The Enduring Value of Books Related to the Law: A Librarian's Perspective

• Author: Maslow, Linda S

In the 1979 inaugural issue of the Michigan Law Review's annual survey of books related to the law, Professor Cavers wrote an enthusiastic and hopeful introduction. He characterized the journal's effort as a "bold innovation" that would benefit lawyers; law professors, both domestic and foreign; scholars in other disciplines, such as the social sciences; and the marketplace of ideas generally.1 As the annual survey approached its twentieth anniversary, Professor Schneider provided a fascinating, frank description of the Book Review issue's origins during his tenure as the Michigan Law Review's Editor-in-Chief.2 Happily, this annual Book Review issue continues to thrive. A few years after the inaugural issue, I arrived at the University of Michigan as a young lawyer on a new career path to law librarianship. I chose Michigan in order to benefit from the combined excellence of its library school, its law school, and its law library. I was unaware of this homegrown "bold innovation" that would become a part of my work for years to come. As an alumna of the University of Michigan's School of Library Science (now the School of Information) and a former member of the law school's library staff, I am honored to recognize Michigan's distinct contribution to the legal profession by introducing this year's commentary on a typically impressive and eclectic array of titles.

The law librarian works at the juncture of the two disciplines with the most direct interest in the work product that this annual issue represents- law and scholarship. Cavers touched on this fact when he observed that, if "faculty participation would be tolerated, I suggest the appointment of a faculty book-review editor-often the law librarian would be a good choice."3 The law librarian's stock-in-trade is the scholarship of law and, increasingly, other disciplines. Books, in whatever format,4 remain a key source of historical trends, facts and theories, and research paths and leads, all of which support librarians' central professional role in the work of judges, scholars, practitioners, and students. Reviews of these books provide intellectual support for librarians by setting the works in a scholarly framework. And reviews provide practical support by offering critical evaluations that assist librarians in assessing a book's usefulness for a research task or in deciding to purchase books for our collections. In fact, this annual issue of the Michigan Law Review is one of a handful of scholarly book review...