Gabriel and Matilda Barnett Information Technology Center and the Asa V. Call Law Library
Albert Brecht, Associate Dean, Chief Information Officer and John Stauffer Professor of Law 

Like the various academic disciplines at a university, the truth about libraries is in the details. The broader brush stroke one "paints" about the libraries serving the various disciplines, the less accurate it will be. For example, the present state of full-text information available via computer databases differs significantly among academic disciplines, thus having significantly differing impacts on meeting the information needs of the faculty and students. And there are enormous differences meeting the information needs of faculty between disciplines where much information is in five to ten page articles and disciplines where much information is in books of 200 plus pages. Also, the formats faculty want when reading these different length information sources affect whether full-text online sources will substitute for the print version. Still there are some generalities that are almost always true: 1) the research/information needs of undergraduates, graduate/professional school students and full-time faculty differ greatly; and 2) the information needs of the faculty and graduate/professional school students are nearly always the most challenging for libraries due to the variety of the information resources required by the depth of their research. 

Law school libraries have some major advantages. Law schools are usually in one building or a small complex and contain all the law faculty offices, classrooms, law library, computing facilities, student lounge/cafeteria, etc. This fact means the faculty, law librarians, staff and students see each other very frequently and can communicate face to face very easily. Great things affecting meeting the information needs of faculty and students flow from such a setting. 
The USC law library is open to and used by USC undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, staff, laypeople (especially from our nearby community), and, of course, very heavily by USC law faculty and students. The law library at USC is not funded as generously as those at UC Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, and many others. 

At least thirty years ago, a philosophy was developed for the law library which is still generally followed. Overly simplified, the philosophy is based on the belief that if faculty get the full-text information they want when they want it, faculty generally do not care where it comes from -- the law library collection, a full text database, another USC library, or via interlibrary loan from another library somewhere in the world. With the importance of Information Technology, the philosophy evolved to include making as many full-text databases and bibliographic databases available as possible. This has affected the law library by significantly reducing the number of copies of court reporters and other print publications we annually add to the collection. Law probably has a larger percentage of its information available via databases than any other discipline. This fact is mainly due to commercial legal and legal-related databases such as Lexis/Nexis and Westlaw. 

There are, however, a great many legal periodicals, monographs and other information sources which are available only in "book format." Of course, the law library collection includes monographs, periodicals and other forms of information on a great many legal subjects plus all the laws of the U.S. and all the fifty states. The philosophy is to collect in great depth only subjects the law faculty teach and research. 

The philosophy also requires law librarians and staff in sufficient numbers to provide excellent and efficient reference/research services, access services such as interlibrary loan and borrowing from other USC libraries, information technology, acquisitions, cataloging and administration. The law faculty is very interdisciplinary, and borrowing and photocopying information sources from other USC libraries is a significant part of meeting the law faculty's research needs. The non-law USC community also borrows and photocopies a significant number of information sources from the law library. 

An essential element of the law library's philosophy is excellent law librarians and staff. As a couple of examples, one of our best law librarians and some of our best staff and student assistants are in our Access Services department making the borrowing of books, copying of periodicals from other USC libraries and interlibrary loans happen very quickly. Another essential element of the law library's philosophy is excellent reference services. The law library has three full-time Research Law Librarians (with law and library/information science degrees) in the public reference office to assist law faculty and students plus all users who come to the law library. Another important element of the philosophy is that the law library acquires all information the law faculty determine is needed for their teaching, research, and students. The law librarians work closely with the faculty and are essential in the selection of information for the law library. Law librarians meet with every new faculty member to help him or her assess the adequacy of the law library's collection for that faculty member's teaching and research needs. And we work with the faculty to obtain information in the format they desire. Like it or not, if the information is not in the format (be it book, online, etc.) the faculty find acceptable, they will likely want it borrowed in the format they want or go to another library in Los Angeles, such as UCLA, if that library has the preferred format.

The results of the law library's philosophy is that law faculty very seldom, and many of them never, have to go to another library for the information they need for their teaching and research. There is a fundamental principle of human nature we have to face. If USC faculty or students frequently have to go off campus to another library to meet their information needs (usually UCLA in Los Angeles), they can't help but draw the conclusion that USC is second class. This is an especially big problem since our institution is also the most expensive university in town to attend. 

Is the law library's philosophy perfect? No! The law library's philosophy does result in meeting nearly all the law faculty's information needs and at a significantly lower cost than the law libraries at UCLA, UC Berkeley and Stanford. Would we be even better off in regard to information resources on campus if we were funded like all of UCLA's libraries? Yes! UCLA's libraries have been consistently among the top five best funded academic libraries in the U.S. for many years. It may be that USC will never be rich enough to have libraries with the vast information resources of UCLA. And that is a challenge, or more bluntly put - a problem for us. The law library's philosophy is one method of responding to the challenge.