Resource Sharing

This is essential for special-interest libraries, particularly in the legal world.  The KwaZulu-Natal Law Society Library actively initiated and continues to be involved in a legal resources network, in Pietermaritzburg at a primary level but which includes national and international links.  There is a strong spirit of co-operation among law librarians and recent advances in technology are making geographical distance less relevant to efficient delivery of information than ever before.

We are making legal material as accessible as possible by cultivating an awareness of available resources in KwaZulu-Natal and further afield.  As part of an ever-increasing network, we have approached libraries containing collections of interest to legal practitioners and arranged for documents to be made available through the librarians.  As a result, we contact whichever library holds a particular document and arrange for a copy to be provided.  This information is supplied to the Library member either as a scanned document which can be delivered by e-mail or a photocopy for collection.

THE LEGAL RESOURCES NETWORK

The resource centres in the network give our librarians access to their holdings so that they can do necessary research on behalf of our library members.

Pietermaritzburg has an excellent resource in the form of CATNIP (Cataloguing Network in Pietermaritzburg), a regional joint catalogue of twenty or more libraries.

The Natal Society Library is the Legal Deposit library in KwaZulu-Natal.  It is in Pietermaritzburg and has proved to be an invaluable source of information as it houses a copy of every document published in South Africa.

The Pietermaritzburg branch of the National Archives is part of the network.

The KwaZulu-Natal Legislative Library has agreed to reciprocal links with our websites as well as to being a member of the network.

The University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg) Library (including the law library housed in the School of Law on the local campus) forms an important link in our network.  Some years ago this library initiated the CATNIP (Cataloguing Network in Pietermaritzburg) project, a joint regional catalogue encompassing some 15 libraries, including the KwaZulu-Natal Law Society Library.  This has proved to be an invaluable resource.  The University Library is prepared to provide us with copies of documents, in electronic format if required, upon request.

As members of the Organisation of South African Law Libraries (OSALL) and the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA), we co-operate with librarians nationally who assist wherever possible.  The network is growing continually and our library members will continue to benefit from the shared resources.