Draft 1 - UCL - London's Global University



Collection Management Policy for Law

1. A detailed description of the collection

1.1 Purpose and description

The main purpose of the Law collection is to support the teaching and research needs of the Faculty of Laws. Its subsidiary function is to support other departments within UCL which require legal materials.

1.2 Readership and access

The collection’s main readership is UCL undergraduate and postgraduate students and the collection management policy is determined primarily by their needs.

Due to the demands placed on the collection, access by students from other institutions is restricted. University of London students are given reference access but those from other universities are excluded except during UCL vacation periods.

Academic staff and researchers from other institutions are welcome to make use of the collection at any time.

1.3 Description and holdings

1.3.1 The collection consists of approximately 50,000 volumes of primary and secondary materials, including over 20,000 monographs and over 290 current serials.

1.3.2.1 Monographs

A wide range of textbooks and monographs is held, covering all subjects taught by the Faculty as part of the LLB as well as the main LLM subjects.

In most areas the collection is sufficient to support postgraduate level teaching. However, the Roman Law collection is of research level and of regional and national importance. The Jurisprudence and Family Law collections are also particularly strong but not of research level.

There is no separate official publications section. Selected government and parliamentary papers from the UK and overseas are integrated into the classified book sequence.

1.3.2.2 Periodicals

There are over 130 current journal titles held, which are arranged alphabetically by title in a single sequence.

1.3.2.3 Databases

A range of full-text and bibliographic databases are subscribed to including Westlaw UK, Lexis Library, Hein Online, and the Index to Legal Periodicals.

1.3.2.4 Legislation and law reports

A wide, but not comprehensive, range of primary material for England and Wales is held. This is augmented by a more restricted selection from other mostly common law jurisdictions, specifically: Australia, Canada, the Irish Republic, Northern Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and the United States.

Some primary material for Russia is held in the form of official gazettes and is shelved as part of the periodicals sequence. Selected codes from France, Italy, Germany and Spain are also held and shelved as part of the classified book sequence. Otherwise, there are no significant holdings of primary materials from other countries as these are available at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and other libraries (see subsection 1.5 below).

The main European Union and international primary materials held are a selection of treaty series and reported decisions of courts and tribunals.

1.3.3 Current location

The collection is housed in the Donaldson Reading Room in the Main Library, Wilkins Building.

1.3.4 Material held off site

All non-current journals and most other types of non-current serials are held in off-site storage at Wickford and can be consulted on request at 24 hours notice.

1.3.5 Special collections

Particularly old or rare material is held by UCL Special Collections. The majority of these collections are currently located at The National Archives in Kew.

1.3.6 Relationship to collections in UCL

Other collections within UCL Library which either include significant amounts of relevant material or support aspects of the Faculty’s teaching and research are: Human Rights for human rights and civil liberties materials; Environmental Studies for planning and construction law; SSEES Library for Soviet and Russian law; Clinical Sciences and Life Science collections and medical library sites for medical ethics and bioethics; Public Policy for constitutional and administrative law. Additional relevant material can also be found in the History, Philosophy, Geography, Anthropology and Economics collections.

1.3.7 Relationship to collections outside UCL

Staff and students have access to a number of significant collections in institutions outside UCL. Whilst UCL is not involved in any formal collaborative collection management arrangements with them, their holdings are taken into account in making collection management decisions.

The most import external resource is the Library of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, which is the primary research collection for law in the University. It has extensive holdings of primary materials from the UK, USA, Commonwealth countries and EU member states. It also acts as the main resource for the University of London’s intercollegiate LLM programme and collects all materials necessary to support the full range of subjects offered by participating institutions.

The other main collections are:

• The School of Oriental and African Studies, which holds primary material from Asian and non-Commonwealth African countries.

• The University of London Library at Senate House, which is relied upon for UK official publications.

• The London School of Economics, which is a depository for the European Union, United Nations and USA official publications and has extensive holdings in these areas.

• Queen Mary College, which has good holdings of commercial law and King’s College which has good holdings of medical law and medical ethics.

2. Acquisition

2.1 Responsibility for selection

Selection of materials is undertaken by the subject librarian for Law within the framework of the Collection Management Policy and with regard to advice and recommendations from academic staff. Recommendations are always welcomed. Final responsibility for collection management lies with the Director of Library Services.

2. Subjects collected

Material is collected on all subjects taught as part of the LLB and other undergraduate programmes plus the main LLM subjects offered by the Faculty. These are:

Jurisprudence Employment Law

Legal History Land Law

Constitutional and Administrative Law Intellectual Property

Criminal Law Equity

Criminology Family Law

Contract Conflict of Laws

Tort Public International Law

Company & Commercial Law European Union Law

Material is also collected in other areas where the collection has long standing strengths, in particular Roman Law, and, where funds allow, in other areas of known Faculty staff research interest, such as Environmental Law.

Requests for purchase of related non-law material from Faculty staff will be passed to the relevant subject librarian for consideration.

3. Acquisition priorities

First priority is given to acquiring all materials necessary to support the LLB and other undergraduate courses offered by the Faculty. This includes background as well as primary materials and core textbooks.

The next priority is to acquire secondary materials to support the LLM subjects taught by the Faculty. The Library of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies takes the lead role in acquiring a full range of materials for all the subjects offered on the Intercollegiate LLM programme. Accordingly, foreign primary materials required for LLM subjects are not collected.

The third priority is to continue to support the existing research level collections of Roman law.

The final priority is to acquire material to support the research interests of Faculty of Laws staff and maintain existing strengths in the collection.

4. Level

Material is collected at undergraduate and taught postgraduate level. Research level material is collected as funds allow. Practitioner material is not collected unless specifically requested by academic staff in support of specified courses or is essential for the study of a particular subject area.

5. Language

Material is collected primarily in English, except where suggested by academic staff or where it is to support teaching of other European legal systems when it is collected in the relevant language.

6. Format and medium

Material is collected in print and electronic formats only.

7. Collaborative collecting agreements with other libraries

None in place

8. Multiple copies

Multiple copies of core texts and other books marked as essential on reading lists will be acquired as funds allow.

9. Donations

Gifts and donations will be accepted in line with the criteria set out in the Library Services Donations Policy. In general, material will only be accepted if it is relevant to current or anticipated courses or is consistent with the existing subject profile of the collection. Duplicate items will not normally be accepted unless they constitute material identifiable as in heavy demand. Incomplete periodical runs and material in bad physical condition are not normally accepted. The Library reserves the right to deal with donated material in the way it deems most appropriate, including disposal if it is no longer required.

2.10 Exchange and deposit arrangements

None in place

2.11 Material not collected

Practitioner works and other non-academic materials are not collected unless requested by academic staff for a specific course.

3. Retention and preservation policies

1. Review of the collection

The collection will be reviewed annually to apply the retention, preservation, relegation and disposal policies set out below

2. Use of open access space

Priority will be given to high and medium use material in the allocation of space. Material required for teaching will be retained on the open shelves except where it is duplicated in electronic format, when it may be relegated to store at the discretion of the subject librarian. Rarely used research level materials will be removed from the open shelves where necessary to accommodate more frequently used material, while superseded and out dated material will be removed from the open shelves as a matter of course. Periodical titles which have ceased publication or which are no longer subscribed to will be removed from the open shelves. Rare or particularly valuable material will not be held on open access.

3. Relegation

Any material may be relegated to store at the discretion of the subject librarian. Low use material will be relegated to store where necessary to accommodate more frequently used material on the open shelves. Periodical titles which have ceased publication or which are no longer subscribed to will be relegated to store.

4. Retention and disposal

Superseded editions of undergraduate textbooks and cases and materials books are disposed of. Other material will be retained unless it is judged to be of little value to future scholarship when it will be disposed of. Research level collections will be retained. Where material is relegated to store only one copy will be retained, any additional copies will be disposed of.

Until formal and binding collaborative collection management agreements are entered into, no consideration will be given to the holdings of neighbouring libraries in making retention and disposal decisions.

5. Preservation

The collection is included in the overall Preservation Policy for Library Services

Policy review procedures and dates

This policy will be reviewed and approved periodically by the Laws Faculty Library Committee

Last review date: May 2014

Suzanne Traue

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