Suchergebnisse

Since the mid 1980's to the present time there has been an unprecedented attitudinal change by governments, both at the federal and state levels, regardless of political persuasion, towards the role of the public sector. There has been a sustained policy to wind back the size of the Public Service across the board.

Germany, because of its history, has a rather diverse system of law libraries. There are important law collections not only in law libraries but also in general libraries. All our significant libraries are financed from public funds.

Until a few years ago there were only 12 law schools in this country. That number has now grown to 28 with rumours of more, and with the additional introduction of programmes like those run by the University of London. Law student numbers in Australia country have risen by over 60% since 1987. It can be, and has been, argued that this is simply too many for our resources and many of the newer law schools were established more with an eye to the prestige of having a law degree within the institution.

The history of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (C.A.L.L.) has many parallels with the history of the International Association as set out by Dr. Dahlmanns in No. 28 of this Bulletin. The year 1960 seems to have been a turning point in law library development in Canada and the decade following it was a period of rapid and extensive growth both in the number of law libraries and in the size and scope of their collections. Before 1960 the possibility of a law library organization had been discussed, but in 1960 it became a reality. Under the guidance of Eunice Beeson, the newly appointed law librarian at the Dalhousie University Law School in Halifax, C.A.L.L. first came into being as a chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries. Eunice brought with her to Canada valuable experience in the American organization and she lost no time in getting the five or six widely scattered Canadian law librarians into touch with one another in a way in which they could work together on common projects and share similar concerns. She drafted the constitution of the organization, articulated ideas for co-operative ventures, and indicated practical ways of achieving what had to be done. Her death in the spring of 1966 was a great loss, but she had laid a firm foundation for the future development of the Association.