Barbara Fell-Johnson, of Hampshire Law Libary, discussed this in the March
1993 CRIV Sheet (insert in the AALL Newsletter). Fell-Johnson compared
old and new volumes in some detail. The June 1993 issue of the CRIV sheet
includes a response from another law librarian (Suzanne Leary, U.
Wyoming). That issue also had a brief response from the managing editor
of CJS, reporting that it is not West's policy to advise customers to
keep superseded volumes, although it might consider changing the policy
for libraries.
=====Mary Whisner, Head of Reference======================
=====Gallagher Law Library, University of Washington======
=====whisner@u.washington.edu=============================
On Thu, 9 Dec 1993, Frank Drake wrote:
> This may have been discussed on the law-lib bboard before (I'm a recent
> convert), but West has over the last five to ten years or so changed its
> ancient policy of including EVERY relevant citation pertaining to a
> particular point of law in CJS. Therefore, CJS is now considerably
> streamlined from its earlier incarnations. Now, it's true that the goal
> of including EVERY possible citation in such a work is in all reality
> today absolutely impossible; however, West has been considerably less than
> forthcoming concerning this change in policy. It could very well be that
> West's editorial deletions are perfectly sane and well chosen, but for the
> "completist" researcher, this is of course a bit disconcerting. If your
> library has oodles of space (lucky you) you may wish to retain old
> outdated editions in a space set apart from the regular set.
> Contrariwise, you may wish to ascertain if some large library nearby
> already has the practice of retaining old volumes.
> A similar situation is in effect when West revises volumes of their
> annotated codes, e.g. their completely new Illinois Compiled Satutes
> Annotated (Smith-Hurd). Many annotations which West considered totally
> peripheral or no longer relevant were deleted. Certainly for your home
> state, you may wish to retain superseded volumes. Or you may order these
> superseded volumes on microfiche (I think it's Hein who puts these out).
> Hope this helps
> FRANK DRAKE
> Chicago
>
> On Thu, 9 Dec 1993, Paul G. Mitchell wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > A while ago, someone on law-lib discussed the seeming reduction
> > in size (and probably the amount of the law contained there) of
> > the revised volumes of CJS.
> >
> > Recently, I replaced the five "Appeal and Error" volumes with two
> > new ones that are actually smaller in size than two of the earlier
> > versions. Am I nuts, or what? Did I miss something? Lest the
> > readers consider me concerned only with size, let me emphasize that
> > I worry about content as well. It strikes me as odd that this
> > topic would be reduced so much.
> >
> > Could someone clarify this for me?
> >
> > Thanks!!
> >
> > Paul G. Mitchell
> > Marathon Oil Company
> > (419) 421-3376 voice
> > (419) 421-3578 fax
> > da793@cleveland.freenet.edu
>
>
>
>
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