LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES UPDATE: INCREASING ACCESS TO NATIVE HAWAIIAN LEGAL MATERIALS

by Lori Kidani

One of the goals of the Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law is to increase access to Native Hawaiian legal materials. Thus, the William S. Richardson School of Law Library has begun to strengthen its focus on Native Hawaiian legal resources. One way the Law Library has been increasing access to these materials is by acquiring more titles, both old and new. The library is in the process of acquiring a variety of materials such as Congressional documents regarding Hawai‘i in the mid to late 1800s, books that examine annexation and independence, and books that examine the monarchy period in Hawai‘i.

However, legal materials of any topic can be difficult to locate. In addition to the main library stacks, materials can be found in microfiche format, the reserved or special collection, in compiled volumes, and online. To help reach the goal of increased access, I have written, as the Center’s Research Assistant, two publications to assist patrons with Native Hawaiian legal research. The first is an annotated bibliography containing Native Hawaiian legal books and documents that are available at the law library. It is made up of an author index and subject index. Titles found with the subject index can be cross-referenced with the author index where abstracts of the books and call numbers are included.

The second resource is a comprehensive legal research guide. This fifty-five page research guide covers research strategies, online databases, and other free online resources. Also included are lists of major legal documents arranged by time period, and Hawaiian language legal documents available at the Law Library. Both the annotated bibliography and research guide are on reserve and available at the library circulation desk. The Native Hawaiian Legal Research Guide is also available in digital form at http://library.law.hawaii.edu/refres/legal_research_guides/index.php.

For a brief overview of the library’s Native Hawaiian legal materials, a “quick find” brochure is available to library patrons. This brochure provides suggestions for browsing the library collection, tips for researching Hawai‘i case law and statutes, as well as helpful Internet sites for online research. This resource is located in the Hawai‘i reference section at the front of the Law Library.

Finally, I have created a new books display focusing on indigenous law titles from Hawai‘i and beyond. The display can be found in the front of the law library.

In the weeks and months ahead, we look forward to increasing our Native Hawaiian legal resource collection as well as being able to provide a wide variety of avenues for researching historical and legal materials.