Conference on Classification in Law Libraries by Chicago Association of Law LibrariesReview by: Morris L. CohenThe Library Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Apr., 1964), pp. 221-222Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4305462 .

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REVIEWS 221

theories in a comprehensive fashion. Rubach therefore relies partly on Wilhelm Schuster's systematic appraisal of Ackerknecht's work. Ackernecht's primary concern was with the crippling effect of modern civilization on the psychological and emotional life. He con- sidered it a central task of the public library to further the individual in his strivings to become a well-rounded human being who is conditioned both by intellectual and emo- tional forces. While Hofmann denied a place to inferior literature (Kitsch), Ackerknecht saw some justification for having it on the library's shelves.

Rubach's study is divided into two parts, one descriptive and the other summarizing and evaluative. In the latter she often ex- presses her own views on conflicting theories. For instance, in the controversy relating to the acceptability of Kitsch in the BEicherhalle, she is on Hofmann's side.

The study had its inception at the Bibliothekar-Lehrinstitut des Landes Nord- rhein-Westfalen ("Cologne Library School"), where the author was a student. In its final form it was submitted as a doctoral disserta- tion to the philosophical faculty of the Universitiit des Saarlandes (Saarbriicken). The book is extensively and thoroughly docu- mented. In addition to printed sources the author was able to draw on an unpublished autobiographical work of Walter Hofmann.

FRITZ VEIT Chicago Teachers College

Conference on Classification in Law Libraries. By CHICAGo ASSOCiATION OP LAW Li- BRARIES. ("Proceedings of the Fourth Work- shop on Law Library Problems.") Chicago, 1963. Pp. vHi+62. These proceedings are a slightly abridged

record of a conference sponsored by the Chicago Association of Law Libraries in 1961. The wide range of topics assigned by its planners and the quality of the contributions make it a useful survey of classification in law libraries. Since most of the participants are outstanding law librarians who have made significant individual contributions to law classification, the papers are authoritative, pragmatic, and occasionally contentious. They present most of the major law classifications in use today and describe the efforts of law librarians to cope with one of their most perplexing bibliographic problems. (The only

serious omission was the failure of the Library of Congress to send a representative to report on the progress of its classification K.) For those interested in this field, this publication offers an often lively and quite readable rec- ord of expressed achievement and implied failure in one area of law librarianship.

The proceedings opened with a brilliant plea by Professor Max Rheinstein, a great scholar of comparative law, for a systematic classification of law, which would not only classify books and libraries but would also aid scholarship by reflecting the intrinsic structure and content of law. Apparently desensitized by years of futile debate and delay over this issue, the other speakers re- jected the challenge and sought refuge in the practical necessities of shelf arrangement.

The next contributions were a series of thoughtful apologia for the major law classi- fications in current use. In most instances the speaker was either the principal author of the classification being described or a significant contributor to its final form and application. Iris Wildman surveyed the his- torical development of law-library classifica- tions and then described the application at Northwestern University Law School of one of the early form classificattions originally devised by Fredenrck Hicks for the Yale Law Library. Julius Marke presented the unique K-classification developed at the New York University Law Library, and Elizabeth Benyon explained the widely used Class K which she originated at the University of Chicago and which became a seminal im- portance in its subsequent publication by the Library of Congress.

The next two papers presented what are probably the two leading classifications being used in law libranres today. Their opposition provided a meaty conflict of ideas, which does not come in print as well as it did at the conference itself. William Stern, of the Los Angeles County Law Library, in the outstanding paper of the conference, de- scribed the modification of Benyon's classi- fication, which is known as the Los Angeles County Class K-Law. Perhaps the most widely adopted of the law classifications, it employs a sophisticated subject classification, which is hierarchical in organization and yet not excessively detailed. In a detailed analysis and defense of Class K-Law, Dr. Stern made a strong plea for a uniform system of law classification and decried the proliferation of

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222 THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY

divergent schemes. Earl Borgeson, of the Harvard Law Library, then described the very simple and logical classification recently devised at that library and used in its valu- able index, Current Legal Bibliography. The decision to formulate a new classification at Harvard was undoubtedly a blow to hopes for classification uniformity, but Borgeson was able to present and convincingly justify a brilliant and useful new classification which is already winning supporters in other libraries.

The final contributions included discussions by Dan Henke and Carleton Kenyon of their respective applications of the Los Angeles Class K at the University of California School of Law at Berkeley and the California State Law Library; also included in the talks was a short analysis by Jessica Melton of electrornic legal research's impact on classi- fication. Melton's paper stimulated con- siderable discussion on the problem of tradi- tional versus mechanized information re- trieval in law but left the clear impression that electronic legal research was having little impact on law classification.

The proceedings reflect a pragmatic, yet sophisticated, approach to this fundamental problem of legal bibliography and librarian- ship. It is disappointing to realize, however, that like its many predecessors in the litera- ture and forums of law librarianship, it will not generate any basic or quick solutions to the chaos of law classification. Perhaps its greatest significance is to evidence the high level of professional discussion and educa- tion in law librarianship. The problems re- main-very slow progress toward the classi- fication of treatise collections in many law libraries; excessive diversity in the classifica- tion systems being applied; and partial pro- fessional responsibility for the Library of Congress in its failure to complete its Class K. It may well be, however, that the edu- cational impact and shared experiences of such conferences will hasten ultimate im- provement.

MORRIS L. COHEN

Biddle Law Library University of Pennsylvania

Selection and Acquisition Procedures in Medium-sized and Large Libraries. Edited by HERBERT GOLDHOR. ("Allerton Park In- stitute," No. 9.) Urbana: Publications

Office. University of Illinois Graduate School of Library Science, 1963. Pp. vii+ 139. $2.00 paperback; $3.00 clothbound.

The continuing interest of librarians in practical problems of selection and acquisition is attested by the record-breaking registration reported for the 1962 Allerton Park Institute. The topics covered-as Herbert Goldhor cor- rectly points out in the Preface, strangely headed "Forward"-are not of equal interest in academic and public libraries, and any practical-minded members of the audience who were bent upon getting "know-how" at second hand may have had to listen to mate- rial they regarded as beside the point; but the detached reader with no such ax to grind benefits by the broader scope of the collection. To an academic librarian, the elaborately organized selection routines of a large public library ought to be an eye opener, and public librarians should not be indifferent to the problems of academic librarians in acquiring research reports and foreign books. As might be expected, the contributors are predomi- nantly Midwestern, with the addition of some representatives of official Washington.1

In general, the academic or research point of view is dominant. It is expressed in the opening and the closing papers, in the contri- butions by Orr, Welch, and Parker, and in those by Coffin, Kee, and Buckley; and it finds a place also in Chitwood's study of book selection, prepared by a public librarian. Nearly all papers are documented, and those by Chitwood and Orr are based upon ques- tionnaires circulated to co-operative libraries. The special contribution of the Washington speakers is firsthand factual information; Coffin compactly summarizes features of a number of blanket-order arrangements, and

IContents: "The Implementation of Book Se- lection Policy in University and Research Librar- ies," by Robert B. Downs; "The Mechanics of Book Selection," by Jack Chitwood; "The Me- chanics of Book Ordering," by Harold Sander; "Blanket Book Ordering," by Lewis C. Coffin; "Cooperative Book Selection and Ordering," by Henry T. Drennan; "The Selection, Ordering, and Handling of Serials," by Robert W. Orr; "Selec- tion and Acquisition of Foreign Publications," by Helen M. Welch; "Research in University and Re- search Libraries," by Walter A. Kee; "The State of the Rare Book Market Today," by John Parker; "United States Government Publications," by Carper W. Buckley; "The Relationships of the Acquisition Department to the Library's Total Program," by Rolland E. Stevens.

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