Library Collection Development Policy (revised 2025)

Mission Statement (2010)

The Kresge Law Library supports foundational research and provides direction for more in-depth research on legal issues of interest to our faculty and students by maintaining comprehensive core collections in a variety of formats on each area of law covered by our curriculum or that is the subject of faculty research. The library provides access to high-quality library services designed to meet the curriculum, research, professional, intellectual, creative, and personal needs of the Detroit Mercy community, and provides Detroit lawyers and residents with access to basic legal information.

The University of Detroit Mercy Law Library (library) primarily serves the faculty and students of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. The library tries to meet the needs of all other patrons wishing to use its collections provided that the cost and/or time of such service is not excessive.  As a selective federal depository library, we also provide full assistance to anyone using our collection of federal government publications and the tools needed to access them.

The library will generally follow a policy of balanced collection development designed to meet the following needs, in order of priority:

1. support the law school curriculum;
2. support law school faculty and law student research;
3. support University of Detroit Mercy non-law school faculty and non-law student research;
4. support community attorney research needs;
5. assist citizens researching legal problems.

To support the Canadian & American Dual Degree Program (with the University of Windsor) and the law school’s global requirement, the library puts special emphasis on the following:

1. Michigan law;
2. international law;
3. Canadian law.  

1. Jesuit and Sisters of Mercy tradition; 
2. other religious perspectives on law.

For additional considerations relating to U.S. Government publications, see section 7.

The library's goal is to develop and maintain a strong collection in the areas of federal, Michigan, and general American law. The needs of our faculty and students and the satisfaction of ABA and AALS requirements guide our collection development goal. This goal can be achieved by limiting the resources devoted to legal works from states other than Michigan and countries other than the United States and Canada, unless needed to support the curriculum. Resources not purchased but temporarily needed are acquired via Interlibrary Loan.

The development of the library’s resources is the responsibility of the Associate Dean for Library Services, Kresge Law Library (the Associate Dean) and the reference staff, with input from the law school’s Law Library Committee, the Dean of the Law School and the faculty. When developing specific subject areas of the collection, the library will collaborate with faculty members who specialize in those areas. The library will do the same as a means of identifying materials that are no longer relevant or unnecessarily duplicative. Library staff may seek guidance from our Conspectus document when making non-requested selection decisions.

Standing orders are carefully scrutinized because of their expense.

The collection development policy guidelines apply only to works purchased by the library. Gifts of legal works should be accepted provided the materials are not redundant, out-of-date, and provided that shelf space is not limited. The disposition of gifts is at the discretion of the Associate Dean.

Faculty requests are an important collection development tool. Such requests will often be granted and are assessed on an individual basis.

The library provides access to several thousand e-books and thousands of digital titles from within legal databases, in addition to a wide range of print materials. We value the format choice of the requesting faculty member. Faculty format preference should be honored unless the cost is substantially higher than for another format.

Multiple print copies of monographs should not be acquired unless extensive use is likely and the work is not available in an electronic version.

Subscriptions periodically need to be cancelled. The final decision on cancellations is made by the Associate Dean. Librarians are protected in making cancellation decisions. According to ABA Standard 208(a)(2), “[a] law school’s academic freedom policies shall . . .  [a]pply to . . .  library collections and providing information services.”

Factors weighing against cancellation include:

1. the title was purchased and/or is maintained for a current faculty member;
2. the title directly supports the curriculum;
3. the title is routed to a faculty member;
4. the title is used by students as part of a required course assignment;
5. the title is used to train students.

Factors weighing for cancellation include:

1. the title is no longer (or seldom) used;
2. the title is excessively costly;
3. the title is available in a substantially less-costly format;
4. another acceptable less-costly title is available for subscription or purchase;
5. the title is available in a(nother) database currently being subscribed to;
6. the title is one of multiple titles subscribed to concerning the same subject matter;
7. whether there are budgetary issues to consider.

The library provides access to electronic databases and other digital resources to support research by faculty and students. These databases strengthen our collection of legal materials and provide access to a great amount of materials not found in the library. We check to see if special consortium database subscription discounts apply before subscribing to databases. The Associate Dean negotiates for substantial cost savings at every chance.

Databases covering non-legal materials should provide support for Law School faculty research that overlaps into other disciplines. The library should also provide easy access to the non-legal databases available through the university library.

The library works with the administrative director of our several law clinics to ensure that students and clinical faculty members are best equipped to provide required services to their clients.

2.9.1     Reserve Collection

The reserve collection, located behind the circulation desk, contains the most popular federal and Michigan treatises/practice guides, study aids, and a copy of West’s Michigan Digest and Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated. A subpart of this collection, faculty reserves, houses all materials reserved by faculty members for each course.

2.9.2     Reference Collection

The reference collection, located behind the reference desk, houses current Michigan and federal primary law, as well as major treatises or legal encyclopedias not housed in the reserve collection and a small number of legal and vernacular dictionaries and thesauri.

2.9.3     Archives

The library strives to collect law school-related publications and brochures commemorating officially sponsored school events, to include graduation and bulletin materials, as well as faculty publications and other materials exhibiting the history of the law school. The law library’s archives collection is housed in four offices on the third floor of Dowling Hall and in a room on the ground floor of the library, and may be accessed by University of Detroit Mercy faculty, staff and students under the supervision of appropriate library staff.  Patrons ask for access at the circulation desk. The library is also creating a digital archive.

A number of factors are used to determine what materials to purchase. The factors that are most important at any given time may vary. These factors are (in no priority order) the importance of the subject matter to the curriculum or writing interests of our faculty, prominence of the author or publisher, space availability in the library, cost of material or subscription, budgetary considerations, origin of the request (faculty requests receive the highest consideration), ease of upkeep, scarcity of available published materials on the subject, format, and paucity or abundance of materials on the subject in our collection.         

The decision whether to collect primary law, secondary materials, and finding aids depends on faculty teaching and writing interests and otherwise on the curriculum. Librarians actively monitor changes to the curriculum, and to faculty and student interests.  

Court decisions are available online on free websites and in several subscription databases. As a result, the library only collects the official United States Supreme Court Reports (U.S. Reports) and Michigan case law in the print format.

The University of Detroit Mercy community may access current and historical U.S. federal and state session laws via HeinOnline. The library provides onsite access to current and historical versions of U.S. federal and Michigan session laws in print.  

We collect both unofficial annotated editions of the United States Code, and one copy of each unofficial, annotated code for Michigan in print. We have superseded code sets of the U.S. Code and of Michigan Compiled Laws onsite. Current and historic U.S. Code editions are accessible to the University of Detroit Mercy community via HeinOnline. We provide access to the municipal code for Detroit in digital format.

The library provides a link to the state administrative code for Michigan from our online catalog. It is not published in print. The library no longer receives the print version of the federal administrative code (C.F.R.). We provide access to the current edition and historical editions of the C.F.R. via HeinOnline. The library provides access to all historical versions of the C.F.R. from 2024 in print.

Administrative decisions are available via HeinOnline, which is accessible to the University of Detroit Mercy community.

The University of Detroit Mercy community may access U.S. and state attorney general opinions via HeinOnline. The library houses the Michigan Attorney General Opinions through 1996, when the print version stopped being published.

The University of Detroit Mercy community may access treaties and international agreements via HeinOnline. 

The University of Detroit Mercy community may access national constitutions via HeinOnline. The Michigan Constitution is published in both of the Michigan annotated code sets.

The library acquires federal and multi-jurisdictional treatises published by reputable publishers. We acquire all Michigan legal treatises regardless of the publisher's reputation.

The library avoids buying practice aids unless they specifically concern Michigan law or unless they support our curriculum. The library should generally acquire practice aids concerning trial advocacy, legal research, and legal writing. 

We acquire Michigan formbooks and West’s Legal Forms.  We do not acquire state-specific formbooks other than for Michigan.

The library subscribes to the Aspen Learning Library and the LexisNexis Digital Library e-study aids products. The library purchases popular study aids in print according to demand.

The library does not acquire commercial outlines, but they are available via the Aspen Learning Library subscription.

Casebooks are not normally purchased because of their high cost, large numbers, and frequent new additions. However, casebooks are donated and added to the collection if not repetitive or too old.

The library provides access to many legal periodicals in the digital format, via HeinOnline, Westlaw, and Lexis. The library acquires law reviews published in Michigan and other selected law reviews in print.

Legal newspapers and magazines should be acquired if they are national in scope or related to Michigan. Preference is for an electronic subscription. The library retains a handful of print newspapers: Michigan Lawyers Weekly, Detroit Legal News, Oakland County Legal News, and Macomb County Legal News. Print versions are kept only for three to six months.

Subscriptions to newsletters should be avoided unless specifically requested by a faculty member, if they cover a topic in which little other materials exist, or if the library is attempting to build that part of the collection to the highest collection development level. 

The library currently acquires West’s Michigan Digest and Callaghan’s Michigan Digest in the print format. Digests are available to the law school community via the Lexis and Westlaw databases.   

We acquire state legal encyclopedias in the print format only for Michigan. The law school community has access to legal encyclopedias via Lexis and Westlaw.

We acquire restatements, uniform laws, and model codes in tentative, final, and official drafts. The restatements as well as many uniform laws and model codes are found on Westlaw and Lexis.

5.9.1        Directories

We acquire only those relevant directories that are not available online.

5.9.2        Dictionaries 

We acquire Blacks Law Dictionary and other major legal dictionaries in English and a few Spanish-English dictionaries.

5.9.3        Bibliographic Aids

The library acquires major Michigan and federal law research guides.  We acquire all guides to legal abbreviations and citation formats.   

5.9.4        Indexes 

We acquire Anglo-American legal indexes necessary for efficient use of the collection. 

The University of Windsor School of Law Library provides students in the Canadian & American Dual Degree Program with ample Canadian resources. We also acquire publications to assist our faculty and students in preparing for courses and modules offered in the dual degree program.  We acquire major Canadian treatises and general monographs if they concern national or federal law or if they relate to the curriculum. We also acquire major study aids – most notably the Essentials of Canadian Law series, for which we have approximately fifty titles. The Revised Statutes of Canada and the Canadian Supreme Court Reports are available only to the University of Detroit Mercy community through HeinOnline.

The library acquires few works on continental European law.  Works in English are purchased if they cover French law pertaining to the law school’s French Scholar program.

U.N. documents are available on the free U.N. website, or to members of the University of Detroit Mercy community via HeinOnline.

We collect works concerning major world religions, with a focus on Catholic and Jesuit materials. We attempt to collect the current Code of Canon Law in English.

The library is a selective depository for U.S. Government publications. The Depository Collection is maintained in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the Federal Depository Law Library Program (FDLP) and requirements of Title 44, Chapter 19 of the United States Code.

Government documents are selected in support of the needs of the curriculum, faculty, and students of the school of law. Secondary consideration is given to the needs of the local legal community, and the general public within the 13^th Congressional District of Michigan.

The majority of our government documents selections are electronic, pursuant to the FDLP Electronic Transition Plan. All electronic formatted government documents are provided with complete and accurate bibliographic links for access through our online catalog, Murphy.

Documents are selected from the FDLP Essential Titles list for inclusion in the collection. The types of sources selected are reports of decisions in United States courts, agency decisions and selective regulations, publications from the Justice Department, selective State Department and agency publications, and congressional reports and documents.