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Historic State Codes Preservation Project

The Edward Bennett Williams Law Library, at the Georgetown University Law Center, is carrying out a project to preserve the historic state codes printed between 1840 and 1930 for all fifty states and the District of Columbia. There are two goals for this project: 1) to create a complete preservation collection of historic state codes from 1840-1930, and 2) to provide other libraries the opportunity to acquire these titles so that there are partial or complete preservation collections across the country.

You may link directly to the list of codes completed as well as those to be completed in the future.

In 1996, the Georgetown Law Library began the project to preserve the historic state codes. Due to the nature of the paper used and the often unstable environments in which these books have been stored, the information housed in these books is at risk of being lost. Like other brittle books, these state codes require preservation reformatting in which contents of books are reproduced on a medium that is chemically, physically and technologically stable so that the information will continue to be accessible in several hundred years if stored under appropriate environmental conditions and used carefully. In the beginning, the codes were preservation photocopied by BookLab, Inc. in Austin, Texas, which closed in 1998. The project has since been moved to Acme Bookbinding in Charlestown, MA where the codes are being preservation reformatted; pages are digitally imaged and printed on permanent paper (ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992) and then bound to meet Library Binding Institute standards (ANSI/NISO/LBI Z39.78-2000). The collection at Georgetown contains 960 titles, which represents roughly 50% of the state codes identified in Pimsleur's Checklist of Basic American Legal Publications (1992).

Supporting the efforts to create a complete preservation collection of historic state codes, the Maryland State Law Library, Delaware State Law Library, Alameda County Law Library, Washburn University Law Library, Arizona State Law Library, Gordon D. Schaber Law Library (UOP), Florida State University College of Law Library, Arkansas Supreme Court Library, and the University of Arkansas Library have contributed titles to the project. We continue to encourage other libraries to contribute titles to fill in gaps so that we can preserve as many of these codes as possible.

Because the books are being scanned and the images stored, preservation facsimiles can be printed without having to re-scan the original. As a result, all titles completed in this project will be available for purchase from Acme Bookbinding. Please click on the links to access the list of titles completed and the list of titles in the pipeline. The lists are organized by state and therein by call number, and contain links to the bibliographic records in Georgetown's online catalog to assist with the identification of titles. You may contact Acme directly if you are interested in any of these titles or have question regarding pricing, availability, binding, or preservation photocopying.

If you have questions about this project or wish to contribute titles not on these lists, please contact Janice Anderson, at the Edward Bennett Williams Law Library.

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