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Introduction | Acquisition Records | Searching | RUSH Requests
Cataloguing Issues | Call Numbers | Material Classed Together | Location Information | Older Editions |
Processing Unit : Copies in Other Libraries |
Reference Materials | Reserve Materials |
Microforms | Mystery Collection | Processing Law Materials | Rare Books | Serials | Theses and Course Materials | Videocassettes | Table of Contents (Location-specific Guidelines) | Table of Contents (Top)]
Beginning September 3, 1996, the Cataloguing Unit of the Central Library Technical Services area assumed responsibility for the cataloguing of material for the Law Library.
Acquisition of new material continues to be done in the Law Library. Law Acquisitions staff also continue to:
Cataloguing staff do the following:
Whenever possible, the cataloguing of Law Library materials are done according to the normal practices, with the following exceptions:
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Past practice in Law Acquisitions was to copy the bibliographic record for an earlier edition or a similar title, and use that record as the basis for the order record. If any records created in this manner are still uncatalogued, some information regarding the other title may still be in the record. When another record has been copied to provide the basis of the order record, a note should be included in the copy holdings record to alert you to this fact. Multiple 035 fields with NOTIS numbers may also indicate this situation.
Materials sent over from Law Acquisitions is date stamped with the date of receipt.
Law Library materials are flagged by the Law Acquisitions staff with a reusable flag that records the record number.
Material for the Law Library may be bound before cataloguing. "At Bindery" status should be removed before the item is sent to Cataloguing, but if you find it is still there, remove it.
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It was difficult to find copy for some items formerly purchased for the Law Library (typically material which was not purchased from a commercial publisher, including law school publications, etc.). This type of material is no longer extensively purchased. The bulk of the material purchased is standard works on Canadian law, for which acceptable copy should be found in OCLC.
Note that copy for Canadian law found in other sources is extremely variable in usefulness because of the call number problems described in Call Numbers below.
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Items requiring RUSH cataloguing on receipt are flagged as RUSH books by Law Acquisitions.
RUSH cataloguing requests are either faxed or e-mailed to the Cataloguing department.
Some RUSH material has a note concerning its status in the copy holdings record. Remove this note when you have finished cataloguing the material.
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The Library of Congress long ago assigned K for the classification of law, but it did not actually publish any schedules until 1969 when KF, Law of the United States, came out. Other schedules have followed at intervals, not quite complete in 2004. Meanwhile, other libraries adopted various expedients.
Many Law libraries still do not use the Library of Congress classification scheme. Many of the non-LC classification schemes in use do however begin with the letter K, including the one formerly in use at Queen's (now in the "old class" sublocation). Some of these numbers look like LC numbers until closely examined.
In most instances, non-LC classification numbers for Canadian law are coded in the 055 field, not the 050 field. Also, many of these classification numbers begin with a single letter K instead of the letter K in combination with another letter, e.g. KD or KE. Call numbers beginning with the letters KF are incorrect if the work is not about U.S. law. Non-LC classification numbers in cataloguing copy will need to be reclassified by a cataloguing librarian.
Many items covering legal matters could conceivably be classed in two different places in the LC classification schedules--one for the legal slant, and one for the related emphasis. In some cases, Library of Congress copy (and other library copy) may contain two different classification numbers--one in K and one not. Provided that both numbers are valid LC numbers, the Law Library would prefer that we use the number from the K classification schedules.
The Library of Congress has discontinued its JX classification schedule for international law. Instead, they have added two new sections--JZ and KZ--to cover this material. The Law Library would prefer that any copy containing a JX call number be reclassified to the appropriate JZ or KZ number.
The Law Library may also send over a few items from time to time to be reclassified from the old classification system to the Library of Congress classification scheme. Some of this reclassification is being done by Law Acquisitions staff as well.
Note that the following items are not classified: journals, law reports, statutes, and other primary legislative materials, as well as microforms. The following textual designations are used in the |h subfield of the Holdings record to designate such materials:
| Acquisitions Tools | English Topical Reports |
| Australian Digests | Irish Law Reports |
| Australian Law Reports | Irish Legislative Material |
| Australian Legislative Material | New Zealand Law Reports |
| Australian State Material | New Zealand Legislative Material |
| Canadian Law Reports | Northern Ireland Law Reports |
| Canadian Legislative Material | Scottish Law Reports |
| Canadian Provincial Reports | Scottish Legislative Material |
| Canadian Topical Reports | U.S. Law Reports |
| Digest Section | U.S. Legislative Material |
| English Law Reports | U.S. State Materials |
| English Legislative Material | U.S. Topical Reports |
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Conferences and numbered series may be classed together, while having individual bibliographic records. The common call number should be recorded in an 053 or 050 field in the authority record for the conference or series. Some of these were done in non-standard ways in the past and have not yet been cleaned up.
All Canadian (federal and provincial) law reform commissions were formerly classed as series, even though the series were not numbered. Classification "numbers" were established for discrete series (reports, working papers, etc.) with a letter of the alphabet standing for the series followed by an additional cutter for the main word or topic. This practice should no longer be followed. Law reform commission publications should now be classed by subject within the jurisdiction. (It is not necessary to reclass older publications, unless requested by Law Library staff.)
The Law Library receives a number of series on standing order. Many of these series are classed together. Some of the publishers (mainly Law schools) will occasionally jointly publish issues. In these instances, the Law Library will receive one copy of the item under each standing order. The different copies of such an item should receive the call number for each series. The first copy will be given the call number for the first series, and the second copy will receive the call number of the second series.
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The Law Library has been using the full Library of Congress classification system since 1992. (JX for International Law has been in use much longer, although cuttering, as with the rest of the collection, was by means of the Cutter-Sandborn tables until 1991). After an interim period during which a substantial amount of the material in most demand was reclassed and shelved separately, the remaining collection in the in-house classification scheme was given the location ll,oldclas (Law Old Class).
For a complete list of the Law Library location codes, click here.
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The Law Library receives a number of titles which are updated with new editions. The latest edition should be classified in the Library of Congress classification schedules. In many instances, the older editions will still be in the collection under the non-LC number.
If there are only one or two previous editions, you may assign the LC call number, together with the date, to the older editions on line. Processing can produce replacement label(s). The label(s) should then be sent to the Law Library, together with a memo providing the information about the edition whose call number has been updated.
Do not update the call numbers if there are a lot of older editions, unless requested by Law Library staff. (They may be able to do this themselves if they consider it a priority.)
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In the NOTIS system, Law was a separate "processing unit" called LTLL (or in some contexts CaOKQL). In the Voyager system this is no longer the case, and procedures for adding copies have changed as a result. See One Record Policy for guidelines.
The first copy purchased for the Law Library should still be called copy 1 regardless of copies in other locations.
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Materials designated for "Reference" should arrive in the Cataloguing Unit with the appropriate book flag, or have the reference location noted in the copy holdings field.
However, please watch for reference type materials such as dictionaries, glossaries, and lawyers directories etc. It is Law Library policy to include this material in the Reference collection. If you handle such material, and it is not designated for Reference, please query the location with Law Library staff.
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Formerly the location ll,rss was used for 3-hour Reserve materials. This should no longer be done in Cataloguing; instead Law Library staff add it as a Temporary Location, so that the items can easily be removed from Reserve at the end of term.
Reserve materials not owned by the Library System should not be catalogued. Course Reserve information will be entered on line by the Law Library Circulation staff.
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Section 10, Subsection LAW, Part C3
Created August 20, 1996 by E. Read
Revised February 14, 1997 by E. Read
Revised June 3, 2004 by D. Rutherford
Page maintained by Elizabeth A. Read, readel@queensu.ca. Created: 27/05/96 03-Jun-2004 06:08 PM