Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Library Association: Held at Ottawa, Canada, June 26-July 2, 1912
Science
Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Library Association: Held at Ottawa, Canada, June 26-July 2, 1912
American Library Association; Library science -- Congresses
Special and local names may well be noted on all main cards and cross
references made in every case from such forms. For instance, the law
governing the sale of stocks recently passed in Kansas, which is
popularly known as the "Blue sky law" should be noted as such in the
catalog. The "Mary Ann" bill may be called for by that name and if
there is no cross reference in the catalog the untrained assistant in
the library, or the stenographer, will never find it. The mechanical
part of the catalog should be so complete that it does not require
acquaintance with all phases of the subject in order that a person may
use it intelligently. Therefore, special and local names inevitably
need attention.
The contents of a legislative reference library are largely of either
an economic or a legal nature, and its patrons sometimes approach the
material from the legal side and sometimes from the economic side.
In assigning subject headings this fact must never be forgotten.
Consequently, the headings will sometimes take a legal turn and
sometimes an economic turn. At times it is necessary to compromise and
choose one halfway between the two.
Let us consider for a moment the relationship of the economic and
the legal material. Justice Holmes, in his book on the "Common law,"
expresses this relationship unusually well. He says in substance that
the growth of the law is legislative; it is legislative in its grounds;
that the secret root from which law draws all the juices of life is
consideration of what is expedient for the community.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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