are maintained in print. Translations of codes or portions of codes that are of particular subject interest may be purchased selectively.
      2. Secondary materials may be selected if the topics coincide with a subject area of emphasis within our collection and there is interest among the faculty for foreign materials that may be used for comparative purposes. The currently recognized areas of emphasis are trade, tax, business and commerce, human rights, and intellectual property. Treatises in English about foreign legal systems are also collected when available.
    9. International and Comparative Law
      1. Treaties
        Print subscriptions to treaty publications are retained for the United Nations Treaty Series, the United States Treaty Series, Treaties and Other International Acts Series, Oceana's Consolidated Treaties and International Agreements: Current Document Service: United States, and International Legal Materials. A microfiche subscription to Hein's United States Treaties and Other International Acts Current Service, and an online subscription to Oceana's treaty service are also maintained.
      2. Topical Areas
        The library maintains research level (4) collections in a number of major areas of international and comparative law, and instructional level (3) and basic level (2) collections in others. The following chart outlines the scope of collection development efforts in international and comparative law subject areas.
      Arbitration 3
      Commercial law 4
      Comparative legal systems 3
      Conflict of laws 4
      Constitutional law 4
      Contracts, especially commercial in the sale of goods and banking 4
      Criminal law and procedure 4
      Courts and court procedure 4
      Cultural heritage law 2
      Domestic relations 2
      Economic constitution, policy, planning, and development 3
      Environmental law 4
      Human rights 4
      Insolvency and bankruptcy 2
      Insurance 4
      Intellectual property 4
      International tax 4
      International trade 4
      Labor law 3
      Legal research 3
      Maritime law 2
      Property 2
      Public safety 2
      Torts 3
      Trials 2

       
    10. International Organizations
      1. United Nations (UN)
        In microform the library collects the official records of the UN General Assembly and the Security Council, the reports from the International Court of Justice, the Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Commission on Human Rights, and the Conference on Disarmament. International Court of Justice Reports also are collected in print. The United Nations Treaty Series is maintained in print, as is an online subscription to the United Nations Treaty Collection. Yearbooks from the UN are held in print, and other secondary materials on trade, human rights, and disarmament and collected at an instructional level (3). The UN website is viewed as a reliable source for documents this library does not collect, and the UN depository at Yale University is a good nearby resource for printed materials.
      2. International Trade Organizations
        The library has a growing collection in international trade and collects materials from a variety of international organizations. In addition to the organizations specified below, selected official documents and a basic level (2) of treatises are collected for the Comunidad Andina (Andean Community) and MERCOSUR (Mercado Común del Sur).
        1. World Trade Organization (WTO)
          The library purchases basic instruments and documents, the annual report, statistics, and selected other materials from the WTO. In addition, several updated services and numerous monographs are purchased from commercial publishers at an instructional level (3). A print case reporter from a commercial publisher is maintained for dispute settlements. The library relies on the WTO website for all other resources.
        2. North American Free Trade Agreement Secretariat (NAFTA)
          The library purchases treatises about the work of NAFTA at an instructional level (3) and relies on the NAFTA website for access to other materials.
      3. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
        The library collects secondary serials and treatises from the OECD at an instructional level (3) in economics and the environment. Primary materials are provided from the OECD website.
      4. World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
        The quarterly WIPO Magazine is collected in print. Treatises and secondary materials relating to WIPO and its work are collected at an instructional level (3). The library relies on the WIPO website for access to other materials.
      5. European Union (EU)
        The library maintains print subscriptions to the Official Journal of the European Union and the European Union Law Reporter. A microfiche subscription to the Reports of Cases Before the European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance also is maintained. The free European Union web site, Europa, and the licensed database Lawtel EU, are relied upon to supply additional resource material for the European Union. Treatises and other secondary works about the European Union and its work are collected at a research level (4).
      6. Council of Europe and European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)
        The library collects the following primary resources: the Documents and Working Papers of the Council of Europe, the European Treaty Series, the Official Report of Debates of the Council of Europe, and the European Human Rights Reporter. Other resources from the Council and materials about Council activities are collected at a research level (4) due to the number of courses taught and the faculty research interests in this area.
      7. Organization of American States (OAS)
        The School of Law community's primary interest in the OAS is in the area of human rights. The library maintains a subscription to the Anuario Interamericano de Derechos Humanos, or the Inter-American Yearbook on Human Rights. The OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights compiles the annual volume, but the OAS has sold this title to a commercial publisher. The library relies on the OAS website for all other resources. Other OAS publications are collected only if they meet the subject specifications outlined in this plan for the international and comparative law collection.
  5. Specialized Collections
    1. Special Collections and Rare Books
      The law library's Special Collections is a collection of rare materials, items for which limited copies are available, faculty publications, historical Connecticut legal materials, and selected items that are deemed to be of special value to the institution. Generally, the materials that are collected for Special Collections are included if they meet at least one of the following conditions.
      1. United States imprints published before 1870, except for case reporters, and including serials that were published in their entirety before 1870
      2. Non-United States monographs published before 1860
      3. Non-United States serials published before 1850, except case reporters
      4. All Blackstone's Commentaries published before 1900
      5. Connecticut historical primary legal materials that are no longer current
      6. Commercially published faculty materials
      7. Items of special significance to the law library collection for which there are limited copies available in the United States.
    2. Archives
      The School of Law Archives collects and maintains material that is deemed to be of historical significance and necessary to document the history, development, and activities of the School of Law. Included are such items as ABA accreditation documents, long range plans, letters from the Dean, law school publications, campus master plans, conference documents, photographs, annual reports, budgets, faculty evaluations, commencement lists and addresses, records of student organizations, records and memorabilia from commemorative events, faculty bibliographies, and personal papers of individuals from the law school community. The Archives also welcomes the donation of papers of individuals that are of significant research interest to a wider community.
       
    3. Reserve Collection
      Items purchased for the Reserve Collection include nutshells, hornbooks, study aids, required textbooks for the current semester, course reserve material by faculty request for the current semester, and materials in selected areas of emphasis. Other materials housed in the Reserve Collection for reasons of high-use and security include selected Connecticut primary materials, selected authoritative classic works, current issues of periodicals, and audiovisual items.
      1. Current editions of Thomson West nutshells and hornbooks and selected hornbooks from other publishers are purchased for Reserve. Older editions are moved to the general collection.
      2. Current editions of selected high use study aids in the Emmanuel and Examples and Explanations series will be purchased and kept on Reserve. One prior edition will be kept in the general collection.
      3. One copy of every required textbook (except statutory compilations) in a given semester will be placed on Reserve for the duration of the class.
      4. Areas of special emphasis due to high demand in the Reserve collection are:
        1. Legal reasoning and writing
        2. Legal research
        3. Professional conduct and responsibility
        4. Legal dictionaries
        5. Connecticut current legal treatises, practice books, forms, court rules
        6. Local municipal codes
        7. Restatements
        8. Bar exam materials

      Because it is essential to have current and relevant materials in the Reserve collection, the Head of Access Services will constantly monitor the collection and recommend additional purchases, moving items to the general collection, or withdrawing items from the library's collection.

    4. Reference Collection
      The Reference collection comprises selective legal and non-legal resources intended for rapid determination of information or explanation. These resources, both print and electronic, include dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias, biographical sources, periodical indexes, research guides, almanacs, atlases, bibliographies, statistical sourcebooks, citation manuals, and indexes to government documents.

      The Reference collection also consists of frequently used legal material such as encyclopedias, formbooks, and Restatements of the Law. These materials are located in the reference collection so that reference librarians may be more readily available to assist patrons in using these sources. An online database of legal opinions and an online citator will be purchased for public use and made accessible from a point near the reference desk.

      Additional copies of frequently used Connecticut materials are purchased for the Reference collection, including both annotated and unannotated statutes, administrative regulations, legislative history indexes, Supreme, appellate, and available trial court reporters, digests, Shepards, court rules, and formbooks.

      Because it is essential to have current material in the Reference collection, the Head of Reference Services continually monitors current awareness resources to insure that the library holds the most recent edition of a particular item. For resources not updated by the publisher, the resource is evaluated for withdrawal no later than five years after publication. Where appropriate, a more up-to-date alternative published resource is sought. Online resources are considered in evaluating titles, as they are often more up to date than published materials, particularly for materials such as directories.

      All items withdrawn from the Reference collection are evaluated on a case-by-case basis for inclusion in the library's main collection. Those resources that possess significance for later historical research are retained.

      The library maintains a small collection of ready reference materials behind the reference desk. This material consists of directories, citation manuals, dictionaries and other popular sources that reference librarians use frequently. Selected titles may be duplicated in the regular reference collection or other sections of the library.

    5. Government Documents
      The law library is a selective depository of publications distributed by the United States Government as part of the Federal Depository Library Program. As such, materials are selected that support the general collection priorities of the library and the library provides free and open public access to materials received through the depository program. In addition to selecting basic collection documents as recommended by the Depository Program, the library also selects documents produced by the following agencies:
      1. Civil Rights Commission
      2. Congress
      3. Defense Department
      4. Executive Office of the President
      5. Federal Communications Commission
      6. Federal Trade Commission
      7. Government Printing Office
      8. Judiciary
      9. Justice Department
      10. Library of Congress
      11. National Archives and Records Administration
      12. National Labor Relations Board
      13. President of the United States
      14. State Department
      15. Treasury Department
      16. Vice-President of the United States

      Government documents are integrated into the library's general collection and are not housed separately. Access to the library's holdings is provided through the online catalog and, when applicable, links are included to the electronic version of the titles. There are selective housing arrangements for a few items housed at the University of Connecticut's Trecker Library and at the Health Center's Stowe Library.

    6. Faculty Library
      A small collection of Connecticut statutes, reports, and court rules, and the United States Code Annotated are maintained in the Faculty Library in the Hosmer faculty office building.
       
    7. Library Reading Lounge
      Selected popular magazines and newspapers are purchased for more casual reading in the library. Selected titles also are purchased for the pro se collection in the Reading Lounge, in addition to the standing order for such titles from Nolo Press.
  6. Gifts
    Gifts of either cash or library materials are accepted provided there are no conditions attached and the materials conform to the selection guidelines. The Director of the Law Library and the Associate Law Librarian for Library Services will consider offers of gifts and respond to the prospective donor accordingly. The library will determine the housing, classification, and circulation of all gifts and retain the right to dispose of gifts at any time deemed appropriate. The library will not appraise the value of any gift. A list of donated items will be supplied to the donor by the library if requested.
     
  7. Weeding/Deaccessioning
    1. Overview
      The library's mission includes developing a collection that supports the curriculum and research needs of its primary patrons. Both current and retrospective materials are relevant for this purpose. However, there are a number of factors that contribute to decisions about the retention of certain items in the collection. These factors are:
      1. Unnecessary duplication
      2. Physical condition of materials
      3. Level of use
      4. Obsolescence
      5. Space limitations
      6. Qualitative value (using criteria similar to those for selection)
    2. Duplication
      With the exception of some primary federal and Connecticut materials, selected other Connecticut materials, faculty publications, and subscriptions to high-use titles valued for their currency such as newspapers and newsletters, in general there should be no duplication in the main collection. A few titles will be duplicated for the faculty library collection. Also, some single-volume treatise titles that are especially valuable to faculty research may be duplicated in the event that one copy is lost.
       
    3. Physical Condition
      No item in such a fragile state that it is unusable by a regular patron is maintained in the collection unless it is irreplacable and of great value to the collection or institution. If that is the case, then the item will be retained in an area such as Special Collections where it will be handled with utmost care. Some materials may be preserved indefinitely with low use if they are housed in phase boxes in the general collection, and items that fall into this category are so handled if they meet other criteria for maintaining a presence in the collection.
       
    4. Level of Use
      If items receive little or no use and are not relevant to the collection development plan, they may be removed from the collection. Items that potentially fall into this category are older non-legal works in areas outside faculty research interests that may be obtained elsewhere locally.
       
    5. Obsolescence
      While many items retain historical value as they age, some do not. Also, the collection development plan identifies the areas in which the library does not automatically retain historical materials (collection levels 1-3). Selection for weeding by this criterion generally is done in conjunction with another criterion.
       
    6. Space Limitations
      In general, weeding due to space limitations will be done only if other weeding factors apply, such as the level of use, physical condition, or obsolescence.
       
    7. Qualitative Value
      If items of little or no qualitative scholarly value exist in the collection and would not be selected if they were current publications, they will be discarded.
       
    8. Routine Discards
      The following items are not normally retained in the collection:
      1. Editions of casebooks over 20 years old except those that are University of Connecticut law faculty publications or have special historical value
      2. Superseded volumes of statutes and codes other than the U.S. Code and Connecticut statutes
      3. Superseded Shepard's volumes
      4. Superseded digest volumes
      5. Nutshells and other study aids more than 10 years old
      6. Newspapers and periodicals that are collected in micro-format