LEGAL RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1. Law Library
i. Define Law library. Explain the approaches to effectively utilise the law library.
(Jan-2023)
ii. Define law library. Explain the significance of Information Communication
Technology assisted Legal Research (AUG-2022-SQ)

1. Law Library
2. Objectives
3. Use of books in Law Library
4. Importance of Law Library
5. Library Card Catalogue

Law Library
The Law library is a ‘Community trust’ which Gilbert Stephenson defined as “an
ocean liner receiving its cargo in part from living trusts, which are private ships and
carrying it our into successive generations as to a distant port there to be distributed for
the common good.”
A law library contains highly specialized materials, and this requires special skill
to handle. Basically, legal materials consist of statutory law end reports of decided cases.
Both these types of legal materials relate to the “authority” and “precedent” respectively.
Hence any type of research will not be completed unless such materials have been
scanned through.
Objectives
 Equip the research person to handle the huge legal literature
 Understand where to look for the materials of one’s research
 Know the primary materials in allied field of research
 Understand the basic principles in the subject of research
 Identify various sources of Secondary materials of research
Use of books in Law Library
 Books in a law library are arranged subject wise
 Each book is assigned a subject number according to a particular
classification index / scheme which the library uses internationally
 Each book will have at least two catalogue cards in the catalogue cabinet
o according to the subject’s call number (place of book on shelf) used to
find a book on a particular subject
o in the alphabetical sequence of the authors and titles used to locate a
book by a particular author

1
  Periodicals and law Reports are generally stocked separately in one sequence
by the title.
 Some libraries may keep those belonging to their own jurisdictions first, and
then the rest of the periodicals may be arranged alphabetically.
 It may not be difficult to locate them.
 In an effort to locate either text books or periodicals help may also be sought
from the library staff.
 The general procedure of maintaining libraries is the same in any library
because all libraries organize their collections on the same general principles
and provide similar resources for users
 All the libraries have a system of subject classification, a card catalogue, and
certain bibliographic and reference materials.
Importance of Law Library
 For a researcher working on a new problem, it is advisable to start with the
textbooks on the subject.
 This will not only give the researcher a proper idea of the subject but also
enable him to find out several other sources of study and decided cases on
subject.
 After this has been done, the research may be brought up to date by scanning
the latest cases, subsequent legislature changes, current articles and papers
published respective journals in the subject matter.
 Legal research inevitably involves the use of the books, pamphlets,
periodicals and documentary materials in libraries.
 General source materials have to be consulted for the necessary background
knowledge of the problem to be investigated
 Knowledge of the findings of previous findings in the similar cases is also
required by the legal researchers
 All these source materials are numerously available in a library
 Use of the library is a must to any researcher. Hence, a researcher should
know how to use the resources of libraries.
 He should understand the ways in which libraries organize their collections
and with a knowledge of basic bibliographic and reference materials.
Library Card Catalogue
 At the entrance of the library a shelf contains the card catalogue in
alphabetical order according to the first word on the Card.
 The card catalogue is an index which lists all the publications in the library
collection, by author, by subject, and often by title.
 In looking up material by subject, it is necessary to look under the heading
which describes the subject most specifically.
 To find a publication by author in the card catalogue, it is advisable to know
the given names as well as the surname of the author.

2
 There may be several authors with identical or similar names, and it
sometimes happens that some of the authors have written books on the same
subject.
 The information appearing on the face of the cards is the call number