INTRODUCTION
Legal studies in Germany are provided (as per the beginning of 2014) at 43 law faculties; 41 of these offer a degree course leading up to the Erste Prüfung (the First State Examination). Success in this examination is a prerequisite for admission to practical legal training, which culminates in the Second State Examination. This examination is also required for a number of state-regulated professions (those of judge, lawyer and public prosecutor) and thus provides a means of nationwide assurance and observance of quality standards. The two-stages of training consists of a university degree course and a legal traineeship. Approximately 8,500 graduates per year graduate from universities and institutes of higher education as fully-qualified lawyers. There is a high demand for those with high qualificationsFootnote 1 from major international law firms offering top salaries.
There has been criticism in Germany for some time now about this traditional approach to legal training on the grounds that it prepares students inadequately for the state examinations, and that international and public economics are scarcely taught. In addition, critics state that legal doctrine is accorded too much attention at the expense of basic sciences such as philosophy of law, history and sociology of law, without which a scientifically correct interpretation and classification of legal norms is hardly possible. Finally, criticism has also been levelled at the contents of the practical section, which aims at providing practice-orientated training within the framework of legal traineeship.
Since its foundation in the autumn of 2000, the Bucerius Law School, which is financed entirely privately, has been striving to introduce lasting reform into German legal education as well as to contribute to the presence of German jurisprudence in international discourse. Its guiding principle is “to realise the best possible education based on the tried and tested standards of German legal education…Its course of studies is distinguished by a marked international orientation.” Compared to state law faculties, the Bucerius Law School displays features typical of private institutes of higher education and universities in general; a strict selection procedure with an exceptionally low dropout rate; greater practical relevance; international orientation; earlier and more intensive contacts with potential employers; better degrees achieved in a shorter time – and this with a strict curriculum, compressed periods of study (trimester instead of semester) and not inconsiderable tuition fees.
In addition to monographs and scientific articles, commentaries and handbook and textbook literature are regarded as legal publication media. Other publication media include conference proceedings, anthologies and Festschriften as well as a diverse spectrum of legal journals. Until about 1990, law libraries stocked all these sources of information in printed form. Since 1990, the printed format has been increasingly complemented by electronic services; in a small number of libraries and with some forms of publication, print has already been superseded. The introduction of electronic resources in law schools and universities as well as their acceptance, is entirely contrary to the so-called MINT disciplinesFootnote 2, and is taking place extremely slowly. To a jurist who has become too used to being surrounded by a wide range of printed legal texts commentaries and journals as part of his or her working life, the use of the familiar printed format would often seem long-term and reliable. By contrast, the use of electronic resources such as online legal databases, e-books and e-journals appears ephemeral, difficult to quote from and technically unreliable. The challenge has been to combine simultaneously these complementary formats in a hybrid form of library service.
The approach to information logistics has been pragmatic at the rather complex Bucerius Law School. Traditional, analogue information supply has been combined with modern, digital options paving the way for hybrid service delivery into the future.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
The School
Since the year 2000 BuceriusFootnote 3 Law School has been a private law school striving to bring about fundamental reform in German legal education. The Law School is financed entirely by the “ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius” foundation, as well as by student tuition fees and contributions from numerous sponsors. The Bucerius Law School is accredited by the “Wissenschaftsrat” (German Science and Humanities Council) and is entitled to award doctoral and post-doctoral degrees. It provides legal training culminating in the Bachelor of Law degree (LL.B., accredited) as well as offering preparation for the German First State Examination in Law, the “Master of Law and Business” postgraduate programme, an International Exchange Programme, and various summer programmes”.
Spectrum of patrons
The campus information logistics supports 1,000 potential clients, all of whom belong to the Law School. The primary target group consists of each academic year of the so-called LL.B. students (about 650, nearly all of German origin, aged between 17 and 22). Additional library stakeholders are the 55 international MLB students, 28 professors, 80 research assistants, 300 postgraduates, 110 students from the International Exchange Programme as well as a varying number of visiting researchers, scholars and non-academic members of staff – in all, a highly heterogeneous and demanding clienteleFootnote 4.
Variety of media use
Results from 12 years of observation, evaluations at irregular intervals and supplementary assessment of provider and aggregator user statistics indicate that all user groups with the exception of professors are internet users and make use of the contents of licensed online, and acquired offline, databases. At the same time, information from free national licenses is also evaluated. Separately licensed e-books are utilised unreservedly – primarily by our guest students from overseas – and also quoted in their exam theses.
It is known that all our professors (with an age range of between 35 and 75 years) use the internet for private purposes. Subject-specific research that is conducted via online and offline databases is mainly left for academic staff to carry out.
The setting up of the Library inventory began shortly after the foundation of the Law School and was conducted in the traditional manner of collection building. It was restricted to the acquisition of literature en masse as required to establish a solid basic information environment. Originally, a single main library was planned together with modest reference collections to support the the professors. A costly, unilateral user agreement with the Zentralbibliothek Recht der Universität Hamburg was soon agreed upon. The first licence contract with the most renowned German provider of legal databasesFootnote 5 was signed one year after the foundation of the Law School.
THE STATUS QUO
Information Spaces
Main Library
The main LibraryFootnote 6 with more than 540 working spaces, tailor-made library servicesFootnote 7 and, at the current time, more than 120,000 printed media serves as a place to study and work, and is the centre of legal information for the School. Here, the demand for information from the aforementioned primary target group is fully satisfied for the entirety of their studies, lasting 13 terms. This is where students, working at reserved workstations, produce their first term papers, with all the benefits of customer-orientated library support, and where career-determining Bachelor theses are drafted.
At least 60% of an academic year's students continue further to a doctorate at the Law School. And so the majority of students work for at least eight years in total in this main Library from the beginning of their legal education – perhaps occasionally at first, but later for six hours a day on average. It remains, therefore, permanentlyFootnote 8 open.
Sixteen Professorship Libraries
The foundation of the first professorship libraries was based on manageable reference collections, which the first Law School professors were permitted to acquire from their own budgets and for location on their own premises. However, all procedural library work, from the acquisition of collections to the creating of inventories, content and formal indexing, was carried out by the Library team. These reference collections, intended to serve the research, teaching and training purposes of professors, developed to such an extent and with a high level of specialisation that, despite the relatively small size of our campus, not only was the term “professorship library” introduced, but also the professors themselves took on the role of acquiring printed media for their own libraries. From this time, professors acquired their literature in a spontaneous way, using a diverse range of suppliers and did not follow the usual procedures for purchasing. As a result there was a large amount of unjustified duplication of material.
However, all printed media across the Law School sites continue to be centrally recorded by the Library team. Inventories are created, media content and form are catalogued and indexed, technically processed and established in the online-catalogue (OPAC) which is the central research tool.
The inventories of the professorship libraries comprise between 500 and 5,000 volumes. The extend of individual collections can, unsurprisingly, depend on the age and length of a professoŕs service! In principle, it is possible to use all these printed volumes, regardless of their location, and any one of the one thousand potential clients can have access to this material. Conflicts over use can occur but are rare!
Five Department Libraries
Over about the last five years, five small institutes of excellent repute have developed on the campus under the aegis of the Law School professors. These institutes require a degree of specialised information and their demand is too high for the Library budget to cover on a permanent basis. Therefore, in some cases, the heads of the institutes have been provided with their own budgets for literature and sometimes complete libraries have been financed by external sponsors. Use of these institute libraries is also possible in principle, though rarely necessary.
Electronic Resources
Since the foundation of the Law School, the entire procedure of selecting, testing, negotiating price, contract design, licensing, implementation, advertising and training opportunities for database products has rested exclusively with the Library management, whose budget carries the costs and responsibility for license contracts. These contracts were originally concluded for only one year but, now, they are for up to five years and are with numerous providers, publishers, aggregators and suppliers. Even though during the Law School's founding phase the use of online legal databases was restricted to a few individual working spaces at the former library location, clients soon became aware of the immeasurable benefits of the considerably costlier campus licenses in comparison with other library practices. Besides this, professors, as well as their academic staff, could also utilise the remote access to use the contents of databases.
Information Holdings
(i). Non-digital media
The objective of setting up the library inventory and thus the main task of the library's management has been to create optimal prerequisites in terms of organisation and infrastructure for a long-term, stable supply of basic information services to the primary target group. This largest section of our clients can expect information equipment and facilities of above obligatory standard in the main Library – to match the considerably high tuition fees.
Books
The spectrum of literature supports the entire information demands of future top jurists. The range of material consists of regularly up-to-date legislative texts; large and small authoritative commentaries; law reports; Festschriften; dissertations; post-doctoral theses, conference proceedings and conference reports. Placing numerous standing orders with a single book supplier has enabled a small library team to cope with the selection, acquisition and delivery procedures. In this way, too, it has been possible to incorporate more than 120,000 items into the main library since the foundation of the Law School in 2000. Naturally, this information section is not only for the benefit of our LL.B. students as: all our clients are able to benefit from this collection, which is increasing by about 400 copies per month and is available without restriction in a permanently open reference Library.
Journals
During the setting-up phase, the Library over-burdened itself with too many subscriptions to journals in printed form. The illusion that it was possible to build up an autarkic information inventory financed through its own resources was a too deeply-rooted approach – and completely ignored the fact that numerous libraries with highly developed inventories were located in close proximity to our own Library.
Meanwhile, the Library still subscribes to 150 of the most current publications, which appear indispensable in the medium term and which cover the demands of study, research, teaching and further training. The topicality and relevance of this collection is reviewed on a continual basis jointly by the professoriate and library management and the first printed subscriptions have been cancelled in favour of licensed electronic parallel versions.
Loose-leaf collections
The Library still subscribes to more than 150 loose-leaf-collections and updating and completing these is both work-intensive and costly. Taking into account the practices and demands of our clients from all user groups, subscriptions to those supplements which can be replaced by online databases have been cancelled, assuming that the content is identical and the electronic version is available without delay. In the thirteenth year since the founding of the Law School, this medium too is being systematically replaced by electronic versions.
Textbooks
As a result of close consultation between the Library management and our teaching staff, a comprehensive range of indispensable textbook titles for the LL.B. degree course was compiled and converted into a standing order with the Library's book supplier. A maximum of three copies per title and edition are acquired. The very costly establishment of a traditional textbook collection was dispensed with following agreement with the studentś council. We recommend the occasional acquisition of a few textbooks, for personal use only, from the onset of the degree course. This unusual “bilateral acquisition model” has meanwhile achieved wide acceptance from our students even after comparison with the practices of other libraries.
(ii). Digital media
Online Databases
The annual licence fees for eleven German and international legal and statistical databases are financed from the main Library budgetFootnote 9. This is a core inventory of databases compiled with the consensus of all user groups. These databases will be extended through the additional licensing of further relevant single modules if this is feasible for the provider. Access to the databases is possible via hyperlinks from metadata sets in the OPAC and is restricted to IP-areas on the entire campus. User statistics from the provider show very high and rapidly increasing use, especially outside the Library.
Offline Databases
About 250 CD-ROMs are installed at a single location (pool-solution) in the entrance area of the main Library. As their content is partially linked to printed works, their use and evaluation is restricted to this location. In general, the popularity of this medium seems to be declining considerably due to the extensive capabilities of competing online-databases.
E-books
Besides e-books (such as legal commentaries) integrated in online-databases, the library management acquires e-books from the ‘Law & Business’ information spectrum via an American aggregator. The number of these e-books has risen to 6,500 and they are highly popular. The PDA-acquisition model was found to be too costly in practice and was replaced by the relatively economical STL-model. Our MLB-students in particular, as well as many foreign guests and postgraduates, show a definite preference for this digital information medium, which now features as an exclusive alternative in the acquisition profile of the library. The extent of acceptance and use, coupled with the technical reliability of the provider is so promising that “Law & Business” will be, from now on, only available in e-book form.
E-Journals
After implementation by the main Library, clients and personnel from the Law School can access more than 2,500 journals in electronic form. As a general rule, the complete title from the first number to the latest edition is available. Due to internal ‘philosophies’, a few publishers, whose number is constantly diminishing, supply providers with the latest editions of their journals only after a delay (ie. an embargo). It is this deliberate interference factor, in particular, which is preventing the complete removal of the printed parallel editions.
Library-relevant information sources
Library website
The Library website offers external parties detailed information about the Library's information inventory, its facilities as a place of study and work, the library services, the library team and its national and international memberships. The Library managers responsible are also presented as the primary contacts for general and study-relevant enquiries. External parties are excluded from using the Library in any form.
Library intranet
The Library intranet serves as the communication platform between internal interested parties and the team and also as a source of up-to-date news of relevance to the Library. Here acquisition requests can be formulated and orders for copies of articles and books placed; library and legal online-databases as well as the ‘Virtual Information Space’ can be accessed. The entire Library intranet presence is bilingual (German and English) for the benefit of students from abroad.
OPAC
Web-based version (static)
The OPAC, with its various research options, is the key reference tool for the Library's printed and electronically available information inventory. The Library's mainly student clientele are already accustomed to the efficient use of the online catalogue while engaged in their propaedeuticum. Over the years, the user interface of its cover page has been tailored to the research categories to clients' requirements. In addition to the wireless connection to OPAC in the Library, two fixed facilities were installed on each floor.
App-version (mobile)
Since the middle of 2013, an app-version of the OPAC has been available free-of-charge to internal and outside interested parties. The development of this app, which is on offer in the iTunes AppStore and on Google Play and which already records more than 750 downloads (as per mid February 2014), is due to the highly technically-adept young students expecting and demanding ubiquitous use of their online catalogue. The app is optimised via upgrades on a continual basis.
Library staff
The Library team consists of a library and information scientist as Director, a Diploma Librarian as his deputy, three library assistants, two jurists and three students providing re-shelving services. The whole range of tasks necessary for the running of the daily operational business is evenly distributed among this team, whose resources are stretched to the limit. Training needs are supported unconditionally and conform to the rapidly-growing progress of library technology in all its facets. Acceptance and appreciation of the Library staff by all Library user groups is exceedingly high; their client-orientated assistance, their library-orientated support, their expert knowledge, their competence, and their experience – combined with all the technical achievements – are considered indispensable.
UNILATERAL AGREEMENTS OF USE WITH CIRCUMJACENT LIBRARIES
Max-Planck-Institute Library for Foreign and International Private Law
Students and scientists from our Law School with more complex information and research needs are entitled to make use of the Max-Planck-Institute Library, founded in 1926, and stocking approximately 500,000 media. This is possible due to a “unilateral user agreement” which has been in existence for 10 years; a one-off financed agreement and valid indefinitely. The Max-Planck-Institute is located near to our campus.
Central Library of the Law Faculty, University of Hamburg
A similar user agreement to the one described above has also existed for 12 years with the Central Library of Law Faculty (founded in 1919), which has an historically-developed inventory of literature, totalling more than 500,000 volumes. This library, too, is situated within a radius of 1.5 km from our own campus.
Library of Commerce, Chamber of Commerce, Hamburg
The Library of Commerce, Chamber of Commerce Hamburg, was founded in 1735 and, apart from legal literature, stocks material relating to economics as well as the social sciences. The close availability of this range of information, impossible to reproduce at our campus libraries, even in the future, is highly popular with our clients and is offered by the Chamber of Commerce pro bono on the basis of a gentlemańs agreement.
Use of the Document Delivery Service SUBITO
Due to the Librarýs independent status it is unable to participate in the regular inter-library loan system. For this reason, the document delivery service “SUBITO” is available as a special library service to privileged user groups such as professors, postgraduates and students writing their bachelor theses. This document delivery service, paid for by the Bucerius Law School, makes it possible to obtain copies of articles in PDF form within a day and monographs within three working days.
EVALUATION OF INFORMATION LOGISITICS
Regularly conducted evaluations confirm that the development of the Law School's approach to information logistics has proved successful for over a decade. Special emphasis is placed on the main Library as a centre of legal information and library competencies. The campus-wide use of all electronic resources is highly popular, as is the equipping of the professorship and institute libraries with highly-specialised scientific literature. The document delivery service, whilst separating our own libraries from potential external users even at the expense of participation in the regular inter-library loan system, is also highly appreciated. Although the professoriate is critical of the significant increase in implementation of all things digital, young students and postgraduates expect precisely this, as well as the mobile availability of electronic resources beyond the campus.
Perspective and medium-term objectives
The information inventories and resources of our main Law School Library are being further expanded, strictly orientated to the basic needs of its primary target group in terms of content, in accordance with a limited budget. Here, wherever publishers permit, the electronic medium is preferred. Current printed journal subscriptions are being gradually replaced by electronic services.
Due to the high acceptance by users and the reliability of the products, the supply of e-books is being significantly increased and its content expanded beyond the scope of “Law & Business”. All measures to implement additional electronic resources are supported by intensive advertising and training in virtual and real form, the aim being to strengthen confidence in this information medium. Besides this, duplicate copies are being phased out with discretion in favour of digital copies and subscriptions.
Due to the inherent refusal on the part of our professors to accept electronic resources, the Library's management has abandoned the vision of coordinating inventory development with this group and chair holders will continue to be entrusted with the development of their own libraries with the traditional information media familiar to them. Ultimately, the combination of exclusively analogue media in those facilities and increasingly digital media in the main Library will create a hybrid information supplyFootnote 10, and will be sustainable in the long term.
It can be predicted with certainty that the primary target group of our legal library will use a hybrid inventory with a tendency towards expansion of the electronic supply. In the meantime, all German legal publishers offer easily implemented electronic products or web-based platforms, which should be advertised and are either largely self-explanatory or accompanied by introductory training. This range of mainly packaged services should be supplemented by precisely defined e-book collections (from specific publishers on specific themes, for specific user groups). In this undoubtedly difficult phase of media change, the few doubters and waiverers within an institution must be given a degree of understanding and support. The pragmatic development of client and future-orientated digital information inventories must, however, not be delayed by sceptics. At the same time, it is the duty of the Library's management to initiate comprehensive ‘digital projects’ courageously – the time for this is ripe and the impetus for it can only come from the Library.
EPILOGUE
What is impressive about the approach to information logistics at the Bucerius Law School is the equipping of all user groups, to a level above the strictly necessary, with access to relevant information and information media through tailor-made library services incorporating electronic media. In this way, the library service caters for the conservative user habits of the professoriate as well as preparing young, technically-adept students and postgraduates for their professional future in the international chambers having equipped them with access to the necessary modern legal information technology. The Law School's information logistics, with its significantly increasing amount of digital information, also perfectly matches the requirements of the Law School management in relation to developing e-learning projects. With its fully optimised and continually-updated information structure, study, research, teaching and further training at the Bucerius Law School can face the future with both confidence and a degree of optimism.
