We are working on establishing a policy on providing ILL services for the
purposes of law review/journal students and editors. A problem has arisen
with students who are cite checking two articles by attorneys. The
students have submitted a large number of requests for ILL of photocopies
of Canadian statutes, Canadian acts by name and bills by numbers with no
dates, official reporter citations for Canadian cases, and references which
we consider obscure(1918 Debates of the House of Commons; Bylaws of
Hamilton, Ontario). In some cases, it is difficult to verify the citations
and the ILL requests could create a lot of trouble for the lending libraries.
Even with the books in hand, I think finding and checking the citations
could be a problem.
We don't mind a challenge but we wonder what is reasonable for us to pursue
and fair of us to expect from a lending library. In one case, the attorney/
author is willing to send the students a photocopy of the items needed but
he asks that the law firm be reimbursed for the copy charges and the students
have asked if we will pay for the copies in lieu of paying for ILLs. I am
told that in the other case, the attorney/author flatly refuses to send the
material or a copy. One of the editors-in-chief has the solution for dealing
with the problem in the future--in the letter of acceptance a statement will
require the author to provide necessary material for cite checking.
Do you have a policy or advice to share? What would you consider reasonable?
Becky Clapp BITNET: LRCLAPP@SAMFORD
Cumberland School of Law PHONE: 205-870-2714
Samford University
Birmingham, AL 35229
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