The Philippines, an archipelago of 7,107 islands, (about 2,000 of which are inhabited) with a land area of 115,600 square miles, has a population of 42 million. Some 87 major dialects are spoken all over the islands. English and Filipino are the official languages with English as the medium of instruction in higher education. According to the latest census, the literacy rate is 83.4 per cent. Agriculture constitutes the largest single sector of the economy. The Philippines has a total labor force of 14.2 million.

Filipino culture is a blend of East and West, although foundationally and originally Malay. Its Eastern heritage – the result of centuries of interaction with neighboring countries of Asia – is a synthesis of three mainstreams: the Malay, Chinese and Hindu. Its Western cultural traits are the result of her colonization by two Western powers: Spain and the United States.

The emphasis in this paper is on the need for documentation and cooperative reproduction of legal documents relating to the colonial period in Africa which are mainly available in libraries in European countries. It is argued that these materials are extremely useful for research in legal and general scholarship, and that their non-availability in Africa at present is a drawback to the increase of research carried out in Africa. Documentation will make the existence of these materials more widely known in academic institutions than is the case at present, while reproduction through modern techniques will make them available to libraries. Potential demand for the documents, in view of the changing African political scenes, which are cutting across old colonial lines, emphasize the need for their availability. We have chosen the colonial period in African history because the colonial legal documents are obviously out of print and few libraries contain complete sets. As a set of literature, they are difficult for law libraries to acquire, not only in Africa, but also in other parts of the academic world where they may be needed. The International Association of Law Libraries is well placed to coordinate documentation and reprographic exchanges between libraries which have similar requirements in Europe, Africa and other parts of the world.

The article by N. A. Ogbeide published in Volume 4 No. 1 of the International Journal of Law Libraries (Pp. 19–26) makes interesting reading, but the last paragraph headed “Unacceptability and Apathy” leads to one sad conclusion: namely, it shows that for some decades the Nigerian legal practitioner and the law librarian have been coming into contact, but it does not appear that any meaningful dialogue has taken place between them.

Until recently, micropublications have had only limited application in law libraries. This state of affairs is changing, however, as law libraries are faced with rapidly increasing costs of books, limitations on space available to expand collections, and finally, because of the new technological advances in microform equipment itself. My personal interest in microforms has been spurred by a number of factors, chief among them being the recent traumatic experience of seeing a large library collection destroyed by fire. When faced with sorting several hundred pamphlets which were salvaged from the flames and arranging them in their original order, knowing that a good many were missing, the blessed alternative of microforms became readily apparent. The advantages of microforms have been debated endlessly, often with more emotion than wisdom. The purpose of this paper is to explore their application and the problems which micropublications engender in a Law Library.

As the social and economic position of women changes, their legal status changes commensurately. Among the rights feminist women seek are the franchise; equal access to education; equal access to jobs yielding equal pay; subsidized nurseries; personal control of the body and its corollary, the availability of birth control and abortion; taxation without regard to marital status; and control of their property. Not all these desiderata are yet available in even the most advanced or enlightened state, although considerable progress is being made in some. In the United States of America, to illustrate, the most significant change in recent years has been in the job market, where many employers are now required by Federal law to set numerical goals for hiring women to fill traditionally male jobs as they become vacant. In many States, women are now permitted to work more than eight hours a day, they can no longer be restricted by weight-lifting laws, and where such laws exist they must be equally applicable to women. American women have a limited right to abortion, birth control is legally available, credit is opening to women as a result of the (nation-wide) Equal Credit Opportunity Act, airline stewardesses are permitted to work after they are married, pregnant women are not arbitrarily required to leave their place of employment, newspaper “classified” (job market) advertizing is no longer segregated by sex, and some progress has been made in the admission of women to traditionally male schools, Court award of child custody to fathers is becoming more common, as is a joint custody.