The Arthur J. Morris Law Library supports the Law School’s mission of excellence in teaching, research, and publication. The Law Library also serves the broader legal community, the scholarly community of the University, and the public. As a member of a global community of research organizations, it links the Law School to local, national, and international information sources. It is an instructional unit within the Law School responsible for teaching legal research and publishing materials that assist researchers in understanding legal bibliography.
One of the Library’s highest priorities is to help students learn effective research skills, and to that end, the librarians have developed an ambitious instructional program that supports both in-class and individual point-of-need learning. Their teaching relationship with law students begins with the 1L Legal Research and Writing class, with individual librarians designated as liaisons for each section. For more senior students, librarians teach several sections of Advanced Legal Research each semester, and student evaluations consistently extol the course’s value in preparing them for the practice of law.
The Library’s comprehensive U.S., foreign and international law collections attract visitors from around the world. In addition, it is emerging as a leader among its peers in the development of legal digital content in support of scholarly endeavors, with more than 150,000 manuscript items from our Special Collections now digitized and grant awards for developing new digital projects. While serving as the nexus of information and technology, the Library is also one of the most beautiful spaces in the Law School and a popular spot for students to meet and study.