For many reference librarians, excepting of course the law librarian, an enquiry on a legal topic is often something to be dreaded. First there's the unfamiliar language, tort, equity, and incorporeal hereditaments all just waiting to confound those who stray into the Dewey 340s. Then there are the abbreviations; you need to know your WLRs from your All ERs, and speaking of which there are the law reports, and the statutes, and the statutory instruments. What's more, if you're not in a law library, the stuff is not even neatly confined to the 340s but spills over into other subject areas, and then of course there is the vast amount of information that is now available online. Little wonder that Davis Pester saw the need to put together Finding Legal Information, a handy guide to sources of legal information, aimed at librarians, lawyers and students.
The book is divided into two main parts. The first, entitled “General and primary material” explains the difference between primary and secondary material (legislation and case law on the one hand, commentary on the other) and then provides useful explanations and descriptions of each. The section on case law outlines the major reports series; explains citations and indicates how to find cases in the print sources; includes a section on finding tools, such as indexes and citators, applicable to cases; and provides a list of online services and Web sites. The section on statutes follows a similar format. The second half of this part of the book is devoted to secondary sources: journals, online services, digests, and dictionaries. Although this first part is inevitably a whistle‐stop tour, this is all valuable material, straightforwardly written. However, without wishing to criticize the content, I would suggest that the layout could be improved. It is never easy to follow what are necessarily choppy paragraphs with headings, sub‐headings and lists, and to be fair there is some use of grey highlighted text boxes for certain pieces of information. However, overall, it is rather difficult to follow this part, and it is certainly not easy to dip into it to extract information, especially if you're in a hurry. Changes in design could make this far more user‐friendly. Nevertheless, it is the second part of the book that is likely to receive the heaviest reference use, and it is here that the meat of the work is to be found.
This second part is divided into 27 subject areas of a chapter each. Each chapter follows the same format, listing books, law reports, journals, online (subscription or fee‐based) sources and Web sites for the subject dealt with. Each item is listed with full publication information and often, helpfully, a brief note about the scope of the work. The books listed are, in general, a selection of practitioners’ works, student texts and general reference books. There are, inevitably, omissions, and as with many works of this nature endless debate could be generated about the selection of material. However, there is a wide enough selection within each subject to ensure that at least one or more of the suggestions will be available to the librarian. Although it is sometimes stated, it is not always clear whether the books referred to are student or practitioner texts; the experienced will probably know, but for others a little more guidance would no doubt be welcome. The chapters vary in length, depending on the number of resources, but average a half‐dozen or so pages, and here the layout is clear and straightforward. There is no sub‐division within each subject and on balance it seems that the sacrifice of specificity to a clean and basic approach is worthwhile.
Most of the main areas of law are covered, though again there are some omissions, notably local government and social welfare law, and certainly both of these are areas that might be expected to throw up a decent number of reference enquiries. Again, the merits of the selection could be debated endlessly but overall the breadth of the law is well represented. Once more I might suggest that design and layout could be employed a little more effectively. The logic behind the order in which the subjects appear is unclear; they are not listed alphabetically nor are they grouped by similarity, and for a busy professional this could be a frustrating obstacle to locating information quickly, especially since there is no subject index. In this respect it becomes clear that this book is aimed at those who already have some knowledge of the law. In order to get the most out of this book, the reader needs to know enough to understand in what subject category the topic they are searching for is likely to be placed. He or she needs to know, for example, that information about negligence or personal injury is to be found under the chapter headed “Tort” and that copyright and patents come under “Intellectual property”. Subject indexing a work like this would no doubt be difficult and may of itself throw up criticisms, but it may be worth considering, if only to open up what is an excellent resource to use by those with a little less legal knowledge. There are already four indexes: of online services; of Web sites; of authors; and of titles and while advantageous, arguably none are as potentially useful as a subject index. Genuinely useful, however, is a list of abbreviations, tucked away in the introductory pages.
As it stands, for those who already have some knowledge of the law this is an immensely useful resource, thorough, and obviously well researched. One can only hope that for future editions some thought is given to widening its scope a little. With a clearer layout and indexing, and a little more explanation of the texts this could become a relied on, if not indispensable, practical guide for all information professionals, irrespective of their level of legal knowledge, who are faced with requests for legal information.
