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The compilation below constitutes a piece of personal history of law librarianship in the German-speaking countries of Austria, Germany and Switzerland. No progress in law libraries has been achieved by chance, but rather through the endeavours of individuals. After having published several German law library directories, the author has in recent years concentrated on compiling data also about the lives of the law librarians who have been and are active in, or originate from, the German-speaking region in Europe. A directory in German of these colleagues who were still alive and active in December 1996 – together with a detailed introduction – has just been published as a Special Issue 1997 of Recht, Bibliothek, Dokumentation (RBD), the official publication of AjBD (Arbeitsgemeinschaft für juristisches Bibliotheks- und Dokumentationswesen), the law library association in the German-speaking countries.

Germany, because of its history, has a rather diverse system of law libraries. There are important law collections not only in law libraries but also in general libraries. All our significant libraries are financed from public funds.

As regards legal literature and its bibliographical description many developing countries are not as underdeveloped as some people in this continent may believe. In various countries of the Third World legal bibliographies have been published (partly with, partly without development aid) which need not shy from being compared with works of the same kind published in Europe. Nevertheless, these bibliographies tend to remain obscure – a fact for which one cannot blame the developing countries. In the course of his education the average jurist in the West becomes acquainted only with the law of his own country. Occasional comparative studies are generally confined to the other European legal systems and to Anglo-Saxon law. In exceptional cases he may also deal with some East European law. Librarians and documentalists get acquainted with a great many bibliographies during their studies, but in general with none dealing with developing countries. For these reasons information experts, lawers and persons assisting in developing countries – having to deal with the legal literature of a developing country for some reason – often do not know whether they must discover all the relevant literature themselves or whether there are – and if so, in what cases – bibliographies already in existence and how to use these bibliographies.