The Libraries Committee provides advice on library holdings and facilities. In 1995 a Working Group produced an important report, A Library for the Modern Law School: A Statement of Standards for University Law Library Provision in England and Wales (published as a special issue of Legal Studies). The report was revised in 1997 (see Legal Studies 17(3) 363-414) and is complemented by an annual survey of academic law libraries sponsored alternately by The Society of Legal Scholars and BIALL (the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians). The first survey was undertaken in 1996, with the results reported in the summer issue of Legal Information Management.

Membership

Professor Andrew Boon to 31/12/10 Westminster University
vacancy

Ms Jackie Jones to 31/12/10 West of England
Dr Caroline Sawyer to 31/12/10 Oxford Brookes University
Professor Michael Gunn to 31/12/10 Derby University
Mr Jules Winterton to 31/12/10 IALS, London
 *Mr Alan Barr to 31/12/11 Edinburgh University
 *Dr Peter Clinch to 31/12/11 Cardiff University

 

 

About the Standards

The Statement of Standards for University Law Library Provision is a comprehensive and flexible set of standards providing authoritative guidance, representing a broad consensus of views, for law schools and law librarians. The standards were drawn up by a consultative group established by the Libraries Committee of the Society, and approved by the Society after extensive consultation with academic, professional and governmental bodies. The Standards cover the whole range of issues relating to the operation of a law library including its relationship with the law school, its management, collections, space, and equipment. It is supported by an annual survey of university law library provision conducted in collaboration with the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians. The accumulated research data from these surveys provides the basis not only for realistic benchmarks and targets in the Statement but also for a series of analytical research reports which monitor trends in university law library provision. (The published Statements and research reports are listed below.)

Law is unique among disciplines in having such a set of standards and the Society, as representative of independent academic opinion, is unique in making this continuing commitment to the investigation, analysis, and expression of what is needed for effective library provision for its discipline.

The law library remains a crucial resource in legal education. These standards aim to assist law libraries to meet the needs of the research and teaching objectives of different university law schools and to achieve and measure the quality which is sought by internal and external regimes of monitoring and assessment. The standards recognise that a law library is more than collections of information, in whatever format, but is a complex operation whose level and quality of services depend on a range of factors including staffing, management, resources, access and delivery policies, equipment and buildings. The standards generally focus on outputs rather than inputs. They seek to provide guidance to law libraries wherever they currently choose to place themselves in the transition between traditional book-based library and virtual electronic library.

Read the full set of the 2009 Statement of Standards by clicking here.

Consultation on 2009 Standards

The Society of Legal Scholars is undertaking a revision of the SLS Statement, A Library for a Modern Law School and the associated Indicative List of Sources for Law Libraries (formerly the Indicative List of Law Library Holdings).

Older Statement of Standards

2003 Statement: PDF document.

Society of Public Teachers of Law (1995) A Library for the Modern Law School: a statement of standards for university law library provision in England and Wales. Legal Studies, Special Issue, December 1995

Society of Public Teachers of Law (1999) A Library for the Modern Law School: a statement of standards for university law library provision in the United Kingdom 1999 revision. Legal Studies 17, 363-414
1999 Statement: http://www.legalscholars.ac.uk/documents/1999.rtf

A Statement of Standards for University Law Library Provision in the United Kingdom (1997).
http://www.legalscholars.ac.uk/documents/1997.rtf

A Statement of Standards for University Law Library Provision in the United Kingdom (1995).
Statement: http://www.legalscholars.ac.uk/documents/1995.rtf

Indicative Holdings List: http://www.legalscholars.ac.uk/documents/1995_Indicative_list.rtf

Surveys of university law libraries

Clinch, Peter (1995) Research report into law library provision in England and Wales during the academic year 1993/94. Legal Studies, Special Issue, December 1995, 53-141

Clinch, Peter (1997) The SPTL-BIALL survey 1995/96. The Law Librarian 28, 25-32

Clinch, Peter (1998) The BIALL academic law library survey 1996/97. Law Librarian 29, 165-177

Clinch, Peter (1999) The SPTL academic law library survey 1997/98: part I. Law Librarian 30, 202-208. Part II. Law Librarian 30, 254-261

Clinch, Peter (2003) The SLS/BIALL academic law library survey 2001/2002. Legal Information Management forthcoming (referred to as the 2002 Survey in the Standards)

Jackson, Cathie (2000) BIALL academic law library survey 1998/99. Law Librarian 31, 227-239

Jackson, Cathie (2001) SPTL/BIALL academic law library survey 1999/2000. Legal Information Management 1, 28-39

Jackson, Cathie (2002) SPTL/BIALL academic law library survey 2000/2001. Legal Information Management 2, 38-49

Young, Helen. (2002) Law librarians survey; are academic law librarians in decline? Legal Information Management 2, 50-55