Faculty Services: Law Library Collections

• 1st Floor, West Wing—Shelves most of the Law Library’s federal primary source materials, American Law Reports (ALR), Shepard’s Citations, AmJur and selected Texas materials.
   
• 1st Floor, East Wing— Home to the Collaborative Commons study area.
   
• 2nd Floor, West Wing—Shelves subject-specific monographs such as Supreme Court analysis/ justices, military law, Indian law, criminal law, evidence, corporate/securities, and Federal practice materials (forms, procedure, discovery), just to name a few.
   
• 2nd Floor, East Wing—Shelves state materials including most of the Texas Collection as well as medical and international legal materials, among other subjects.
   
• Upper Level Basement, East and West Wing—Shelves treatises, including many loose-leaf materials, arranged by subject using the Library of Congress classification scheme.
   
• Lower Level Basement, East Wing—Shelves many non-legal and social science subjects, periodicals and law reviews arranged alphabetically by title.
   
• Lower Level Basement, West Wing—Shelves congressional documents in Superintendent of Documents call number order. Most other government documents are shelved with the regular collection by Library of Congress classification number

The Texas Collection includes Texas legislative codes, session laws, journals, and historic compilations; administrative code and regulations; attorney general opinions; case digests; encyclopedias; form books; and municipal codes. The collection is located in two areas:

• 2nd Floor, East Wing holds Texas materials. 

Faculty can also access Texas Government Materials from the following sites:

• Texas Constitution and Statutes
• Texas Legislature Online
• Texas State Law Library
• Texas Courts Online
• Legislative Reference Library of Texas
• Texas Secretary of State
• TexasLawHelp.org

Current issues and bound volumes of law reviews and periodicals are housed in the Lower Level Basement, East Wing. The volumes are arranged alphabetically by title. Law reviews and periodicals can be searched using the Index to Legal Periodicals. The Law Library also subscribes to HeinOnline, a searchable database that contains many law journals, particularly older volumes not carried by either Lexis Advance or Westlaw. The following are a list of databases to search law reviews and periodicals:

• Westlaw
• Lexis Advance
• HeinOnline
• Index to Legal Periodicals
• SSRN

Faculty who are interested in learning more about new books received by the Law Library can view the “Recent Acquisitions List” each month on the Law Library Blog. 

Faculty can also peruse the bookcase located in the Collaborative Commons in the first floor of the Law Library. New books are placed on shelves in the Collaborative Commons before they are shelved in the main collection.

New databases or electronic resources are announced to faculty via email or the monthly Law Library newsletter. 

The Permanent Reserves Collection is located behind the Circulation Desk. The Permanent Reserves Collection includes:

• Hornbooks & nutshells
• Commercial outlines and flashcards
• Audio and video tapes, CDs, and DVDs
• Selected high-use loose-leaf services, treatises, and form books

The Law Library has an extensive microform collection, which is located in the lower level basement. This collection contains archival collections of:

• The Code of Federal Regulations
• Federal Register
• Congressional materials
• United States Code Annotated
• Superseded state statutes and selected state codes (including Texas statutes and codes) 
• Back issues of most bar journals
• Legal newspapers

A reader/printer/scanner is available free of charge.

The Law Library serves as a selective depository for U.S. government publications. You can find information on holdings of government documents using the Law Library’s online catalog.

In addition, the University Library houses a full depository, and its resources are available to law faculty. 

The Law Library subscribes to several legal and law-related online databases. Among the database providers are BNA, CCH, CIS, HeinOnline, LoisLaw, VersusLaw, Bloomberg Law, Lexis Advance, and Westlaw. For a complete list of databases, please see the Law Library’s Electronic Resources page.

In addition, faculty can also access a wide variety of databases, electronic journals, and e-books through the University Library.