We were happy to receive the following in an e-mail from Karen Selden and would like to share it with our readers:
University of Colorado Law Library
Cataloguing Philosophy
Titles are catalogued into the collection of the University of Colorado Law Library to meet the Law Library Mission:
The primary mission of the University of Colorado Law Library is to provide materials and services that support the instructional and research programs of the faculty and students of the School of Law. Further, as the largest collection of legal information resources in the state of Colorado, the Law Library offers its resources and services to assist the University and legal communities and the public in meeting their needs of legal information.
The Law Library is committed to pursuing opportunities afforded by the cooperative organization of resources in order to establish and maintain appropriate resources for optimal access and use of legal resources. The Law Library is also committed to exploring creative alternatives to con- ventional procedures as it plans, develops, and provides information, materials, and services to its targeted communities.
Toward this end, the library adheres to the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2R1998), the Library of Congress Subject Headings, the Library of Congress Classification System, and the practices of the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). However, “[s]ince the primary reason for adopting any subject classification scheme is to arrange your books on the shelf in such a way that like material will be found altogether,”1 class numbers and subject headings will often be altered to provide optimal access. Optimal access for Law Library patrons means classing titles on similar subjects in the same location as much as possible. It also means adding as many access points as is reasonable. Modifications to cataloguing of the Library of Congress and members of OCLC are therefore common. The Head of Faculty Services is the most knowledgeable faculty member to be consulted for classification and subject questions in the Law Library collection.
1 Benemann, William, AALL Spectrum, October 1997, p.14.
Last updated November 1, 1999