Law libraries in the United States are usually classified as a type of special library because of their focus on providing specialized resources, as well as their specialized and limited user base.
Outside of the United States, the largest and most extensive law libraries are those found in countries that follow the English common law which spread throughout the world with the expansion of the British Empire. These countries include but are not limited to Australia, Canada, India, and New Zealand. Law libraries in these countries can be found in law schools, courts, government, private law firms, and barristers chambers.
Special collections of legal literature in university and research libraries in England include the Viner collection at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (the personal library of Charles Viner, bequeathed to the Radcliffe Library in 1756); a collection of English legal manuscripts at Cambridge University Library; the Smuts collection on Commonwealth law, the Maitland collection on legal history, and the Clark, Roby and Buckland collections relating to Roman law, all in the Squire Law Library, a department of the Cambridge University Library; and the Slade-Baker collection of correspondence accumulated by the Slade-Baker firm of solicitors in Bewdley which is in Birmingham University Library.[4]
United States
The stacks inside a typical university law library (Willamette University College of Law Library)The Iowa State Capitol Law Library
Generally
The largest law libraries in the world are found in the United States. The world's largest law library is the Law Library of Congress, which holds over 2.9 million volumes.[5] The world's largest academic law library is the library of Harvard Law School, which holds over 2 million volumes.[6][citation needed] By way of contrast, the largest law library in the United Kingdom is the Bodleian Law Library with a collection of over 550,000 volumes.[1]
Broadly speaking, there are three categories of law libraries in the United States: academic, public, and private. Every law school accredited by the American Bar Association houses a law library. Public law libraries are available in many states, often in the local courthouses. Certain larger law firms maintain a private library for their own attorneys, but many firms in college towns and larger cities with universities simply dispatch their attorneys to local law schools to do legal research.
Large law libraries may contain many additional materials covering topics such as: legal education, research, and writing; the history of the American legal system and profession; the history behind certain high-profile cases; techniques of oral argument; and the legislative history of important federal and state statutes.
Smaller law libraries usually hold, at a minimum, one unofficial Supreme Court reporter, selected West national reporters and digests specific to the state in which the library is located, the United States Code, a few state-specific reporters and statutory compilations (if they exist for a particular state), and several state-specific treatises and practice guides. Most academic law library websites also contain legal research guidelines on numerous legal topics that are available to the public.
In recent years, the advent of online legal research outlets such as FindLaw, Westlaw, LexisNexis, Bloomberg Law, and HeinOnline (or in Canada, CanLII) has reduced the need for some types of printed volumes like reporters and statutory compilations. A number of law libraries have therefore reduced the availability of printed works that can easily be found on the Internet, and have increased their own Internet availability. On the other hand, some university law libraries retain extensive historical collections going back to the earliest English reports. Many law libraries also participate in the Federal Depository Library Program which provides access to government information and documents to the public at no cost. This is particularly true of law school libraries as the library at any accredited law school is automatically eligible to become a depository library under the Program.[7]
Bookplate of the Rufus King Fund, University of Cincinnati Law LibraryA bookplate of the Iowa State Law Library
Every accredited American law school is required by the American Bar Association to have a law library meeting certain minimum specifications with respect to quantity and quality of materials available.[9] Some law school libraries are kept in the same building as the general library, but many are either in the law school's building, or in a separate facility altogether.
As of 2015, the American Bar Association has propounded rules requiring each law school's law library to include among its holdings the following "core collection":[9]
all reported federal court decisions and reported decisions of the highest appellate court of each state;
all federal codes and session laws, and at least one current annotated code for each state;
all current published treaties and international agreements of the United States;
all current published regulations (codified and uncodified) of the federal government and the codified regulations of the state in which the law school is located;
those federal and state administrative decisions appropriate to the programs of the law school;
U.S. Congressional materials appropriate to the programs of the law school;
significant secondary works necessary to support the programs of the law school, and
those tools, such as citators and periodical indexes, necessary to identify primary and secondary legal information and update primary legal information.
The ABA also requires a library's collection to meet the academic needs of the students and research and teaching needs of the faculty.[9]
The ABA further sets forth additional requirements, including the requirement that the law library have a full-time director who holds a law degree and a degree in library or information science or equivalent with extensive experience in librarianship. The ABA also requires that the library have sufficient staff and facilities to attend to the needs of the institution.[9]
Many academic law librarians participate in the AALL and specifically the Academic Law Libraries special interest section.[10] In addition to providing library services, many "dual degree" (J.D. / M.L.I.S.) law librarians teach legal research to law students.[11]
Public law libraries
Public law libraries in the United States exist in many states and in federal jurisdictions, such as federal agencies; many courthouses also have a law library.[12] Public law libraries are publicly funded but may or may not be open to the public.
U.S. federal agencies have libraries and librarians who serve the legal research and other research needs of their employees and contractors, but these libraries are not open to the general public without an appointment. The Law Librarians' Society of Washington D.C. has a Special Interest Section, Federal Law Librarians.[13] Some state and federal agencies maintain law libraries focusing on their regulatory areas. One prominent example is the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which runs a National Library Network providing access to specialized material to agency researchers and the general public.[14]
The United States Supreme Court Building houses one of the most extensive federal public law libraries in the world, rivaled by the Law Library of Congress.[citation needed] Strictly speaking, neither the U.S. Supreme Court Library nor the Law Library of Congress is a public access law library; both, however, are government libraries funded by taxpayers, and accountable to the U.S. Supreme Court or to the U.S. Congress respectively. The Law Library of Congress does serve the public through various means, e.g. websites,[15] social media services, and a physically accessible library.
New York and California are examples of states that have statutes requiring all their counties to maintain a public law library.[16][17] While New York public access law libraries[18] have remained relatively small, the LA Law Library[19] in Los Angeles County is currently second in size behind the Law Library of Congress among U.S. public law libraries, with a collection at just under 1 million volumes, not including digital resources. Public law libraries are available, and in some cases are required, to offer law library and legal research services to the legal community consisting of legislators and other public officials, judges, and lawyers and to the general public, students, and to self-represented litigants. These public law libraries may be affiliated state or local courts. Some academic law libraries provide public access as well, especially in public universities.
Many public law librarians are members of the American Association of Law Libraries professional association, and specifically in the Government Law Libraries special interest section.[20]
Public law librarians who have written books about providing legal research services to the public and managing public law libraries include Anthony Aycock,[21] Roy Balleste,[22] Joel Fishman,[23] Paul D. Healey,[24] Ellyssa Kroski,[25] Laurie Selwyn,[26] and Virginia Tucker.[27]
Private law libraries
Some law firms and corporate legal departments maintain in-house libraries, the size and content of which vary depending on the practice area and needs of the organization. These libraries would rarely, if ever, be available to individuals outside the organization, although in some locales law firm librarians have informal lending agreements between firms. Private law libraries often participate in the AALL's Private Law Librarians & Information Professionals Special Interest Section.[28]
A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users.
The University at Buffalo School of Law is a graduate professional school at the University at Buffalo. Founded in 1887, and affiliated with Niagara University until 1891, it is the State University of New York (SUNY) system's only law school.
HeinOnline (HOL) is a commercial internet database service launched in 2000 by William S. Hein & Co., Inc., a Buffalo, New York publisher specializing in legal materials. The company began in Buffalo, New York, in 1961, and is currently based in nearby Getzville, NY. In 2013, WSH Co. was the 33rd largest private company in western New York, with revenues of around $33 million and more than seventy employees.
Law reports or reporters are series of books that contain judicial opinions from a selection of case law decided by courts. When a particular judicial opinion is referenced, the law report series in which the opinion is printed will determine the case citation format.
The Law Library of Congress is the law library of the United States Congress. The Law Library of Congress holds the single most comprehensive and authoritative collection of domestic, foreign, and international legal materials in the world. Established in 1832, its collections are currently housed in the James Madison Memorial Building of the Library of Congress. Law staff rely on and utilize 2.9 million volumes of primary legal sources, 102.18 million microforms, 99,000 reels of microfilm, 3.18 million pieces of microfiche, and 15,600 tangible electronic resources, making it is the largest law library in the world.
The American Association of Law Libraries "is a nonprofit educational organization with over 5,000 members nationwide. AALL's mission is to promote and enhance the value of law libraries to the legal and public communities, to foster the profession of law librarianship, and to provide leadership in the field of legal information and information policy."
An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic libraries there are worldwide. An academic and research portal maintained by UNESCO links to 3,785 libraries. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are an estimated 3,700 academic libraries in the United States. In the past, the material for class readings, intended to supplement lectures as prescribed by the instructor, has been called reserves. Previously before the electronic appliances became available, the reserves were supplied as actual books or as photocopies of appropriate journal articles. Modern academic libraries generally also provide access to electronic resources.
A special library is a library that provides specialized information resources on a particular subject, serves a specialized and limited clientele, and delivers specialized services to that clientele. Special libraries include corporate libraries, government libraries, law libraries, medical libraries, museum libraries, news libraries. Special libraries also exist within academic institutions. These libraries are included as special libraries because they are often funded separately from the rest of the university and they serve a targeted group of users.
Public law libraries provide access to primary legal sources and secondary sources used in legal matters. In most U.S. states, public law libraries are part of the trial court system, a department of the state or county government, or an independent local government agency managed by a board of trustees. Public law libraries serve several user groups with different information needs: judges and their support staff, attorneys in all types of practice, and the general public.
A. Mercer Daniel was an American law librarian and the first African American member of American Association of Law Libraries. He worked as a librarian for the United States Department of War, and later went on to serve as a librarian for the Howard University School of Law for more than thirty-five years. Daniel worked to oppose racial discrimination throughout his career and was an activist before and during the civil rights movement.
↑ Fishman, Joel (2013). Navigating Legal Research & Technology: "Quick Reference Guide to the 1,500 Most Common Questions about Traditional and Online Legal Research. Bridge Publishing Group LLC. ISBN978-1935220329.
↑ Joel., Fishman (2010). Navigating legal research & technology: quick reference guide to the 1,500 most common questions about traditional and online legal research. Nagasankara Rao, Dittakavi. Getzville, NY: Bridge Pub. Group. ISBN9781935220329. OCLC429919541.
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