Biddleblog

As we enter the March Madness of The Final Four, here is a legal research tip that should help you to visualize the relationships between four primary legal sources.  I like to call them "The Big Four."

The Big Four comprises the following four resources: Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations.   Even if you forget the mechanics of moving from any one quadrant to the other three--as in basketball, practice makes perfect--you will be ahead of the game in your summer or permanent job if you can internalize the basic concepts portrayed in the chart below. 

You may also download this chart by clicking the following link: big four09.pdf.

The top 2 boxes in the Big Four chart are statutes passed by Congress.  The bottom 2 are regulations written by agency officials.  The bottom 2 are sometimes called "delegated legislation" because they cannot exist without statutory authority. 

It is also useful to read this chart from left to right.  The left 2 boxes are the chronological, historical record, while the 2 on the right are current, subject-arranged codes with obsolete matters dropped.   The left 2 are useful for legislative history and background information on regulations.  The right 2 are essential for practicing law today.  However, sometimes you have to consult the left 2 boxes for very recent laws, such as President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, because they haven't yet migrated to their codified versions on the right.

The chart above shows a familiar statute, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  This is the title that forbids discrimination in employment on the basis of "race, color, religion, sex or national origin."  But how do you find it?  A glance at the chart will tell you that Title VII is the original title in the 1964 session law--not the title in the current U.S. Code, i.e. 42.  The move from left to right quadrants is one that even Scottie Reynolds might miss because it is a change in both number (7 to 42) as well as form (Roman to arabic). 

Things can get even more complicated when you realize that the 50 titles of the U.S. Code are usually not the same as the 50 titles of the C.F.R.  Conversion tables in paper are readily available in any law library or online on Westlaw.

Reference librarians in Biddle love to help people navigate the legislative/regulatory maze.   If you have any questions, stop by the Reference Desk anytime or call 215-898-7853.

It has now been ten months since the "Great Flood" in the Lewis Collection in Silverman Hall.  In January's blog I wrote how the flood began and the immediate steps that were taken to save the collection.

Since mid-November the books have been returning in batches of 100-130 boxes every Tuesday and Thursday. The books are usually returned in black plastic bags inside cardboard boxes.   The Access Services staff has been taking time from their usual tasks to unbox and reshelve the books as they return.  Since the books were not loaded into the boxes in perfect order, it takes a long time to reshelve the books.  If time permitted, the perfect solution would be to hire library temp agency, such as ProLibra, to pack and unpack the books. 

Upon their return we found that some books were a bit wider from the water even after freeze drying.  If the books fit tightly on the shelf before the flood, they usually would not fit back on the same shelf when returned.  We decided that this would be a valid reason to weed the collection, which involves pulling out duplicate copies and material damaged beyond use.  Ten months later, we have about 3/4ths of the collection either back on the shelves or in boxes located near the shelves where they belong.

Working space is a problem in the project.  The 130 boxes of books that return each time take up a lot of space and we prefer the vendor drop the boxes close to where we need to shelve them.  The aisles are narrow and we constantly need to work around the full boxes but also need space to leave the boxes as we empty them.  You can get an idea of the cramped working conditions by looking at a couple of pictures I recently took.

In just the first month that the books were out being treated, we had requests for 50 items by our faculty.  These requests had to be filled by borrowing books from Penn's main library,  Van Pelt, or by submitting a request through Inter Library Loan.

I'm optimistic that we will have the whole collection back in order and accessible by the end of the summer.