Mitch Fraas, Judith and William Bollinger Fellow in Library Innovation, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, has drawn our attention to the Center for Research Libraries' posting of a “broad-brush summary of the world of legal history databases” it commissioned him to write. The report provides a comparative analysis of what is held in different databases (including an appendix with coverage areas in U.S. law) as well as some suggestions for future work.” At CRL’s request, he has also written two more detailed reviews of LLMC-Digital and HeinOnline. Fraas writes that “CRL would love feedback from anyone in the field with comments or examples of how particular electronic resources are changing their work or have suggestions about strengths and weaknesses in the world of digitized primary sources for legal history research.” He may be reached at fraas at upenn.edu.
Update
See the Rechtsgeschiedenis Blog for The Wealth of Sources: Comparing Legal History Databases, a thoughtful essay on commercial databases for legal history.
