(Friday, June 28, 2:30 p. m.)
The second session was a joint session held in conjunction with the
National Association of State Libraries, the American Association of
Law Libraries and the Bibliographical Society of America. Mr. George S.
Godard, acting secretary-treasurer of the National Association of State
Libraries, called the meeting to order and occupied the chair.
Before beginning the regular program, Mr. Beer, librarian of the Howard
Memorial library at New Orleans, called attention to a bibliography
of French fiction, which he had come across during his travels in
Europe last year. He said in part: "I discovered that there was being
published at Lisle on the borders of Belgium by a Roman Catholic
priest the most honest, the bravest review of fiction that exists
in any language. He does not fear to mention every book which is
published. He praises those which are good, and he scathes with the
most bitter sarcasm and truthfulness those that are absolutely bad.
He is the Abbé Bellian. If a young lady goes to buy a book she is
asked if that particular book is in the list of Abbé Bellian. If it is
not that store refuses to supply it to any one who is not of lawful
age. It has been supplemented by a monthly publication which is very
reasonable in price. It has been published since 1903." He urged that
all become familiar with this book in order that the supply of French
books generally throughout the United States in our libraries may be
much more carefully selected and be more representative of the great
French fiction. Dean Walton of the McGill University law school,
Montreal, prepared a paper entitled "Legal systems of Canada, with a
list of statutes and other legal papers of the Province of Quebec."
This paper opened the formal program and was read by Mr. Charles H.
Gould. This paper was followed by another entitled "Present Status of
legal bibliography" by Dean Wigmore of the Northwestern University
law school. This was read by Mr. Edwin M. Borchard, law librarian of
the Library of Congress, in connection with his own paper on "The
bibliography of international and foreign law, with an account of the
method of building up the collections of foreign and international
law in the Library of Congress." After reading Dean Wigmore's paper
and discussing the present literature in this field and existing
bibliographies, Mr. Borchard called attention to the effect which
the increase in foreign travel had had upon all law library problems
in America, bringing in as it had the wider international relations
from year to year. He said "There are three points of view that have
guided us" (in the formation of the Library of Congress collection)
"the practicing lawyer's necessity of knowing foreign law, the
legislator's necessity for knowing the solution of social and economic
problems, the scientific object, the students' need of developing
the science of law." He dwelt at some length upon the methods which
he had used in arriving at the best selection of foreign continental
law books. Through his connection as international law expert at the
Hague Fisheries Arbitration he was enabled to get first hand judgment
regarding the actual books by foreign lawyers. Further in the name of
the Government by correspondence he approached the law departments
of universities, judges of Supreme Courts, practicing lawyers, etc.,
of other countries. In Latin America he worked through the consuls
and ministers of the United States to get such information. By these
methods the books were ordered and many have now arrived. The question
now presents itself as to how to make available this new material. This
is being done by the publication of guides to the foreign law. "The
first guide, the guide of the law of Germany, appeared about a month
and a half ago.... It undertakes to furnish an introduction to the
German system as a whole, and to the principal leading institutions,
as parts of the system in some detail, mentioning particularly the
important literature and how to use it, what the American lawyer in
terms of his own law may expect to find in these European books....
The guide of the law of France is now in course of preparation, and
will probably appear about the first of next year. We hope then to
continue with Austria, Spain and Italy, which we consider the important
countries. Later we may publish Belgium and Switzerland in one volume,
perhaps including Scandinavia, and then one volume for the law of
Latin America. If we do not get to the publication of guides we will
publish the material that we have received, editing it with perhaps
bibliographic notes of such information as we can convey in order to
open up this bibliographic source to the general investigator....
We are getting many letters every week in Washington from lawyers
throughout the whole United States, asking for information on foreign
law.... Comparative law is a field which is now getting great impetus,
partly through the work of developing legal collections, partly through
the necessities of a case. We are no longer an insular nation. Growing
international relations are making necessary some knowledge of foreign
law and the desirability of its knowledge to legislators is admitted, I
think, without a question."
Mrs. Margaret C. Klingelsmith, librarian of the Biddle law library
of the University of Pennsylvania, followed with a paper upon "The
books of the beginnings." Prof. Archibald McGoun of McGill university
next presented a paper entitled "The bibliography of Canadian law."
Dr. G. E. Wire of the Worcester county law library of Massachusetts
opened the discussion. Speaking of the ordinary bar library for the
working lawyer, he urged that there was needed an extension of Mr.
Soule's Manual referred to in Dean Wigmore's article. He advocated
also a much shorter list of citations than that employed in Soule. He
further referred to the need of some publication on Spanish American
bibliography, which would cover such things as the number of Porto
Rican reports in a given series. He would like also some publication
which would give the various codes and compilations of laws, both
official and unofficial, in advance of "our law book friend" who comes
along to tell us about it. From the practical standpoint he said that
books on foreign laws were so much more useful when translated, that in
the average law library the same books in the original language would
be rarely used.