College and Research Libraries


doctorate may be reasonably undertaken are 
outlined. In the discussion of the curriculum 
the analysis is not as thorough and detailed as 
might have been expected, nor does it concern 
itself fully with some of the questions which 
library school administrators and faculty mem-
bers have had to face in the past few years. 
T h e question of the degree to be granted after 
a one-year course is settled in favor of the 
bachelor's degree and some doubt is expressed 
concerning the comprehensive examination 
program. T h e new curriculum which is being 
inaugurated at Columbia this fall undoubtedly 
drew some of its elements and its guiding 
principles from this chapter, particularly as 
regards the strengthening of the graduate pro-
gram. T h e chapter, however, seems to accept 
the traditional first year program as settled, 
whereas the new program at Columbia repre-
sents significant departures f r o m the first year 
program of the past twenty years. 

As informed studies by experienced univer-

sity librarians of important problems in one 
of the major university library systems in the 
country, these reports are of value not only 
to the institution for which they were pre-
pared, but as contributions to the literature 
of university librarianship. It is to be hoped 
that at some date in the not distant future a 
well-qualified person, perhaps one of the mem-
bers of the original survey committee, will be 
invited back to Columbia to study the progress 
which has been made in dealing with these 
problems and to prepare a report showing the 
experience of the libraries in the ensuing five-
year period in attempting to put into effect 
the recommendations contained in the survey 
reports. 

A l l who are interested in or concerned with 
the administrative problems of large univer-
sity libraries will read these reports with 
attention and possibly use with profit.—Ste-
phen A. McCarthy, Cornell University Li-
brary. 

Classification for International Law 

"Classification for International L a w . " Based 
on Elsie Basset's Outline of T o p i c Head-
ings for Books on International L a w and 
Relations in Classified Form and expanded 
by Kurt Schwerin. Charlottesville, Va., 
University of Virginia L a w Library, C 1 9 4 7 . 
It may not seem quite fair to appraise from 

the point of view of its general usefulness a 
tool which was developed primarily for the 
use of one particular library, and whose chief 
merit must be measured by the degree to 
which it fulfills the needs of that library. As 
the foreword suggests, however, it is hoped 
that the present classification scheme will 
find wider application; the following com-
ments are therefore offered on the basis of 
this statement. 

T h e classification follows Miss Basset's 
Outline of T o p i c Headings for Books on 
International L a w and Relations in Classified 
Form, published as Appendix 2 of her Cata-
loging Manual for Law Libraries ( N e w 
Y o r k , Wilson, 1942). D r . Schwerin's con-
tribution consists of the expansion of the no-
tation and, in several instances, the interpola-
tion and rearrangement of topics. 

T h e scheme is divided into three sections: 

Treatises on International L a w , Treatises on 
International Relations, and Reports and 
Documents. A list of examples of call num-
bers taken from the catalog of the University 
of Virginia L a w Library, a list of country 
symbols, and an outline of classification for 
private international law (conflict of laws) 
are appended. T h e section, Treatises on In-
ternational Law, is subdivided into an intro-
ductory general part which is not limited to 
treatises but includes various forms of publi-
cations, e.g. case books, encyclopedias, bibliog-
raphies, etc., and into parts on the state, 
maritime law, diplomacy, treaties, inter-
national disputes, and war. T h e section, In-
ternational Relations, has no formal sub-
divisions and includes a multitude of topics. 
It begins with general subjects of world poli-
tics, including the history of alliances and wars 
from the American Revolution down to the 
present reconstruction period. T h e history of 
the foreign relations of the United States and 
of other countries, with which the outline is 
continued, is followed by topics of peace, peace 
congresses, questions of disarmament and 
international congresses, the League of N a -
tions, and the United Nations. Special topics 

370 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH. LIBRARIES 



of international agreements such as commerce, 
copyright, postal service, and labor questions, 
conclude this section. T h e third section, Re-
ports and Documents, provides f o r all the 
serial publications in the field, on the theory 
that less frequent shifting of the whole col-
lection is necessary if material requiring most 
frequent shifting comes at the end of the col-
lection. This arrangement follows Miss 
Basset's reasoning in the original outline 
scheme. 

T h e basic notation consists of two-figure 
numbers ranging from 00 to 99. It is ex-
panded through interpolation of decimal 
figures when additional topics require greater 
detail. It is a peculiar feature of D r . 
Schwerin's notation that figures with decimal 
function are appended to the two-figure num-
bers without insertion of a decimal point; 
thus, 465 is preceded by 46 and followed by 
48. T h e result of this economy is that the 
notation cannot be expanded beyond 99 basic 
numbers, and new concepts which may evolve 
in the future must be crowded into this 
straight-jacket. 

As Miss Basset points out in the introduc-
tion to her Outline of T o p i c Headings for 
Books on American and English Law, which 
equally applies to the present outline, her 
scheme was designed mainly as an aid in 
selecting subject headings. Topics appear 
therefore in more than one place in the out-
line scheme, and for purposes of classification 
one definite place must be selected for the 
shelf location of the books. T h e necessary 
specification of a definitive place for a specific 
topic has not been carried through in many 
instances, and identical topics are scattered 
under various subjects throughout the scheme 
without indication which of the various pos-
sible aspects should attract the material and 
which should serve as cross-reference only. 
Thus, provision is made for topics such as 
'"Reciprocity," " M o s t favored nations clause," 
and " T r a d e agreements" both under treaties 
in the section on international law (363) and 
in the section on foreign relations ( 7 1 ) . 
Bibliography is scheduled at the beginning of 
the scheme (008) and, without apparent justi-
fication, again at the end ( 9 9 ) . Provision for 
material on the atomic bomb is made in not 
less than four places: land warfare including 
methods and use ( 5 1 3 ) , aerial warfare ( 5 4 ) , 

prohibited instruments and methods of w a r -
fare ( 5 1 4 ) , and history of international rela-
tions ( 6 6 1 ) . 

In come instances, the usefulness of the 
scheme will be enhanced if apparent conflicts 
are resolved, or the scope of the captions is 
explained to the user. E.g., while criminal 
jurisdiction is classed under the synonymous 
title of international criminal law ( 3 8 ) the 
subordinate topic, exterritorial crime, is 
classed with exterritoriality under the general 
topic, the state ( 1 4 ) . On the other hand, 
international delicts {i.e., criminal offenses) 
are classed under state responsibility ( 1 8 ) , a 
topic by which is generally understood the 
liability of governments for civil torts com-
mitted by officials of the state. T h e theory of 
war crimes, an example of the substantive law 
of international offenses, however, is found 
writh the procedural problem of criminal juris-
diction ( 3 8 ) . Since the problem of criminal 
jurisdiction and exterritorial crime is one of 
the conflict of laws rather than of inter-
national law, its inclusion here appears ques-
tionable. Specific war crime trials are placed 
with the history of international relations of 
the postwar period ( 6 1 5 4 ) . 

Although conventions or agreements on 
specific phases of private or administrative law 
create "international" law in the meaning of 
intermunicipal law, their significance lies not 
so much in their nature as a phase of the 
law of nations as in the creation of uniform 
municipal law in certain fields of private or 
governmental activity. T h e conventions listed 
in sections 71-733, and international control 
of atomic energy in peacetime (661) should 
probably be listed here, too, therefore, belong 
with their subjects in general law or other 
places in the classification rather than with 
international relations. 

Despite the above criticisms, the new classi-
fication scheme is to be welcomed as a stimu-
lating contribution to the thinking on the 
problem of the control of the overwhelming 
output of publications in the field of inter-
national law and relations on the part of 
those librarians who are seeking a middle 
ground between the inadequate schedule of 
the decimal classification in its present form, 
and the close classification of the Library of 
Congress.— W e r n e r B. Ellinger, Library of 
Congress. 

OCTOBER, 1948 
35 7