Introduction
Mission: We help lawyers and the community find and use legal information.
Courthouse Libraries BC’s collection policy guides our decision making on the acquisition and retention of the information sources we collect in support of our mission. Courthouse Libraries BC’s collection policy aims to advance the following CLBC Strategic Objectives and Goals:
- Strategic Objective, 2011-2013: to serve BC lawyers where they are to enhance access to and effective use of legal information and tools.
- Goal: Shape our digital offerings, collections, and physical space to meet the diversity of needs in the legal communities we serve, with a particular emphasis on the needs of lawyers in smaller firms, smaller communities, and newer calls.
Scope
The Courthouse Libraries BC collection includes online content and print materials. It is a practice-oriented collection rather than a research collection, with a focus on the practice areas of interest to most lawyers in BC. We primarily collect BC and Canadian legal resources, including case law, legislation, practice manuals, textbooks, forms & precedents, continuing legal education, and practice management & technology resources. The collection is supplemented with resources that support specialized practice areas and selected US, UK, and other foreign and international resources. CLBC generally acquires English language materials only, although a small number of French language publications are purchased to support BC lawyers in practice. The resources we purchase are available for use by the legal community and the public throughout BC in courthouse libraries. CLBC is also committed to offering BC lawyers desktop access to key online resources. Occasionally we purchase resources to assist staff in answering clients’ questions. Courthouse Libraries BC supports accessible legal information for the general public primarily with the LawMatters program in public libraries and free online through Clicklaw.
Collection Strategy
Courthouse Libraries BC operates 30 libraries in courthouses throughout BC. Core collections of legal essentials are available at all libraries, plus additional resources as needed to meet the specific needs of local legal communities. CLBC works with the local bar to make sure their local library offers access to the resources they need and solicits purchase suggestions from clients.
CLBC focuses on acquiring and offering access to information in online format whenever possible.
As much as possible, CLBC limits the acquisition of multiple copies of the same text, as purchasing numerous copies of one text reduces the number of different resources we can purchase within the collection budget. We place copies of print materials in local libraries in accordance with changing patterns of library usage, “cost per use” data, availability of online material, and client feedback. Apart from a small non-circulating collection, print materials held at larger courthouse libraries such as Vancouver and Victoria are available for use by all BC lawyers in their offices across the province via CLBC`s online loan program. Circulation policies are designed to support clients where they are: both to maximize the use of resources by lawyers throughout the province and to ensure that a core collection of essential material is available for in-house use at BC courthouse libraries.
Format
CLBC gives preference to electronic formats when available in order to offer system-wide access to materials and achieve lower per-use costs. CLBC offers open access to online subscription products in courthouse libraries that permit our clients to save and email reasonable portions of selected material. We purchase licenses that allow us to deliver strategic online resources to the desktops of BC lawyers via a secure area of our website. CLBC also remains committed to purchasing print materials to meet clients’ information needs and to circulating print materials to the legal community throughout BC in order to support in-office use of library materials for lawyers. CLBC actively investigates additional new methods of supporting clients where they are with online content, such as mobile access to online products, ebooks, and digitization of print resources, and evaluates pursuing these options according to their utility to our clients and value for money.
Collection Areas: Local, Regional and Resource Libraries
Courthouse Libraries BC offers access to a core collection of essential resources at all BC courthouse libraries. We consider our libraries to be local, regional, or resource libraries depending on the breadth of resources and client services provided at the library. Whether a courthouse library is a local, regional, or resource library depends in large part on the amount of usage of the library. Case law, legislation, and as many other core resources as practicable are available online, particularly at local libraries.
Local Libraries
All local (as well as regional and resource libraries) offer access to:
- Current and comprehensive BC and federal legislation
- Canadian reported case law
- Practice manuals, texts, forms & precedents, reference sources, and online law journals on topics of wide interest to the legal community including civil litigation, criminal law, family law, personal injury, wills & estates, and practice management & technology
- Materials outside these core areas purchased for individual libraries to meet local needs.
Regional Libraries
In addition to the core materials available at all local courthouse libraries, regional libraries in larger population centres offer access to more resources to support a larger numbers of local lawyers and a wider variety of practice areas.
Resource Libraries
Our largest resource libraries, Vancouver and (to a lesser extent) Victoria, offer the following types of materials in addition to the regional core collection:
- Historical legislation and case law from other Canadian provinces and territories
- Selected case law and legislation from US, UK and other Commonwealth countries, both historic resources in print and current material online
- Specialized practice areas such as entertainment law and international law
- Selected resources from the US, the UK and other jurisdictions, particularly in subject areas where Canadian law has been modeled on the law in another country
Preservation
CLBC does not have a mandate to preserve materials we have acquired in the past that no longer meet the current legal information needs of our clients, as indicated by in-house use and circulation data. CLBC will collaborate with other Canadian law libraries and legal organizations regarding preservation of materials that are of limited use to the BC legal community in practice but have archival or historical significance.
Selection Criteria
- Usage: fit with client needs, user demand indicated by requests for item, usage of comparable items
- Core collection item (practice area and jurisdiction highly relevant) or specialty area of interest in high demand
- Quality of content: current, accurate, authoritative, accessible
- Usability: appropriate format, searchability, ease of printing or photocopying, quality of indexing, tables and other features
- Cost: reasonable purchase and ongoing costs, value for money, budgetary certainty
- Licensing terms and conditions allow for reasonable usage by clients and staff
- Format: preference for online content but also collect print. CLBC does not collect DVDs and avoids CD-ROM purchases. CLBC avoids looseleaf subscription services where reasonable alternatives exist, due to the high maintenance requirements of filing updates and replacing missing contents, and the budgetary uncertainty associated with services that invoice on an open “per issue” basis rather than an annual fee.
- Avoid duplication of content: fill content gaps in the collection, avoid purchasing new items that have substantial overlap coverage with similar publications already in the collection
- Demand on staff time for processing and administration.
Replacement of missing or damaged items
When items are identified as lost or damaged, CLBC assesses whether to purchase a replacement based on the same selection criteria used for purchase of new materials. For missing items, CLBC allows three months for the missing item to be located and returned before purchasing a replacement. We occasionally replace an item on a more urgent basis if it received heavy usage and remains in high demand.
Retention and weeding considerations
- Significance of the work for practitioners
- Usage statistics indicate ongoing usage of the item
- Physical space: shelf space, storage
- Duplicate copies available in the library system
- Availability of more current versions of content
- Availability of content in other formats
- Physical condition of the item
Gifts
- Donations are sometimes accepted as long as they are unrestricted.
- Courthouse Libraries BC reserves the right to refuse donations or discard donated items.
- CLBC cannot provide tax receipts for donated items.
- CLBC can suggest other donation and disposal options for clients’ unneeded print materials.
Last updated April 2012