Collection Development Policy
As revised, May 2024
I. Overview
The J. Michael Goodson Law Library (Library) serves the Duke Law School community as well as Duke University and the local legal community and general public. The Library strives to provide an innovative and comprehensive information environment for study and scholarship in support of the Law School’s mission
to advance knowledge and the rule of law through open, rigorous, and collaborative education and scholarly inquiry, and to help build and sustain a dynamic legal profession that embodies commitment to equal justice, ethical leadership, diversity of perspective and experience, public service, and the highest standards of client representation.
In support of this mission, the Goodson Law Library's primary collection development goal is to provide access to deep and rich information for legal and interdisciplinary research and scholarship now and in the future, while supporting the curriculum and skills training programs of Duke Law and upholding the American Bar Association standards on library collections.[1] To achieve this goal, the Library emphasizes licensing and purchasing electronic resources, on-demand borrowing and purchase, and collaboration with other research institutions, while continuing to build and maintain in-house print collections where needed to ensure permanent access and respond to community preferences. The Library develops collections for current and future researchers, responding to and anticipating the changing needs of our community, while prioritizing the needs of Duke Law faculty, major areas of the curriculum, students, and staff. The Library’s policies and practices must be sufficiently nimble to respond to emerging legal fields, evolving areas of legal expertise and increasing focus on skills-based instructional opportunities.
Duke University is distinguished by interdisciplinary approaches to scholarship and learning, with many formal and informal bridges between departments and schools. In keeping with the university’s emphasis on interdisciplinary scholarship and learning, the Law Library’s collections provide access to a broad range of resources on law and on law's intersections with other disciplines. Internationalization is also emphasized at Duke University and Duke Law. Comparative and international perspectives enhance nearly every area of legal study, and the Library maintains strong foreign and international law collections to support research in these areas.
The Law community benefits from the close proximity and long history of collaboration in collection development and shared services with both Duke University Libraries and the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN). TRLN is a collaboration between Duke University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill libraries whose purpose is “to create a rich and unparalleled knowledge environment that furthers the universities’ teaching, research, learning, and service missions.” TRLN and its member organizations promote and support access to resources through a unified catalog search interface with unmediated book requests, daily delivery of materials between campuses, and an organizational structure with cross-campus collaboration to develop new services and explore cooperative practices and innovation.
The Law School community also benefits from direct access to hundreds of databases through Duke University Libraries. In addition, the Library participates in regional and national programs for cooperative collection development, sharing, and preservation, including agreements and partnerships with the New England Law Library Consortium, Legal Information Preservation Alliance, TRLN, and the Ivy Plus Library Confederation.
II. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The Library values and supports the Duke Law School’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our collection is built and maintained to support a robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best facilitated when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, history, and experiences flourishes. We select and review materials through the understanding that exposure to multiple perspectives, methodologies, and life experiences produces better research, instruction, and scholarship, that a diversity of library resources helps students to be critical thinkers who understand the role that law plays in preserving institutions and transforming society. Further, the Library strives to create and maintain collections that support the array of ages, races, ethnicities, genders, religions, sexual orientations, cultural backgrounds, educational experiences, political perspectives, work experiences, and physical abilities or disabilities across our community. We promote open, equitable, and effective access to legal and related information.
III. Access, Accessibility, and Formats
The Library is committed to meeting the information needs of all library resource users, and we work to improve the access, accessibility, and usability of our collections. This includes close consideration of allowed user groups, ranges of resource formats, usability of e-resource platforms, and number of simultaneous users. The Library supports the largest economically feasible user audience available when negotiating new resource acquisitions and when determining collection storage. Whenever possible, we advocate for campus-wide access to Goodson resources for the full Duke campus, library walk-ins, visiting faculty, and ILL users.
The Library increasingly prefers ownership of or licensing access to materials in electronic formats, including online subscription-based resources, historic and current digital collections, e-journals, e-books, and evidence-based acquisition e-book collections. These digital formats provide increased access and accessibility for patrons, including regard to off-campus mobility, access ease and speed, searchability, screen-readability, and quantity of resources. To provide the greatest flexibility in use, to support the accessibility needs of our community, and to ensure permanent and reliable access to core resources, the Library collects and retains materials in print and other formats where appropriate. The Library can assist users with retrieving materials in the collection and with obtaining library resources in an optimal format.
IV. Primary Sources of Law
A. United States
Primary sources of law are authoritative statements of legal rules from a governmental body. In the United States, primary sources of law for federal and state jurisdictions are issued by all three branches of government. Sources include constitutions, legislation, court opinions, court rules, and administrative rules and decisions. Related materials issued by governmental bodies, such as attorney general opinions and legislative history materials, are included in this category for collection purposes. These sources are fundamental to legal research and scholarship, and they are heavily used by faculty, students and other researchers.
The Library collects or provides access to a comprehensive collection of current and historic primary source materials for federal and state jurisdictions in multiple formats, including print, commercial databases, and government web sites. Authenticated sources and digital collections with original page images are preferred, and are increasingly the only official format available for sources such as the Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations. To the extent they are available, official case reports, codes and a single annotated code for the federal and each state jurisdiction are collected in print to ensure reliable permanent access, to provide alternative approaches to some research tasks (primarily statutory research), and to support current Bluebook citation requirements. Legacy collections of historical government documents and other materials are replaced with equivalent digital products as they become available. Selected indexes and other discovery tools provide access to these primary sources and related materials.
The Library achieves its collection goals for federal materials in part through its participation as a selective depository in the Federal Library Depository Program with a concentration on congressional, judicial, and administrative law materials.
B. Foreign Jurisdictions
Primary sources of law in foreign jurisdictions may include constitutions, statutes, codes, regulations, and court reports emanating from official or statutorily designated bodies.
The Library's collection development policy for foreign primary materials is to develop a focused collection that builds on our historic strengths (e.g., the U.K. and other common law jurisdictions), represents major civil and common law jurisdictions throughout the world, reflects the evolving research interests of Duke Law faculty and students, and supports the curriculum.
To meet these goals, the Library collects and maintains current and retrospective foreign law materials guided by general collection levels assigned to each country. Research interests tend to be subject-focused rather than jurisdiction-focused and collecting levels are reviewed regularly to reflect these changes. Language and difficulty in obtaining materials for some jurisdictions also has some effect on representation in the library collection.
C.Public International Law
Public international law governs relationships between national governments and intergovernmental organizations. Sources of public international law are reflected in Article 38(1) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, and include treaties, custom as evidence of a general practice accepted by law, general principles of domestic law (e.g. res judicata), and judicial decisions, as well as the teachings of eminent international law scholars. Primary sources include treaties and documents emanating from the legislative and adjudicatory organs of international governmental associations and tribunals.
The Library collects international primary materials to advance the internationalization interests of Duke University and the Law School, and to support the research interests of Duke Law School faculty and students, and the curriculum. Access to current and retrospective materials is guided by the collecting level for the organization and type of material.
V. Secondary Sources
Secondary sources explain, interpret, update, and provide access to primary sources. This category includes books, journals, encyclopedias, reference materials, and finding tools. The Library collects and provides access to secondary sources on legal subjects for the United States and foreign jurisdictions, as well as on topics of comparative and international law. The intensity of collecting for specific subjects is guided by Law faculty research interests, major areas of specialization within the Law School curriculum and programs, and legal aspects of interdisciplinary research and initiatives across the Duke University.
The Library’s collection of secondary sources focuses on scholarly materials that support the research and curricular needs of the law school. Materials written primarily for practicing attorneys are purchased very selectively, primarily to support clinical programs, skills courses, and to provide a collection of materials for the practice of law in North Carolina. Materials aimed at law students are collected in specific series that focus on substantive discussion of course topics or serve as introductory treatises.
Materials on the law written for non-law audiences, including the Duke University community and members of the general public, are also collected very selectively. These materials are generally available at other Duke University libraries, as is access to campus-wide legal databases. The Library’s holdings for this audience focus on the U.S. Supreme Court, overviews of U.S. legal issues and noteworthy cases, and self-help books for the non-business community. Basic form books and standard legal research tools, such as encyclopedias, are available for researchers at all levels. Onsite access to electronic resources is provided unless prohibited by licensing agreements.
A. Treatises and Monographs
Legal treatises provide in-depth commentary and analysis of legal subjects. They vary in breadth of subject, publication format and updating patterns, and can be written for particular audiences with differing research agendas, such as a practitioner working with a client, a law student working in a clinical setting, or a layperson looking for self-help information. Monographs are detailed scholarly works of book length written on relatively narrow topics and are rarely updated.
The Library continues to add broadly to its collection of monographs and treatises. Electronic book formats are preferred for the wider reach to multiple simultaneous users, as compared to print copies. Print monographs are purchased where electronic access is unavailable, or for titles of popular interest where multiple access points are beneficial. Legal treatises are provided in a mix of print and electronic formats with licensing of e-books now preferred to maintaining frequently supplemented print treatises.
Researchers at Duke have access to many digital collections of historical treatises, such as the Making of Modern Law collections. E-book packages from selected publishers are also increasingly licensed. As more legal treatises become available electronically, and as licensing options continue to evolve, the Library expects to expand electronic access to individual e-titles. Selection considerations for e-books include type of content, faculty format preferences, perpetual access, platform usability, cost, restrictions that prohibit interlibrary sharing (digital rights management), print and download options, and Law community interest in e-book access.
All Duke researchers have access to a wide range of e-books licensed and purchased by Duke University Libraries, which has adopted an e-preferred policy for the social sciences. TRLN is engaged in a consortial e-book project with Oxford University Press. The program is based on joint acquisition and access to UPSO e-books in all subjects including law, combined with a shared single print copy for most YBP books profiled in the humanities and law.
Individual catalog records provide title-level access to e-books, books in digital collections, and to selected titles in commercial databases (e.g., Kluwer Arbitration, many HeinOnline databases). We purchase MARC records, if available, for titles in campus-wide databases for discoverability. Titles in commercial databases with Law-only access, such as LexisNexis®, Westlaw, and Bloomberg Law®, are also added to the Duke catalog with notes about access restrictions for non-Law users.
Scholarly monographs in law, often published by university presses and similar to scholarly works in other disciplines, are written on relatively narrow topics and are rarely updated. The Library selects broadly and deeply in monographs from scholarly publishers in accordance with subject-level intensities. Monographs may be collected in print, electronic, or multiple formats. Both law and law-related titles reflecting law's intersections with other disciplines are collected. Titles that duplicate holdings of other Duke libraries outside the K classification may be selected in areas of strong faculty or interdisciplinary interest.
1. Multi-volume Supplemented Treatises and Loose-leaf Services
Multivolume legal treatises with varying supplementation schedules serve several audiences. Some core works on broad topics are intended for scholars, practitioners, and students. Others, particularly those that are frequently supplemented, are intended for practicing attorneys. Titles are collected in print only if they are the main resource in an area of law or are useful to introduce students to resources used in the practice of law, and if the level of supplementation is appropriate for our collection. Electronic format is strongly preferred to manage frequent supplementation and expand user access. Titles with one annual supplement are treated as monographs for selection purposes. Because supplemented titles can usually be licensed or repurchased without loss of content as needed, very few titles with frequent supplementation are maintained in any format. Up-to-date access for many of these titles is available through one or more of the Library’s legal research databases.
Traditional looseleaf services are print materials published in multiple binders and frequently supplemented. They typically contain news, commentary, case reporting, and administrative materials on discrete topics. Looseleaf services are disfavored due to cost, low use, the need for extensive staff time for processing supplements, and the improved availability of similar materials in other formats.
2. State Treatise and Practice Materials
Secondary source materials from states other than North Carolina are purchased sparingly, unless for jurisdictions of specific faculty interest, or on important topics specific to a jurisdiction, such as Delaware law on corporations. Selected American Bar Association books and a very limited selection of CLE materials are acquired to provide a basic collection of materials on practice topics, law and technology, and the legal profession.
Study aids provide introductory overview treatments of a topic without detailed analysis or extensive case references. The Library collects study aids by series that emphasize substantive discussion of topics covered in the Law School curriculum (e.g., Hornbooks, Examples & Explanations, and Nutshell series). Electronic access to these student texts/study aids is preferred. Books on taking exams and introductions to the law school experience are collected selectively. Commercial course outlines and materials written exclusively to assist students in preparing for course or bar examinations are not collected unless recommended by faculty, but may be added when received as gifts or when available through electronic subscription packages. Only the current and immediate prior editions of these materials are retained.
The Library purchases one copy of required casebooks and textbooks and supplements for all Law School courses, see infra Section VII.D. Casebooks are also added when authored or edited by Law School faculty members or received as gifts. Because of their limited research value and the difficulties of meeting student demand for assigned books with one or two copies, other casebooks are generally not purchased unless recognized as important general texts on a topic. Duplicate copies of current editions may be provided based on level of use as evidenced by circulation statistics, with one copy of superseded titles retained onsite. Casebooks and textbooks are generally moved from Reserve to the General Collection when not required for a class, and any older superseded titles are moved to offsite storage. Supplements and any duplicate copies are withdrawn when superseded.
B. Law Reviews and Other Legal Periodicals
Legal periodicals are published for both general and specialized audiences and are valued for current and historical research. The primary outlet for legal scholarship and commentary and the most prominent form in the U.S. is the law school-published, student-edited law review. Scholarly journals in civil law jurisdictions are more often peer reviewed and published commercially. In recent years, scholars and researchers in both common and civil law jurisdictions have shown increased interest in access to interdisciplinary journals. In both legal systems commercial publishers, bar associations and societies, as well as academic institutions publish journal literature of interest to legal academics and the practicing bar.
After consultation with the Law School faculty, the Library now prefers electronic formats for law reviews and most other periodicals. Online access is preferred for other periodicals when official pagination is included, past content is reliably available, and cost is reasonable. Journal aggregators are not relied on as the only or primary source for journal content. The Library coordinates with other Duke libraries and TRLN to explore advantageous pricing models for electronic offerings, to monitor duplication, and to purchase digital archival access.
The Library continues to purchase and retain in print a small number of the most frequently-cited law reviews, law reviews published at North Carolina law schools; selected journals routed to faculty are purchased in print but not retained. Routing is reviewed regularly with individual faculty members for e-access options or cancellation. In addition, the Library collects selected foreign language periodicals in print depending on collecting level and assessment of permanency of electronic access. Regardless of format, our journal subscriptions are decreasing and are reviewed as they come up for renewal based on collecting levels, ongoing interest, and cost considerations. The Library increasingly relies on interlibrary loan (ILL) and purchasing individual articles and issues when needed. New journal titles, regardless of format, are subscribed to only after faculty request or consultation.
Access to both print and digital journals is provided via the online catalog and through the Duke University Libraries discovery service. If the Library previously subscribed to a journal or newsletter in print, links to access continuing content freely available on the internet are added in the catalog and discovery services.
United States law reviews available through HeinOnline are not duplicated in print unless a title falls within the exceptions noted above. The Library subscribes to commercial journals selectively in consideration of subject collecting levels, the journal’s importance to the area of law, and after consultation with faculty interested in the subject matter. Electronic format is preferred for commercial journals where the publisher commits to long-term preservation and access through programs such as Portico and systems like CLOCKSS.
2. Bar Association and Other Law Society Publications
This literature is increasingly available on the internet, where it is most frequently searched by our researchers. However, in some cases subscriptions are required for access to full content in areas of ongoing curriculum and research interest. Current ABA journals, state bar journals, and newsletters are available in the Library’s legal research databases. The Library subscribes to a limited number of bar journals from prominent international and foreign bar organizations in print, when not available as web resources.
Newsletters contain current content such as case summaries, short articles, and announcements, and are usually of limited long-term research interest. Content is generally not included in standard legal periodical indexes. The Library relies on internet access and discovery for current newsletters and acquires print subscriptions only if requested for routing to interested faculty (these are not retained).
4. Interdisciplinary Literature
Campus-wide electronic access to a wide range of interdisciplinary journals, and improved intra-campus document delivery, have displaced the need to collect journals from other disciplines for law community use. Subscriptions to non-law journals are acquired only to meet specific ongoing curricular and faculty needs when they are otherwise not available on campus or through ILL.
5. Popular Magazines and Newspapers
For current and historical research in newspapers, including legal newspapers, and in general interest magazines, the Library relies on database access and Duke University resources.
C. Databases
The Library subscribes to a broad range of legal research databases that cover general legal topics and that are accessible campus-wide. The Library also subscribes to some specific legal subject databases, and some individual jurisdictional databases that are important to our collection. Databases may include a variety of types of materials (primary sources, journals, books, current awareness etc.) and legal practice tools. Some legal databases are restricted to law school students, staff, and faculty due to access prohibitions within individual licensing agreements.
The highest priority in database selection is given to scanned original materials, resources to replace print titles that are frequently updated, and those databases that are of broad interest for law and other disciplines. Campus-wide access, interlibrary loans, text and data mining, and scholarly sharing are negotiated whenever possible and cost-effective.
The Library increasingly receives faculty requests for highly specialized databases, products used in commercial fields and law practice, and data sets of interest to one or a small number of researchers. The Library helps acquire access to these resources whenever possible, and explores opportunities for cost sharing and collaboration with other libraries or interested faculty at Duke. Funding is also sought through other sources within the law school or through research grants. Costs are sometimes managed through negotiating limited time periods and/or utilizing academic rates. Preliminary trials are arranged whenever possible to ensure the product meets the desired need.
A list of Legal Databases & Links
VI. Special Collections
A. Riddick Collections
Dr. Floyd M. Riddick, Parliamentarian Emeritus of the United States Senate and a Duke alumnus, and Marguerite F. Riddick were major benefactors of the Goodson Law Library. In addition to their support for the construction and furnishing of the Rare Books and Special Collections Room, the Riddicks established an endowment to support the Library's collections in the areas of legislative and parliamentary procedure, and American government.
Dr. Riddick also donated major portions of his own library to Duke, which are part of the Library’s Special Collections and the Rubenstein Library. These materials are organized in four groups: the Senatorial Collection (books written and autographed by U.S. senators and other politicians), the Parliamentary Collection (materials on parliamentary procedure), the Congressional Collection (U.S. Senate materials), and selections from his personal library.
B. Rare Books and Special Collections
Rare books are books having value aside from, or in addition to, the intellectual content of the text, for example, works that are unique or contain interesting inscriptions, and pre-1900 titles held by a limited number of academic law libraries. The collection consists primarily of English books published before 1800, American serials published before 1820, and American monographs published before 1900. The collection is housed off-site at the Library Service Center (LSC).
Most works in the collection were gathered from a review of the Library's general collections and are now grown through donations. We continue to identify books from the general collection that may qualify for rare book status and transfer qualifying titles into the Rare Books Collection on an ongoing basis. Notable gifts and purchases are described on the Law Library website.
C. Christie Collection in Jurisprudence
This collection was established in 1973 in honor of George C. Christie, James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of Law, and consists of treatises on jurisprudence and legal philosophy. The collection is intended to promote the scholarly study of legal philosophy. Monographs on jurisprudence and legal philosophy are collected at a nearly comprehensive level.
D. Cox Legal Fiction Collection
In 1987 James D. Cox, the Brainerd Currie Professor of Law, donated funds he received as recipient of the Duke Bar Association Distinguished Teaching Award to purchase fiction involving lawyers or legal themes. The collection is designed to highlight law in popular culture, and in the words of Professor Cox, "in the hope that a fiction collection with some connection to the law may well spark students and others to enjoy a pleasant diversion while rationalizing it as field work." Professor Cox continues to contribute funds for this collection.
E. Duke Law School Publications
The Faculty Collection includes books authored or edited by, and books with original contributions by Duke Law governing faculty that were published during their appointments at the Law School (other than short contributions such as entries in multivolume encyclopedias). Faculty are asked to autograph authored and edited books for this collection. Second copies are also added to the general collection. Born-digital faculty writings such as court briefs and law review articles are collected in the Duke Law Scholarship Repository.
2. Duke Law Scholarship Repository
The Duke Law Scholarship Repository, established in 2005, is an open access (OAI- compliant) archive of the texts of most article length publications by current and former faculty members, as well as the texts of all articles published in the School’s student edited journals. Content from journal symposia such as videos, posters, and schedules is also included. Faculty bibliographies are maintained on the Duke Law website with links to the text of articles in the Repository.
Law School conferences, panel discussions and special lectures sponsored by or held at the Law School have been regularly recorded since 2000 and webcast since 2002. Similarly, the Law School produces a range of video content to support its scholarship and teaching missions. The Library collaborates with stakeholders in the Law School to describe, provide access, manage rights, and preserve these materials. These materials can be found in library discovery platforms, and in the Law School’s YouTube channel.
Duke University Archives is the official repository for all Duke University records. To provide local access to Law School materials, the Library also collects and maintains copies of many Law School and Library publications in a separate in-house collection. This material includes bulletins, yearbooks, exams prior to 2000, memorabilia and miscellaneous historical documents and reports, library records, and unique donations from alumni and library friends related to Law School history.
Historical photographs documenting law school events from the 1930s to 2000s are maintained in print and in a searchable digital photo archive, accessible to Law School faculty and staff. The Library’s oral history project features recorded interviews with faculty members capturing their stories, including how they came to work at Duke Law School, what changes they have observed at the Law School and in Durham during their years at Duke, and highlights of their careers.
5. Alumni Authors and Thesis Collection
The Library actively collects law, nonfiction and fiction books written and edited by Duke Law alumni. These books are shelved by call number throughout the collection with a spine label designating their “Alumni Author” status.
Theses from Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) students have been deposited in the Library’s Thesis Collection from 1980. Print copies for current SJD graduates are actively added to this collection, and the Library takes steps to ensure a digital copy of SJD and Master in Juridical Studies (MJS) thesis is preserved in the Law School Scholarship Repository.
VII. Other Collections
A. North Carolina Materials 
Legal materials from North Carolina are collected to support the curriculum and law school clinics, and at a more selective level, the research needs of the local bar and the community. The collection includes up-to-date print copies and electronic access to all primary sources, and electronic access to the Shepard’s® citator. All treatises on North Carolina law from reputable publishers are acquired, including legal practice titles. Standing orders for publications of the UNC School of Government, annual reports from state bar committees, and selected reports of government agencies and continuing legal education materials are collected. North Carolina and Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal records and briefs are held in multiple formats depending on the date.
B. Pamphlet and Miscellaneous Documents Collections
The Pamphlet Collection is an historical collection of legal and non-legal Anglo-American pamphlets dating from approximately 1765 through 1974. Pamphlets are bound together by size and numbered in a single series, with each pamphlet fully cataloged for subject access. A similarly organized collection, dating from approximately 1880 through 1975, contains miscellaneous government documents related to law, or considered of scholarly interest at the time of publication. Foreign pamphlets in several languages, including Spanish, French, and Italian, were also collected in a separate series, which dates from approximately 1920 through 1968.
C. Reference Collection
The Reference Collection is intended for quick consultation to aid further research for both legal and non-legal topics. It includes such standard reference sources as dictionaries (legal and general, for both U.S. and foreign audiences); encyclopedias; citation guides and major style manuals for law and other disciplines; biographical directories for legal and non-legal subjects; legal research guides for state, federal, foreign, and international jurisdictions; indexes and finding aids for legal periodical literature and government publications; statistical data compilations for the federal government, the legal system, and specific courts; and selected standard reference tools from other disciplines. The collection also contains a small library of self-help guides to aid the general public with locating information about common legal matters.
D. Reserve Collection
The Library Reserve Collection holds print copies of required textbooks and supplements, frequently used citation and style manuals, and other short-term or limited circulation materials. The Library does not maintain electronic reserves, but works with faculty to post course materials and links through course management software.
E. Superseded Collections
The Library’s Superseded Collections include state and federal code volumes, older Reference Collection materials, cancelled looseleaf services volumes from BNA and CCH, and tax materials. Items in this collection are considered to be “superseded” by alternative sources, including electronic databases, and are retained for historical research.
F. Research Data Collections
The library manages and maintains access to a range of resources that provide research data. Research data here refers to compiled data that supports empirical research. Acquisition considerations include both individual data sets and research data databases.
When adding research data to the collection, the Library follows the access priorities as identified for resources generally (see Section III) and databases (see Section V.C.). As with databases, the Library collects on the basis of widespread use and relevance. Selection criteria include audience, access, and use terms. Given the challenge of storing and preserving data sets, research data is acquired through a data set managing platform when available, such as Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) and ICPSR, which are already provisioned by the University. The Library manages acquired research data sets as necessary, using best digital preservation practices for managing metadata and secure storage under a trusted long-term preservation space.
In addition to collecting data sets for library-wide and institutional-level access, the Library provides consultation services and support for Duke Law researchers interested in acquiring or accessing research data for individual usage. With expertise in licensing and negotiation, the Library can help researchers navigate license terms and conditions. Additionally, the Library's research services offer help in managing the research data throughout its lifecycle, including addressing issues with usability, access, storage, and long-term preservation. The Library may collaborate on research data financing in cases where access will extend to the wider Duke Law and Duke campus community.
VIII. Gifts
Donors contribute to strengthening the collections and fulfilling the mission of the Library through their financial support, and gifts of books and other library materials. Generally, donations of books about legal and law-related subjects are accepted if they fit within the scope of the collections. Duplicate copies are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Donations of manuscripts, papers and other materials that fit within the scope of the Library’s collection and are of manageable size for staff to process are also accepted. The Library reserves the right to retain or dispose of gift materials as it deems appropriate. Under tax law, the Library is not permitted to appraise donations.
[1] The history of the early years of collection development is traced in William R. Roalfe, The Duke University Law Library: An Account of Its Development, 35 Law Library Journal 41, 42-45 (1942)