Shift #56 - Orientation to Law Library Collections
Thursday, July 25, 2024 | 12-1 pm CST/1-2 pm EST (1 hr)
Details
Michelle Hurt, student/intern
Jennifer Gonzalez, practicum supervisor
This is a screenshot of the presentation on collections and services of the Law Library. When I think about how much there is at the Law Library, it really does show how immense the Library of Congress is.
Even though the summer internship is almost over, somehow the schedule worked out that the Law Library is now just doing their webinar on its collections and services. Jennifer had pointed this out to us but she thought it was still fine because there could still be useful information for us interns as we finish out our blog posts. I found the presentation still informative so I'm glad I attended. It is pretty neat to know that I'm working with an institution that is almost two hundred years old with such an amazing capacity to hold and process so much information and materials. I was reminded that the Law Library has approximately 2.9 million volumes of federal, state, and foreign materials. These resources include codes, constitutions, official gazettes, law reports, treatises, serials, and laws from many historical periods. The Law Library is also not limited to just the United States; the institution also covers about 260 nations and jurisdictions in 140 languages. Its working reference collection has 30,000 volumes available in the public reading room. There are also other materials that are in closed stacks that can be requested by the public to be brought into the reading room.
I learned that the Law Library has a Public Services Division. This is where professional law librarians, available to the public Monday through Saturday, offer assistance regarding U.S. legal and legislative research. The public can also ask questions of the librarians via the Ask a Librarian service. In addition, the Law Library also has a Comparative Law Division which is staffed by foreign law experts. These staffers provide research and reference assistance on non-U.S. law and also build the Law Library's foreign law collections. In addition, they create comparative law reports for Congress, provide expert testimony in Congressional hearings, and draft articles regarding foreign legal developments for the Global Legal Monitor. The Law Library also has the Global Legal Collection Directorate, which makes up half of law library employees. The Directorate collects, acquires, and maintains Law Library holdings, both print and digital. Lastly, we also got a walk-through of the library's catalog and its research guides. I think that I only got to know a little bit of the Law Library this summer; there is so much more to be discovered!
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