Collections

The Library’s collection consists of both primary and secondary legal material and includes material from Trinidad and Tobago and the English-speaking Caribbean countries, from Commonwealth jurisdictions such as Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom and a limited amount of material from the United States of America. The collection [including that at all the locations, and those materials housed in judges’ chambers] amounts to about 100,000 volumes. The material includes:

• law reports
• law journals
• statutes
• legal reference material
• judgments of the Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago
• practice directions
• newspaper clippings
• CD-ROM collection
• legal textbooks and procedural material.

The textbook collection is arranged according to Moys’ Classification scheme and all the libraries maintain author/title and subject card catalogues. The law reports and bound periodicals are arranged alphabetically on the shelves.

Electronic Resources

CD-ROMS
The Library Unit has serval CD-ROMs in its collection. These titles may be accessed on the public workstation dedicated to the CD-ROMS in each library.

Online Databases
The Library Unit subscribes to CARILAW, WESTLAW and JUSTIS databases. These may be accessed by authorised personnel.

Special Collections

It is part of the collection development policy of the Court Library’s Services Unit to develop a special reference ‘Caribbean Collection’. This collection comprises all legal books purchased by the unit and written by Caribbean authors and/or about the Caribbean. This collection also houses the unit’s non-legal Caribbean collection. The collection also includes other material such as items from the Information File, the decisions of the Supreme Court and the photograph collection.

The establishment of this collection is based on a number of factors:

• Maximizing the use of the collection among the Judiciary and the Legal Fraternity.
• Preserving the collection.
• Increasing the access points available for retrieving material from the collection.
• Making available the collection to the wider community in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as globally, by having it available on the Supreme Court Library’s web-page.
• In so doing, the collection will add value to the library’s web-page.

There are, amid the entire collection, other mini-collections that are, themselves, special collections in their own right. These collections are as follows:

• The Judgment Collection
• The Trinidad and Tobago Judiciary – Then and Now
• An Exhibition Corner
• The Photograph Collection
• Glimpses Into The Past
• The Family Issues in Trinidad and Tobago
• The Unit has created a Time Line: Legal Points of Interest