Legal Information Services in Libraries: Bridging the Gap Between Law and Public Access to Justice

Justice and the rule of law require the availability of legal information in any given democratic society. However, in India and other third world or developing countries, a vast majority of the citizenry has no knowledge of what the law says they are entitled to because of language, economic, infrastructure and education issues. As seen in the present research paper, libraries particularly public and academic libraries act as important "linkages" towards filling the justice gap because they are convenient inter-mediaries between cumbersome legal systems and the masses. Adopting the qualitative methodology of policy analysis, laws, history, and case studies, the paper examines the role of libraries in the delivery of legal information services, legal literacy and empowerment of the population. The most important findings are related to the fact that despite the positive outcomes of such projects as legal aid desks, online legal repositories, and legal literacy campaigns, they are not efficient to the sufficient extent due to some barriers providing ineffective trained personnel, insufficient resources, and the absence of a society awareness. In the paper, the argument is that legal information needs a wide reaching systematic reforming, professional preparation, and enhancements of relationship between libraries, legal institutions, and civil society to make legal information accessible to all. In fine, the paper also supports the claim that libraries are not only repositories of knowledge but also a key proponent of social justice and debt of law.