| Librarians should gain an understanding of how important public documents may be removed from the body of knowledge through vacatur. The United States Federal Courts use vacatur to set aside, or remove court decisions. Settlement before vacatur occurs when parties stipulate vacatur in their settlement, effectively removing a decision that is unfavorable, or may be used against one of the parties later. Models for understanding the concepts of information and knowledge developed by Patrick Wilson (public knowledge, private ignorance and second-hand knowledge), Michael Buckland (information-as-knowledge), and Joel Mokyr (propositional knowledge) provide frameworks for analyzing and understanding vacatur. Twenty-five federal cases were examined to develop a comprehensive explication of the principles and practice of vacatur. Understanding vacatur will contribute to the advancement of our understanding of missing information and missing knowledge. |
