Collection

The Law Library is one of the largest legal research and technology centers in the world, with more than 450,000 volumes housed in the 120,000-square-foot facility and more than 70,000 linear feet of shelving. Collections include federal and state statutes as well as judicial opinions, treatises, and other primary sources. There is also a growing collection of international legal materials and U.S. government publications, as well as a substantial insurance law collection.

To find out if the Library has a particular item, consult the online catalog, contact the Reference Desk (860-570-5068), or email facserv.

Reserve

A Permanent Reserve collection is housed behind the Circulation Desk. The Permanent Reserve collection contains current editions of hornbooks, casebooks, frequently used treatises, looseleafs, and non-print materials such as DVDs or video tapes.

The Course Reserve collection, also housed behind the Circulation Desk, contains books and articles for class assignments made by any teaching faculty. Course Reserve materials may be checked out by law students for a period of two hours during the day and overnight. To place materials on Course Reserve, complete the Reserve Request form or contact Josh LaPorte in Access Services (860-570-5113). Faculty are encouraged to send lists for Course Reserve to Josh as early before the beginning of the semester as possible, preferably a month in advance. If faculty wish to place material on Course Reserve that the Library does not own, the item will be purchased if it is available at a reasonable price. Please, note, however, that the purchasing process may take considerably longer.

Reference

Materials in the Reference collection are used for frequent consultation. Many directories, dictionaries, and encyclopedias are found on these shelves along with a core collection of Connecticut primary legal materials. These materials do not circulate outside the library building.

Periodicals

The library subscribes to a wide variety of periodicals that are housed throughout the building. Scholarly law reviews are shelved in alphabetical order in the compact, or moveable, shelving on the first floor. Specialized periodicals are shelved in the appropriate subject area by an assigned call number, and the unbound issues are shelved with the bound volumes. For example, tax law journals are shelved with the other tax materials in the KF 6200 range.

Treatises

Books on a wide variety of legal topics are collected to support curricular and faculty research needs. Particular areas of specialization in the collection are insurance and international law, but the treatise collection is extensive in other subject areas as well.

Microforms

The microform collection, located on the first floor, provides access to many materials useful to researchers that are not available in other formats. United States federal legislative history documents such as House and Senate reports are in microfiche. Many other government documents, United Nations documents, and 19^th century legal treatises in the library's collection are also in this format. The library's microform reader scans pages which can be saved on a USB flash drive.

State

The collection contains current codes from all U.S. states and cases from the highest court in each state. The Connecticut state collection is particularly strong. Selected treatises are available for many states that pertain to the law governing that specific jurisdiction.

Federal

The United States federal collection contains complete sets of the United States Statutes at Large, the United States Code, the Code of Federal Regulations, and the United States Reports. The daily issues of the Congressional Record and Federal Register are available, and backfiles are available in microform. The collection also contains complete sets of materials supplied by commercial publishers, such as the West's Supreme Court Reporter, the United States Code Congressional and Administrative News, the Federal Reporter, and the Federal Supplement. Federal legislative history documents are available on microfiche through the Congressional Information Service.