The Law Library has one of the largest collections of foreign legal gazettes in the world and this collection represents an invaluable source for foreign legal research. We have continued to add to this collection each year since the mid-19th century, in a wide variety of formats. Because of the complexity, we have published a database to help researchers find gazette records, and we continue to blog about the developments and intricacies in managing such a collection.
The Law Library has embarked on a project to digitize and publish as many gazettes as possible on our website, subject to any copyright restrictions. They are instrumental to researchers looking for primary source materials, and our goal is to provide as wide access as we can, even where users are not onsite. Since our last post about the Gazette of Eritrean Laws, we have published gazettes from five different jurisdictions, totaling nearly 7,000 new items!
The collection from Morocco contains 2,355 gazettes from 1970-2006, the collection from Dubai contains 30 gazettes from 1958-1969, and the collection from Egypt contains 1,289 gazettes from 1991-2016. Both collections from Dubai and Egypt include keywords to help researchers find the item they are looking for more quickly. Since the gazettes are in Arabic, we must thank Fate Stewart, Lead Tech For Legal Processing Workflow Resolution in our Collections Services Division, for utilizing her wonderful language skills in analyzing these collections!
In the Spanish language, we have two new collections also now available. The collection from Venezuela has over 2,308 gazettes from 2002-2019 and the collection from Paraguay has 989 gazettes from 1999-2013. Both have extra subject terms added for increased findability. Special thanks to last summer’s Junior Fellow, Joseph Kolodrubetz, for making the publication of these collections happen!
We will continue to add both historical and new gazettes to our website, as we create new ways to streamline their addition and with the help of our interns and volunteers. And, as always, a big thank you to our Library-wide team that is helping us figure out these processes.
Can’t get enough about gazettes? Take a look at all the blog articles we have that reference “gazette” or start with the collection itself!