CRL and the Law Library Microform Consortium (LLMC) are working together to identify, preserve, and provide digital access to important at-risk documents in law and government from U.S. and various other national jurisdictions.

At the 2012 meeting of the CRL council of voting members CRL libraries affirmed the importance of these activities to the CRL community as a whole.  During FY 2013, CRL will revise its current cost model for supporting access to the LLMC-Digital database, to provide a more equitable allocation of those costs among current LLMC members and other CRL libraries.

The Collection

A joint CRL-LLMC committee guides prioritization of collections for digitization. Materials are chosen that support the interests of CRL libraries and augment CRL collection strengths in area and international studies.

As of February, 2012, the LLMC-Digital database comprised nearly 5,000 titles in 84,000 volumes (35 million pages) covering the U.S. and a range of other jurisdictions. Scanning is performed primarily from hard-copy volumes, while the rich LLMC microfiche holdings offer an area for growth. Print preservation is an important strategy for LLMC, which stores volumes donated for scanning in an off-site dark archive.

Potential uses of LLMC-Digital content reflect the increased use of primary source legal documents for research and teaching in the social sciences and humanities. Statutes, court journals, and reports support research in topics including international relations, global trade, environmental policy, U.S. labor politics, civil rights, poverty, government, and immigration.

Access

Through the partnership, all CRL libraries have access to the LLMC-Digital database. In FY 2013 CRL will propose terms for an equitable allocation of the cost of access. 

Content plan

To date LLMC has digitized over 4,500 volumes (three million pages) of historical legal publications from CRL collections.  The full texts of these digitized materials are available in the LLMC-Digital database, and bibliographic records are included in CRL’s catalog as well as in WorldCat.

Content added in 2010-2012

• Historical legal treatises from CRL’s collections (over 700 titles)
• Canadian federal and provincial legislative journals (c. 2900  volumes)
• Comprehensive “Haiti Patrimony” collection of legal and governing documents (over 700 titles)
• U.S. state legislative journals, beginning with the western states (c. 1400 volumes)
• African legal documents from the British colonial and post-colonial eras, selected from The Common Law Abroad bibliography (2001) and held at the LA Law Library (c. 500 volumes)

Content tentatively planned for 2012-2014

• Additional U.S. state legislative journals (CRL’s total holdings estimated at 14,000 volumes)
• European dissertations on legal topics from the 19th-early 20th centuries, from CRL holdings  (c. 2000 titles)
• African law reports, including post-colonial era and Francophone colonial materials

Content under consideration for digitization in 2013-2016

• Foreign official gazettes from CRL’s collections (over 500 titles primarily in film, some hard copy)
• British legal manuscripts from the Inner Temple, and Privy Court documents
• Pre-Soviet Russian legal materials, from the University of Michigan
• Chinese legal codes and case law 1912-1949, from the University of Michigan

More Information

Listings of recent titles added to LLMC-Digital.

Comparative assessments of the LLMC-Digital database from CRL:

• Legal databases: comparative analysis (topic guide)
• Review of LLMC-Digital

• Review of HeinOnline

CRL webinar on the LLMC-Digital database and other benefits of the partnership (September 22, 2010)

Tutorials on the use of LLMC-Digital: http://www.llmc-digital.org/help/userguide.pdf and http://www.llmc-digital.org/help/index.htm