Editing West American Digest System (section)

==History==
[[File:American Digest Volumes.jpg|thumb|Early volumes of the American Digest]]
The problem of finding cases on a particular topic was a large problem for the rapidly growing American legal system of the 19th century. John B. West, the founder of West Publishing, described this problem in his article ''A multiplicity of reports''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hyperlaw.com//90-99-docs/1909-multiplicity_of_reports_jbwest.html|title=Multiplicity of Reports - John B. West 2 Law Library Journal 4 1909|website=www.hyperlaw.com}}</ref>  To solve the problem, he developed a system with two major parts.  First, his company began to regularly publish cases from many American jurisdictions in bound volumes called [[Law reports|reporters]] (the West [[National Reporter System]] now covers all state and federal appellate courts, as well as certain trial courts). Second, he put together a classification system in which he divided the law into major categories which he called topics (such as "Contracts").  He then created hundreds of subcategories.  To save space in printing, these were given a number called a key number.  He then applied this "topic and key number" system to the cases he published. The key number is identified in the books with a key number and a key symbol graphic.  

John West was not the original creator of the digest system which now bears his name; it predates the creation of the National Reporter System. In 1847, [[Little, Brown and Company]] started to publish the ''United States Digest'', a digest of all state and federal case law since 1790.  In 1870, Little, Brown hired brothers Benjamin and Austin Abbott to start over and prepare a new series of the ''United States Digest'' from scratch.  Then in 1889, West Publishing Company acquired Abbott's ''United States Digest'' from Little, Brown, renamed it the ''American Digest'' in 1890, and hired John A. Mallory to "build upon Abbott's improvements in law digesting".  In 1909, West Publishing began to aggressively market its system of topic and key numbering as the West Key Number System.<ref name="Seipp_Page_46">{{cite book |last1=Seipp |first1=David J. |editor1-last=Gold |editor1-first=Andrew S. |editor2-last=Gordon |editor2-first=Robert W. |title=The American Law Institute: A Centennial History |date=2023 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780197685341 |pages=27–50 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197685341.003.0003|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYy0EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA46 |access-date=September 2, 2023 |chapter=The Need for Restatement of the Common Law: A Long Look Back}} (At p. 46.)</ref>
 
Since then, to reinforce how West digests and reporters are intended to be used together for legal research, the printed volumes of reporters in the National Reporter System are traditionally marked by a "West Key Number System" logo on their spines.  (The key depicted is somewhat cartoonish, in that it has too many teeth to be used in a typical [[pin tumbler lock]].)

At the encouragement of the [[American Bar Association]], West also licensed the West Key Number System "to nearly every independently published state digest", and invited writers of treatises and textbooks to include West key numbers in their publications.<ref name="Seipp_Page_47">{{cite book |last1=Seipp |first1=David J. |editor1-last=Gold |editor1-first=Andrew S. |editor2-last=Gordon |editor2-first=Robert W. |title=The American Law Institute: A Centennial History |date=2023 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780197685341 |pages=27–50 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197685341.003.0003|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYy0EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 |access-date=September 2, 2023 |chapter=The Need for Restatement of the Common Law: A Long Look Back}} (At p. 47.)</ref>