Page 15 - 2026 January February Magazine

B Y J O H N C A I N
and litigants need to effectively present their cases This section
is still in effect
3.3 The library’s collection will focus on providing
current and practical legal research materials in the
form of primary and secondary legal resources. These
materials will focus on the State of Washington and the
federal government of the United States.
I agree the above should be the focus of the library but I do not
think that necessarily excludes other material. The following
section was vacated at the request of Laurie Miller, who had
returned to act as temporary Director while a search was made
for a new librarian:
3.4 The library will not collect theoretical, strictly
academic, legal history materials, foreign and
international law materials, fiction materials,
biographical materials, or autobiographical materials.
There is a place in a law library for some fiction, histories
and biographical and autobiographical material. The joke
book “Disorder in the Courtroom” is not only amusing but
instructive of what not to do in court.
This purge occurred in April and May of 2025. Many volumes
were lost, as row after row of empty shelves revealed. I sent
the former libarian a photograph of the naked shelves and
the shelves were soon filled with Oregon and Washington law
reviews from the 1950s and other volumes from storage in
an attempt to conceal how much had been stripped from the
shelves.
After the former librarian left, I asked Joe Gordon for a copy of
“The 100 Year History of Gordon Thomas Honeywell”; he gave
me a copy and I donated it to the library. (It had been purged.)
While these books do not contain material likely to find a way
into a brief, I thought it interesting and, if for no other reason,
inspirational. (The book does not mention the many lawyers
whose accomplishments came after its publication.)
Another book I donated was a forensic book on arson
investigation. The unfortunate conviction and execution by
Texas of Todd Willingham, based on junk science, prompted
me to learn more. Case law tells us what courts have done;
research and investigation tell us what courts should do.
The Law Library's core collection is rather extensive. It is as
follows:
7.6 The Law Library acquires and retains the following
publications:
Washington Administrative Code
Washington Statutory Code
Washington Court Reporters
Washington Court Rules
Washington Session Laws
Washington Legislative Material
Washington Digest
Washington Practice
Washington Continuing Legal Education Materials
United States Statutory Code
United States Session Laws
United Stated Court Rules
Citator Service
Law reviews and law journals
Treatises and monographs on select legal studies
The Wikipedia article on
law libraries begins:
“A law library is a specialist library used by
law students, lawyers, judges and their legal
assistants, and academics in order to research
the law or its history. Law libraries can also be
used by others who work in local government
or legislatures to assist with drafting or
advocating for laws, as well as individuals
who are party to a case, particularly self-
represented or pro se litigants who do not
have legal representation.”
The collection policy passed in March of 2025 was, in my
opinion, too narrow and reduced the library to research
Continued on next page.
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