Legal Librarian

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The legal librarian (in English "law librarian") has a legal education and usually also a library training. The term "legal librarian" has meanwhile become largely common in the German-speaking area. Other names are "legal librarian", "library lawyer" and "subject librarian for the subject of law".

job profile

A legal librarian looks after and administers a legal library or the legal area of ​​a university library or other universal library . As a rule, he is not only responsible for the legal literature in the library, but also for solving legal questions in the library area. In this respect, he is sometimes referred to as a library lawyer.

In some universal libraries, the legal librarian is also entrusted with the supervision of other subject areas (such as economics and social sciences, politics) and / or the management of a department of the library.

Legal librarians are also active at other - international or national - institutions, such as the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (of particular interest here in the Max Planck legal libraries), the German Research Foundation , in judicial, parliamentary, Government and ministerial libraries, ministries for science and culture (for granting funds to universities and other institutions for the supply of specialist literature), universities or technical colleges (for teaching young librarians), and also in larger law firms (there and in smaller Court libraries as “ One Person Library ”).

Legal librarians almost always work in the public sector, as civil servants or as employees . In the rare cases in which they are employed by law firms or by private law organizations, they are employees in a private law employment relationship.

The term “library lawyer” emphasizes the legal component over the library component; in the case of the “legal librarian” this is the opposite. As the size of the library and the number of library users increases, so too do legal issues. They can become the focus of work (as is the case with the legal officers of large state libraries). For this reason, there may be different professional titles, especially for librarians in the higher service who have passed two state law exams .

The legal librarians belong to the scientific librarians (to the "higher service") , but at the same time also to the jurists , and there mostly to the group of the administrative lawyers . If a biography shows that a person worked as a lawyer or administrative lawyer and as a librarian for a certain period of time, it can be assumed that he is a legal librarian (see Jacob Grimm as an example ).

Legal librarians who have been appointed directors of a universal library in the course of their professional activities continue to be regarded as legal librarians, which is not in doubt at least in view of the legal librarianship period before that. But also for the time as library director - especially when deciding on legal and administrative issues - differences should arise from whether someone has previously been trained and worked as a legal librarian or, for example, as a music librarian .

Jurists who, as lecturers ( professors ) or authors , have particularly promoted science are referred to as legal scholars . Legal librarians are usually considered to be legal scholars if they have emerged in the field of library law or legal bibliography .

Historical development

Presumably, the term “legal librarian” was officially used for the first time in the German-speaking area in 1974 when a Swiss working group for legal librarians was founded. From this working group of legal librarians, an Association of Legal Libraries in Switzerland (VJBS) emerged in 1998 .

In the Anglo-Saxon area, the term “law librarian” was used much earlier than the expression “legal librarian” in the German-speaking area. Already in the years 1887–1890, for example, a magazine appeared in San Francisco under the title "Law Librarian".

After almost only historians and philologists worked as academic librarians before, from the first half of the 20th century it was considered sensible in German-speaking countries to train graduates of other subjects as librarians with regard to other areas of science. Friedrich List and Heinrich Treplin became particularly well known as legal librarians during this period , also through publications on library law .

In the previous centuries there were also legal libraries and universal libraries with legal collections. These were looked after by librarians. In some cases these were lawyers who, according to modern usage, could be called legal librarians. The focus of her work in the course of her entire professional life has sometimes not been on law and the library. Here, reference should only be made to a legal library component, as for example with the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (who mainly worked as linguists and literary scholars) and with Alfons Maria Stickler (a curia cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church). Martin Rümelin for the 17th century and Wilhelm Wengler for the 20th century may serve as examples of legal professorial librarians . The mention of universal scholars (such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz ) who, in addition to other fields of science, also dealt with law and library science, is generally not mentioned here.

At the end of the 19th century, the leading German librarians still had the idea that “the library officials must be equally usable in all branches of their service without further consideration of their original specialist studies and, with the mostly small number of officials at a library, actually only as librarians , not to be used as historians, philologists, lawyers or theologians ”. In the meantime, it is considered expedient to employ the academic librarians as much as possible in the context of their subject: the legal librarian for the legal library (s).

Pre- and training

In Germany, previous legal training is usually proven by the First State Examination in Law . A second state legal examination can be added. A doctorate (for lawyers: Dr. jur., Doctor of Law ) was still required up to the 1970s. Exceptions were often made to attract academic librarians to sought-after subjects (including law). A doctorate is now only considered desirable. For Austria and Switzerland cf. Annotation. When filling the position of a legal librarian, there are two candidates with the first state examination in law and the same overall impression, one of which has also passed the state examination in law and the other a Dr. jur. is, the following decision is usually made: in the area of ​​a university or a legal Max Planck Institute in favor of the Dr. jur., in the area of ​​a federal court or a ministry in favor of fully qualified lawyers. The number of fully qualified lawyers with a doctorate is low among German-speaking legal librarians and is likely to be around 5%.

In the past, additional training in librarianship generally took place in the form of a two-year library traineeship with a subsequent examination for the higher service at academic libraries ( assessor of the library service). In the meantime, universities and technical colleges have been included in the training of academic librarians through master’s courses . The “library internship” is dealt with in the article “library internship”.

A high level of professional commitment, pronounced service awareness and communication skills, pronounced organizational skills, the ability to work in a team, the ability to innovate, independent action and a good command of the English language are expected. Previous knowledge and verifiable experience in the field of academic libraries are an advantage.

The Federal Personnel Committee or an independent committee to be determined by the Federal Personnel Committee can determine the equivalent knowledge and skills of the applicants in the case of lawyers without an examination as assessors of the library service who are designated as librarians of the higher service at libraries sponsored by the federal government . Corresponding regulations apply in most of Germany's federal states.

In individual cases there are (and have been) academic librarians in legal libraries who did not pass their state examination in law, but in another - possibly related - subject, or who, as particularly qualified qualified librarians, have advanced from the higher to the higher have made higher library service. Examples include: Ursula Bödecker, Gerda Graf, Brigitte Höckmair, Gabriele Hoffmann, Johannes Mikuteit, Franz Schneider, Hans Schulz, Astrid Seng, Martin Vorberg, Marga Waclawczyk, Gustav Wahl . These are legal librarians in the broader sense, who are also listed under "Known legal librarians".

Professional associations

A working group for legal library and documentation (AjBD) was founded in 1971 by legal librarians from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The term "legal librarian" was deliberately avoided in the name of the new association, as the aim was not to create an association of persons, but an association based on the model of the International Association of Law Libraries (IALL) and the Working Group of Parliamentary and Authorities Libraries (APBB). According to Section 2 (2) of its statutes, the AjBD is also the German-speaking section of the IALL.

Law librarianship associations exist in many other regions, such as the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) and the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) . Further references to legal library associations are available on the AjBD homepage under the menu item "Service". Legal librarians are often also active in general librarianship professional associations, in Germany: Association of German Librarians (VDB) and German Library Association (dbv), in Austria: Association of Austrian Librarians (VÖB) and Austrian Library Association (obv), in Switzerland: Library Information Switzerland (BIS). When it comes to regulating legal issues in libraries, the involvement of legal librarians cannot be dispensed with, for example in a “Commission for Legal Issues”.

Well-known legal librarians

In the legal librarian category, legal librarians are listed with their own personal article in the German language Wikipedia.

A number of honored legal librarians from the USA have been named in the American Association of Law Libraries Hall of Fame since 2010. The selection of those to be honored is made by a Hall of Fame Selection Special Committee of the AALL, according to the selection criteria of the Executive Board of the AALL.

Thought has also been given to an “International Law Librarians Hall of Fame”. A list of 10 “Potential nominees” was published in 2010 by Slaw .

literature

  • Karl Bader: Lexicon of German librarians in full and part-time positions with princes, states and cities. Harrassowitz, Leipzig, 1925. ( Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen. Supplement 55.) Reprint 1968. (For deceased librarians, also for legal librarians.)
  • Herbert Burkert: Some remarks on the future of legal librarians from the perspective of a dependent ... St. Gallen, 2002. (Pdf. Accessed May 30, 2016.)
  • Friederike duration: the library of the imperial court. Neugebauer, Graz, 2013, ISBN 978-3-85376-324-7 . ( Workbooks of the Working Group for Legal Libraries and Documentation. No. 24.)
  • Hans-Peter Geh: Law librarians in the Federal Republic of Germany: Their education and prospects. In: International Journal of Law Libraries. 3: 115-134 (1975) ISSN  0340-045X . (Igor I. Kavass translated this article from German into English and added some remarks.)
  • Jürgen Christoph Gödan: The library directors of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. From bookkeeper to information manager. In: Departure to Europe. 75 years of the Max Planck Institute for Private Law. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2001, pp. 51-70, ISBN 978-3-16-147630-3 .
  • Alexandra Habermann, Rainer Klemmt, Frauke Siefkes: Lexicon of German Scientific Librarians 1925–1980. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 978-3-465-01664-9 . ( Journal for Librarianship and Bibliography. Special Issue 42.) (For deceased academic librarians, including legal librarians.)
  • Alexandra Habermann, Peter Kittel: Lexicon of German scientific librarians. The academic librarians of the Federal Republic of Germany (1981–2002) and the German Democratic Republic (1948–1990). Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 978-3-465-03343-1 . ( Journal for Librarianship and Bibliography. Special Issue 86.) (For deceased academic librarians, including legal librarians.)
  • Bernward Hoffmann : Information Specialists for Legal Libraries. Labor market - qualification - training. In: Libraries and information facilities - tasks, structures, goals. ASpB, Working Group of Special Libraries, Section 5 in the German Library Association, Jülich, 2003, pp. 337-350. ( Working and advanced training conference of the ASpB, Section 5 in the DBV . 29.)
  • Ulrich Hohoff: The bibliographies on academic librarians in Bavaria. A bibliography. University Library Augsburg, Augsburg, 2015, ISBN 978-3-936504-09-5 . (For deceased academic librarians, including legal librarians. Hohoff is preparing an extended version of this bibliography for Germany.)
  • Ulrich Hohoff: Scientific librarians as victims of the Nazi dictatorship. A dictionary of persons. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2017, ISBN 978-3-447-10842-3 . ( Contributions to books and libraries. Volume 62.)
  • Yearbook of the German Libraries. Edited by the Association of German Librarians. Volume 1 ff. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1902 ff., ISSN  0075-2223 . (Currently published every two years. Part F: Directory of persons. )
  • Gerhard Köbler , Butz Peters : Who's who in German law. Beck, Munich, 2003, ISBN 978-3-406-50184-5 .
  • Ralph Lansky : The scientific librarians in the Federal Republic of Germany. A sociological analysis based on statistics. Bouvier, Bonn 1971, ISBN 3-416-00826-X . ( Bonn contributions to library and book studies. Volume 23.)
  • Ralph Lansky: Handbook of Legal Libraries. German general and special libraries with important legal holdings as well as working group for legal libraries and documentation: presentation, directory and bibliography = handbook of law libraries. German general and special libraries with important law collections and the German Law Libraries Association: Description, directory, and bibliography. German Library Institute, Berlin, 1993, ISBN 3-87068-437-2 .
  • Ralph Lansky: The legal librarians in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Introductory presentation and directory of lawyers working full-time in the library. Directory of law librarians in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Working Group for Legal Library and Documentation (AjBD), Regensburg, 1997, ISSN  0935-2538 . ( Law, Library, Documentation. Special Issue 1997.) Online (Accessed May 12, 2016.)
  • Ralph Lansky: Necrology of legal librarians in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: 1970–1996. Necrology of law librarians in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland: 1970–1996. In: International Journal of Legal Information. 24. 1996 (1998), pp. 234-262; 25. 1997 (1999), p. XI. ISSN  0731-1265 .
  • Ralph Lansky, Gerd Hoffmann: Legal librarians in the German language Wikipedia. In: Law, Library, Documentation 44 (2014), pp. 56–57, ISSN  0935-2538 . (About the creation of this Wikipedia article.)
  • Hans-Burkard Meyer: Library lawyers. Lawyers working in libraries in the Federal Republic of Germany. Association for Legal Library and Documentation (AjBD), Augsburg, 1988.
  • Eric W. Steinhauer : The Training of Scientific Librarians and Career Law. In: Library Service. 39 (2005), pp. 654-673, ISSN  0006-1972 . On-line. (Accessed May 12, 2016; PDF; 288 kB.)
  • Edith Stumpf-Fischer (project leader), Ilse Korotin (project coordination): The path to professional equality. Using the example of the librarians. (OeNB anniversary fund.) A biografiA module project. Vienna no year
  • Christian Wolf: The law library profession in Germany. In: Legal Information Management 14 (2014), pp. 100-105, ISSN  1472-6696 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ This presentation aims to provide an introduction to the legal librarians' professional group - in general and with regard to individual nationally known persons - in the past and present. The focus is on Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Some people who have emigrated from these countries and some from the international arena are also treated.
  2. ^ Eric W. Steinhauer: Legal librarian or library lawyer. ( Memento from May 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: Library Law. Virtual card box with information and comments on library law topics. (Article dated May 11, 2009 - accessed January 21, 2014.)
  3. ↑ In this respect, in Germany they have the official designations in grades A and B: Senior Library Councilor (A 13), Senior Library Council (A 14), Library Director (A 15), Head Library Director (A 16), Director of the State Library of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (B 2), Director at the German National Library (B 3), General Director of the State Library of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (B 5), General Director of the German National Library (B 6). In Austria, senior officials can be awarded the title of Hofrat in addition to their official title .
  4. ↑ a b Bernhard Fabian (Ed.): Handbook of the historical book inventory in Germany, Austria and Europe. Digitized by Günter Kükenshöner. Olms Neue Medien, Hildesheim 2003. Therein section: Lower Saxony State and University Library; No. 2.49: Carl Manfred Grebe: Jurisprudence (Jus) : "Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm's brother, worked as a legal librarian during his Göttingen years at the library ..." (Accessed on September 11, 2014.)
  5. ↑ So far there is no article "Library Director" in the German language Wikipedia; but there are many excerpts from biographies on the Internet under this word. There is also no article “library manager” , but there is a category library manager in which the legal librarians Rudolf Buttmann , Michael Fernau , Walter Koschorreck and Eugen Sulz can be found. (Accessed February 7, 2018.)
  6. ↑ Lotte Kunz: From Debating Club to Data Supplier. The development of the Swiss legal librarians' working group, compiled from the files. In: Library and Law - International. Festschrift Ralph Lansky. Hamburg / Augsburg 1991, ISBN 3-926911-04-2 , pp. 173-199.
  7. ↑ Cf. Peter Johannes Weber: The legal library system in Switzerland. In: Festschrift for Dietrich Pannier. Heymann, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-452-27332-1 , pp. 425-452 (429-430). Online (accessed May 12, 2016; PDF; 149 kB)
  8. ^ Homepage of the Association of Legal Libraries in Switzerland. (VJBS) (accessed August 3, 2014).
  9. ^ Law Librarian . - San Francisco No. 1 (1887) - 5 (1888); Vol. 1 (1889) - 2 (1890). ISSN  0195-9654 .
  10. ↑ Alexandra Habermann: The scientific librarian - to the professionalization of a profession. In: Association of German Librarians 1900–2000. Festschrift. Edited by Engelbert Plassmann and Ludger Syré. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-447-04247-8 , pp. 41-58.
  11. ^ Friedrich List: Outline of a library law. Roth, Giessen 1928.
  12. ^ Heinrich Treplin / Hildebert Kirchner: Library Law. In: Handbuch der Bibliothekwissenschaft. Volume 2: Library Management. 2nd ed. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1961, pp. 762-818. (1. Aufl. 1933 by Treplin in Handbuch der Bibliothekswissenschaft Volume 2, S. 599-634.) - Heinrich Treplin: Library law questions. In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen 42 (1925), pp. 488–498. (Talk; accessed on February 20, 2016.)
  13. ↑ A legal librarianship component also includes a corresponding effort. A library as a sinecure is not enough. With Walter Erdmann and Peter von Gebhardt , for example , the suspicion arises that in the previous century they only got a position in the library of the Law Department of Berlin University so that they could continue their work on an encyclopedia for a few years , what the faculty may have considered a reasonable solution (at the expense of the law students?), but it is not sufficient for a legal library component.
  14. ↑ These are mostly professors as part-time library managers. - An article “Professor Librarian” does not yet exist in the German-language Wikipedia; however, a full-text search in Wikipedia under the search words “professor + librarian + jurist *” and “professor + librarian + right *” can find a lot of relevant references.
  15. ↑ For further legal professorial librarians see the section “Known Legal Librarians”.
  16. ↑ From the report of the reorganization commission set up by Friedrich Althoff in August 1888, quoted from Uwe Jochum: Educational Limits - The Training of Higher Library Service in Germany. In: Association of German Librarians. 1900-2000. Festschrift. Edited by Engelbert Plassmann and Ludger Syré. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2000, ISBN 3-447-04247-8 , p. 239.
  17. ↑ This was an aftereffect of Section 2 (5) of the training and examination regulations for academic library services (in the German Reich). From August 18, 1938. In: Lansky: Library Law Regulations , 2nd edition 1969, No. 655: “Applicants who have not received a doctorate - if they are admitted to the preparatory service - have to do their doctorate before they register for the specialist library examination (§ 15). "
  18. ^ Annette Schlag: Legal Librarians - A Dying Species? In: Law, Library, Documentation 26 (1996), pp. 60-65 , ISSN  0935-2538 . (Accessed March 28, 2014.)
  19. ↑ As expressly mentioned in Section 3 Clause 2 of the Admission, Training and Examination Regulations for the senior library service at the academic libraries (in Bavaria). From December 9, 2003 with changes from June 7, 2004 and March 23, 2010. In: Lansky, Kesper: Library regulations. 4th edition, as of 2011, ISBN 978-3-465-03482-7 , No. 1633: "In addition, proof of the doctorate is desired."
  20. ↑ a b On legal and library training in Germany, Austria and Switzerland cf. also: Ralph Lansky: The legal librarians in Germany, Austria and Switzerland ... (1997), pp. 12–18 ( p. 12 , pp. 13–16 , pp. 17–18 PDF; accessed on 26 September 2017).
  21. ↑ Ralph Lansky: The legal librarians in Germany, Austria and Switzerland ... (1997), p. 12. Online. (Accessed May 12, 2016.)
  22. ↑ With regard to the list of known law librarians (. See below) are from the 20th and 21st centuries this: Cornelie Butz, Martin Cremer, Karl Konrad Finke, Jolande E. Goldberg, Werner Jütte, Hildebert Kirchner, Gerda Kruger, Klaus HA Löffler, Klaus Menzinger, Harald Müller, Joachim Stoltzenburg, Heinrich Treplin, Kate Wallach, Max Zehrer.
  23. ↑ See agreement “Access to careers in higher service through a master's degree at universities of applied sciences”. Resolution of the Conference of Interior Ministers of December 7, 2007 and the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of September 20, 2007. In: Lansky / Kesper: Library Law Regulations , 4th edition, as of 2011, ISBN 978-3-465-03482-7 , No. 1615.
  24. ↑ From a 2015 (no longer current) offer from the University Library of Mannheim to hire a library trainee at academic libraries in the field of social sciences ( recruitment of library trainees for senior library services at academic libraries in Baden-Württemberg .) - cf. also: Association of German Librarians (VDB): Information on training and starting a career as a scientific librarian. (Accessed on February 8, 2015.)
  25. ↑ On the Federal Personnel Committee, cf. Sections 119–124 of the Federal Civil Service Act .
  26. ↑ See also the rules of procedure of the Federal Personnel Committee on the determination of the other as career applicants for the service in the federal administration of April 23, 2009. In: Common Ministerialblatt 60 (2009) p. 638.
  27. ↑ On the naming and area of ​​activity of the AjBD in the founding phase, cf. also Ralph Lansky: Handbuch der legal libraries (1993), pp. 271-314.
    With regard to the GDR, cf. Gerda Graf: Legal Libraries in Eastern Germany / The Working Group of Legal Libraries. In: Law, Library, Documentation 21 (1991), pp. 18-23 (PDF) / 54-55 , ISSN  0935-2538 . (Accessed March 28, 2014.); Ralph Lansky: Legal librarianship contacts in divided Germany. (With an obituary by Gabriele Beger for Heinz Werner.) In: West-eastern gang. Memories of inter-German library contacts. Edited by Georg Ruppelt . Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISSN  0514-6364 , ( Journal for Libraries and Bibliography. Special     Volume 103.) pp. 81–90 and 198–199.
  28. ^ International Association of Law Libraries (IALL). (Accessed January 21, 2014.)
  29. ^ Association of Parliamentary and Authorities Libraries (APBB). (Accessed January 21, 2014.)
  30. ^ Statutes of the AjBD. (Accessed August 14, 2016.)
  31. ^ British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) . (Accessed January 20, 2015.)
  32. ↑ American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) (accessed on January 20, 2015.) Cf. also Adolf Sprudzs: The American Association of Law Libraries. In: Messages. Working group for legal library and documentation. 9 (1979), ISSN  0300-0990 , pp. 63-73.
  33. ^ AjBD: Other legal library associations. (Accessed March 20, 2016.) - See also: Lyonette Louis-Jacques: The International Association of Law Libraries (IALL) and Other Law Library-Related Associations and International Conferences on Legal Information and Law Librarianship. (Accessed March 20, 2016.)
  34. ↑ On July 30, 2018, there were 127 people.
  35. ↑ American Association of Law Libraries Hall of Fame ( Memento of December 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.2 MB.) (Accessed January 21, 2014.)
  36. ^ Lyonette Louis-Jacques: Hall of fame law librarians . In: Slaw of September 3, 2010 (" Slaw is Canada's online legal magazine.") - Cf. also Lyonette Louis-Jacques: Recognition and praise. In: Slaw of March 3, 2014. See also Lyonette Louis-Jacques: New international legal biography. In: Slaw of July 8, 2014. (Also on An oral history of law librarianship. ) (All: Accessed March 8, 2017.)
  37. ↑ Listed over 3000 lawyers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland who are still living, "who are active in important positions in our daily life". - See also Köbler's legal biographical databases online as part of his website , which can be searched according to many criteria on the “Lawyers” page .
  38. ↑ This directory contains 235 legal librarians who were still alive at the beginning of 1997, in the following Nekrolog of legal librarians in Germany, Austria and Switzerland: 1970–1996 ... 65 legal librarians who died between 1970 and 1996. Both publications deal with a total of 300 legal librarians born between 1884 and 1964.
  39. ↑ From Part II, Section 2: “Library history has long been the story of men - mostly heads of large libraries -. Little attention was paid to the role of women in the development of the library system. The names of the librarians - as well as their work - were forgotten. It was not until the end of the 19th century that libraries began to accept women for unskilled jobs. In the 1920s, the higher technical service (high school diploma) was finally set up and at this point the first women were to be found in academic positions. ”
    In the meantime, the proportion of female legal librarians is significantly higher than the proportion of male career starters.