Reflections on the formation of the law library of the Largo de São Francisco law school: from the 19th century to the present day

Abstract

The paper presents some reflections about the history of formation of Brazilian law schools libraries in the 19th Century, in special, those of the University of São Paulo Law School library. The first Sao Paulo Public Library, founded in 1825, was important in the decision to transform the Convent of the Franciscan friars into a Law School, created by an Imperial Decree, because of its bibliographic fund of 5.000 books, mostly about ecclesiastical subjects, was considered very proeminent for Brazilian cultural patterns at the time. This has been qualified as an important academic law library in Latin America and has been a “moral depository” throughout its history, because it has received donations of authors from various locations around the country, which aimed their works available in this library. Currently, this fund is estimated at approximately 400.000 items, included donations made by public personalities. Another subject is about the establishment of criteria for selection of material - editorial board, authors, relevance of the subjects etc. - caused by the editorial boom occurred in the 1990s, concomitant with the increase of law schools in the country. It was called the reflection of who acts in legal research to focus on the relevant points in the selection of works, in order to avoid mistakes in their evaluation. Humanities books, unlike other areas, have a slow or nonexistent obsolescence, so it is a mistake to consider solely by publication date, which makes librarians to master basic concepts in the area of operation for the libraries to be depository of a qualified bibliographic material.