Summary
Strategic context
Aims and objectives
Needs and benefits
Methodology and approach
Background
Project timeframe and Project management
Example of catalogue entry with access to sample digital copy and access to Shipping Law Collection
Access the Association of Average Adjusters Collection
Access selected digitised items from the Commonwealth Law Collections
Creative Commons Licence
List of books donated
by the Association of Average Adjusters (MS Word)
Summary
The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies has completed a project to catalogue fully and digitise selectively a collection of rare and historical maritime and shipping law treatises entrusted to the Institute by the Association of Average Adjusters through the London Shipping Law Centre, and is continuing to digitise selected early and at risk items from the Commonwealth Law Library, making them available for the first time to researchers worldwide via the IALS Library catalogue. The project allowed IALS to extend its participation in an international digital archive consortium, the LLMC-Digital service. We anticipate that the initial project and continuing work will raise awareness and improve access for researchers to valuable and unique collections. The work represents a significant opportunity for the Institute to consolidate and extend an international reputation for innovation in legal information delivery, through digital content creation and provision from its own collections and through co-ordination of content-building with other law libraries and subject specialists. The initial project was supported by funding from the University of London Vice Chancellor's Development Fund and School of Advanced Study's Dean's Development Fund. Return to summary.
Strategic context
IALS has been entrusted with a distinct collection of historic maritime law treatises that needs to be brought into the Library's onsite reserve collection and made available to scholars visiting the Library and to those using Library resources remotely as appropriate. This project will increase the accessibility of source materials in digital format for legal researchers and in turn aid conservation and preservation of unique print originals held onsite. The project will enhance the Library catalogue with high quality records, digital resources and web links, providing new research resources for all those visiting the Library and using the Internet. Return to summary.
Aims and objectives
A combined digitisation and cataloguing project was undertaken to make a significant collection of historic maritime and shipping law treatises and some early foreign laws and other special Commonwealth law materials available to researchers. The collections contain rare and valuable items, including 17th century editions, unusual copies, and works of international importance.
The project has added detailed and accurate bibliographic records, illustrative title page images and provide online access to carefully selected digital copies from the IALS library catalogue. Digital copies of copyright-free titles will increase researcher access worldwide to unique and hard to find legal materials on the history of maritime law and selected Commonwealth law items. The digital copies of materials, made publicly available through catalogue entries and links in the IALS Library catalogue, will provide continuous access to selected titles and could potentially also be included as IALS contributions to the LLMC-Digital online service.
The project included an element of basic conservation work to help preserve
for future scholars the current general good condition of the originals and treat
those volumes in need of cleaning or repair. We will also preserve digital content as archive copies as well as providing online access copies. Return to summary.
Needs and benefits
By providing catalogue entries and some full-text online access to this collection, IALS is making a rare resource charting the history of maritime law available to researchers in a way that reveals its full contents, strengths and distinctive character. Title page images for all works, including many with illustrations and inscriptions, enhance the online catalogue records and provide researchers with a visible sense of the special nature of the materials in this collection. Appropriate preservation and conservation work will benefit the paper originals and facilitate future scholarly access. Return to summary.
Methodology and approach
The project employed established resources at IALS, supplemented by two six-month project post appointments. Work involved expertise in the cataloguing of historic and foreign legal materials. The project cataloguers made a close assessment of the collection, identifying unusual and rare copies and titles uniquely bound together and then obtained or created full MARC21 format catalogue records to international AACR2 bibliographic record standards, applying appropriate Library of Congress subject headings and IALS classification for each title in the collection (140+ volumes).
A title page image has been created and added to each of the library catalogue bibliographic records. The Institute consulted the London Shipping Law Centre and the subject constituency associated with their work for advice on the selection of titles for full digitisation. Priority was given to unusual or rare titles not previously available in full in digital format and selected early items from the Commonwealth Law library.
The project used digital camera equipment and onsite technical assistance at IALS, supplemented by professional scanning agents. The Media Management facility available on the ULRLS Innovative Millennium shared library management system has been used to deliver to researchers title page images and selected digital copies attached to detailed online catalogue records, supported by image storage on the IALS web server. Title page and full content images have been created to match the resolution and optimum file size standards set by the LLMC-Digital service. Conservation work will be commissioned on the original volumes as they are integrated into the IALS Library's onsite reserve collection. Return to summary.
Background: Maritime and Shipping Law Collection
The Association of Average Adjusters transferred a collection of historic maritime and shipping law treatises in trust to the Institute with the support of the academic London Shipping Law Centre based at the University College London. IALS Library plans to add these materials to the complementary collections of the Institute to form an important research resource in the history and development of maritime and shipping law.
The collection features treatises from the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, including older material of considerable value and some rarity, covering UK and overseas jurisdictions, some in gothic script, some featuring illustrations, charts or scholarly annotations.
This newly catalogued and in part digitised collection is likely to attract
both additional UK use and the international attention of scholars and librarians.
We hope through this successfully project to be able to assist many more researchers in the
future both onsite and through content delivered via the library catalogue. Return
to summary.
Background: Commonwealth Law Library
In 1992 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office transferred its Commonwealth law library to the Institute Library. The material has already been added to the strong and complementary collections of the Institute to form an unrivalled research resource in Commonwealth law.
The Commonwealth law library was the unique collection of Commonwealth legislation
amassed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its predecessor departments.
The combination of collections at IALS is an unrivalled treasure house of materials
both historical and contemporary. It does include several unique items: such as
late 18th and early 19th century handwritten laws for New South Wales; signed
copies of early legislation bearing the governor's seal from several jurisdictions;
legislation from the early provincial councils of New Zealand: Auckland, Canterbury,
Nelson, New Munster, Southland, Taranaki (New Plymouth), Wellington; rare copies
of legislation from Heligoland (or Helgoland), the North Sea island which formed
part of the subject matter of the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty of 1890 between Britain
and Germany. There is even a set of correspondence on judicial dress throughout
colonial territories in the 1950s. As part of this new project we propose to digitise
and make publicly available the more unusual and rare items via the library web
catalogue and media management facilities. Digital copies of these items could
also be supplied to LLMC-Digital as part of the IALS collaboration with the international
consortium. Return to summary.
Background: The Law Library Microform Consortium (LLMC)
LLMC http://www.llmc.com/ is a non-profit, library cooperative based at the University of Hawaii in the United States. The LLMC was founded in 1976 and provides a subscription service giving access to legal and government publications in microfiche format and digitally online. The service includes: US federal and state legal materials, US military law, Native American law, canon law, Anglo-American legal periodicals, Anglo-American legal treatises, foreign jurisdictions, international law and organisations, and multi-jurisdictional subject materials. The Consortium is converting its filmed materials to digital format and making them available via the LLMC-Digital subscription service, which is hosted currently by the Scholarly Publishing Office (SPO) at the University of Michigan. The service is continuing to build content through scanning initiatives in partner libraries in the USA and Europe.
Digital content created from the historic Martime and Shipping Law Collection and Commonwealth Law Library could be offered to the LLMC-Digital service and enable IALS to build on an established partnership with the LLMC-Digital consortium. IALS library has contributed materials from its Common Law Collection in the past and the IALS Librarian has advised the project through membership of LLMC-Digital board and multinational Advisory Council. Return to summary.
Project timeframe and Project management
The project has been completed over a 6 month period in 2009. Progress was reported via the IALS Information Resources Manager and IALS Information Systems Manager to the Institute Library Management Team and via the Associate Director and Librarian to IALS Management Committee. Regular verbal reports at meetings were supported by a written progress report every 2 months.
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The project required experience of cataloguing legal materials, attention to detail and a capacity for handling rare items and repetitive work to a high level of accuracy. Tom Brumfit and Kit Snape were appointed as project officers in full time fixed-term 6-month contract posts. The posts worked, together with IALS staff, to assess and catalogue the materials, prepare title page images and arrange the creation of some full document images, enabling delivery through bibliographic and media records in the public catalogue, arrange conservation work on original volumes, co-ordinate potential content delivery to LLMC-Digital service, and to help in service promotion and user training. |
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Lesley Young, Information Resources Manager, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies,
17 Russell Square, London, WC1B 5DR
Tel: 020 7862 5836 Fax: 020 7862 5770 (Library) e-mail: lesley.young@sas.ac.uk
Steven Whittle, Information Systems Manager, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies,
17 Russell Square, London, WC1B 5DR
Tel: 020 7862 5811 Fax: 020 7862 5770 (Library) e-mail: steven.whittle@sas.ac.uk
Example of catalogue entry with access to digital copy and access to Shipping Law Collection
Francesco da Mosto's documentary programmes on BBC TV and DVD have guided many viewers successfully around his home city, Venice, Italy and most recently on a Mediterranean voyage. A work by Italian navigator Alvise da Mosto (one of Francesco's ancestors?) is included in the IALS project to catalogue and selectively digitise maritime and shipping law treatises.
Il consolato del mare... con il portolano del mare ...
Alvise da Mosto
In Venetia, : appresso Francesco Brogiollo, 1668.
Access the Association of Average Adjusters Collection
Featured List of items in the Association of Average Adjusters Collection
Selected digitised items from the Commonwealth Law Collections
Heligoland acts RES FOL GA13.E.1 and ordinances RES FOL GA13.E.2
New Brunswick acts of the General Assembly 1786 -1836 RES FOL GC5.E.1
New South Wales proclamations, government and general orders 1786 - 1823 RES FOL GD3.E.3
Quebec ordinances 1764 -1767 RES FOL GC9.E.1
Tobago acts 1768 - 1813 RES FOL GN9.E.2
Featured List of newly digitised items
Creative Commons Licence
The title page images and digital copies created by IALS for out of copyright titles are made freely available to researchers on the IALS Library Catalogue under a Creative Commons Licence Deed (Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works).
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.