Theoretical overview
Print Resources
Textbooks, reference books, legal periodicals are said to be core collections of any law library. Besides these, constitutions, court judgments, legislations, enactments, treaties, administrative rules and regulations and ordinance also make a strong collection of a law library which needs some special skill to handle. Generally, the law library has the following print resources.
Textbooks
Textbooks is a common source of information in every law library which is very helpful for teachers, students, research scholars, legal practitioners and many other who are interested in knowing the law on a particular subject. It is very important for every law library to have up-to-date and latest edition of textbooks. Some of the important textbooks in a law library are books on the constitution, evidence, Indian panel code, contract law, criminal law, civil law, etc.
Law Journals
Journals provides important source of legal information to law library users. It is also called as periodicals which are published at regular intervals (weekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, half yearly and annually). It contains articles, comments on recent cases, books review, and recent information on legal developments. There are various categories of law journal which are available in law library such as foreign journals which includes Modern Law Journal (UK), Australian Journal of Administrative Law (Australia), McGill Law Review (Canada), Yale Law Journal (U.S.), Harvard Law Review (U.S.)and Indian journals includes Crimes, Criminal Law Journal, Journal of Constitutional and Parliamentary studies, Banking Cases, Journal of Indian Law Institute, Seminar, Consumer Protection Judgments, Divorce and Matrimonial Cases.
Law Reports :Law reports provide primary information to the users of law library. It mainly contains the cases decided by Supreme Court of India or State High Courts. Some of the examples of law reports are Supreme Court Cases (SCC), All Indian Reporter (AIR), Indian Law Reports (ILR), ILR Bombay, and ILR Allahabad. Apart from this there are some law reports which contain the cases decided by each State High Court such as Bombay Law Reporter, Allahabad Law Journal, Madras Law Journal and Gauhati Law Reports. There are some foreign law Resources in Law Library: An Overview of Print and Electronic Collection 2021 © IJRLS All Rights Reserved www.ijrls.in Page 173 reports which are found to be available in Indian law libraries viz. All England Law Reporter, Canadian Supreme Court Reports, Federal Law Report, Weekly Law Report, U.S. Supreme Court Reports, Australian Law Reports.
Legislation :Legislation is an Acts passed by the parliament and the state legislatures, ordinances promulgated by the President of India and Governors of the state. It is also termed as statutory law. It is that law which is declared or expressed in writing by the competent or sovereign authority e.g. Gazette of India, Acts of Parliaments.
Bare Act :Bare Act provides a summary of every section of a particular Act passed by the parliament. It does not include case laws or other explanations to the sections except what the parliament or state legislature has made.
Manuals :Manuals contains latest rules and notifications published by few government departments such as Civil Service Manual, Income Tax Manual.
Digests : Digests provides information on reported cases with their abstract. It also provides the basic information of a particular reported case. Whether a particular case is overruled, followed, or considered in subsequent cases can be find in digests. Examples of digests are AIR Supreme Court Digest, Complete Supreme Court Criminal Digest, and Complete Digest of Supreme Court Cases.
Legal Articles : Generally, law libraries maintain abstracting and indexing system. It is an important area where a library maintains an indexing system which contains all the bibliographic details of articles published in journal available in library. It helps teachers, students and researchers to search their articles by title, author and through name of the journal.
Index to Legal Periodicals :Index to legal periodical is the most convenient source for tracing articles from law journals, for example Index to Indian Legal Periodical published by Indian Law Institute, New Delhi. All the important law journals published in India are found in this Index.
Commission and Committee Reports :There are various commission and committees that are found to operate in India such as the National Human Rights Commission, the Women Commission, Law Commission of India, and National Commission for SC/ST Reports, etc. The report of such commissions creates good collection for law library.
Parliamentary Debates :Parliamentary debates of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha create sound collection of law library. It is a recoding conversation of various discussions, agenda made by the members of the Parliament. These debates can be downloaded from the website of Parliament of India.
Dissertations, Thesis and Seminar Papers :Dissertations, thesis and seminar papers are important source of information for the users of law library. This type of institutional repositories is very helpful for legal researchers.
Reference Tools : Reference tools such as legal dictionaries, legal encyclopedias, legal bibliographies, etc build a good collection of law libraries. Apart from this a law library should also have subject based reference tools such as Supreme Court Case Citator, Corpus Juris Secundum, Criminal Law Digest, Supreme Court Case Comparative Tables, Supreme Court Yearly Digest, etc.
E- RESOURCES IN LAW LIBRARY
Legal databases
Law library subscribes various online legal databases for the greater benefit of their library users. These databases are feely available without any additional fees to the users of the library. Most of the databases are commercial, therefore, the access of these databases is given through passwords or sometimes it is linked to the homepage of the library. The widely access legal databases in the law library are: Hein Online, LexisNexis, Lexis Academic Universe, Westlaw International, JSTOR, E-Hart, Legal Trac, Kluwer Law Online, Investor- State Law Guide (ISGL), Global Arbitration Review (GAR), etc. (International legal databases). Manupatra, SCC Online, Indlaw, Corporate Law Advisor. All India Reporter, Taxmann Online, Legitquest, etc are the national legal databases.
CD- ROM Databases
Due to the availability of online resources, the popularity of CD-ROMs has decreased. However, some CD-ROMs may be kept in the large library like Statutes of India.
E-Journals
Electronic journals subscribed by the law library provide greater benefits to legal researchers. E-journals provide the researchers with the latest information on various legal developments. Some of the important e- journals in law libraries areInternational Journal of Constitutional Law, International Journal of Refugee Law, Internal Journal of Transitional Law, Journal of Environmental Law, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Journal of Information, Law and Technology, Journal of International Economic Law, etc.
Legal Websites
Legal websites over the internet provides links to various resources which helps the users of the law library to access current information in their specific area such aswww.judis.nic.in, www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in
Open Access Legal Information E- resources
There is some legal information E- Resources which are freely available to the users of law library such as Judgments Information System (JUDIS), National Portal of India, etc. JUDIS contains the judgments of Supreme Court of India and several State High Courts. National Portal of India provides access to all Indian Government websites relating to important documents and reports released by the Government of India at both State and Central level.
Points to remember
- Law reports provide primary information to the users of law library. It mainly contains the cases decided by Supreme Court of India or State High Courts. Some of the examples of law reports are Supreme Court Cases (SCC), All Indian Reporter (AIR), Indian Law Reports (ILR), ILR Bombay, and ILR Allahabad. Apart from this there are some law reports which contain the cases decided by each State High Court such as Bombay Law Reporter, Allahabad Law Journal, Madras Law Journal and Gauhati Law Reports.
- Law library subscribes various online legal databases for the greater benefit of their library users. These databases are feely available without any additional fees to the users of the library. Most of the databases are commercial, therefore, the access of these databases is given through passwords or sometimes it is linked to the homepage of the library.
- Textbooks is a common source of information in every law library which is very helpful for teachers, students, research scholars, legal practitioners and many other who are interested in knowing the law on a particular subject. It is very important for every law library to have up-to-date and latest edition of textbooks.
- Legal websites over the internet provides links to various resources which helps the users of the law library to access current information in their specific area such aswww.judis.nic.in, www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in
