Services

The Law Library provides a quiet study space, comprehensive research resources, and expert research assistance.

During the spring 2024 semester, the Library will be open:

Monday to Friday: 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

For the most up-to-date hours, please see our full calendar. 

During final exams, the Law Library holds study hall hours and restricts access to Law School affiliates and those seeking specific materials in the Law Library.

General reference services are available by emailing the Reference Desk or asking for a Reference Librarian at the Circulation Desk. During the academic year, the Reference Desk is staffed seven days a week. See our full calendar.

Reference Services
For a full list of resources and services available to students, please see the Student Services Guide. 

Borrowing and Renewing for Students
Students may borrow materials from the Law Library for one semester. Some items, however, do not circulate, including:

• items placed on reserve for a course
• items located in the Core Collection Reading Room or Reference Office
• primary law sources
• damaged items
• special collections materials

Items may be renewed in person at the Circulation Desk or online by viewing your patron record in Pegasus. For further information about your Law Library account, please contact the Circulation Desk.

Your Law Library books do not appear on your CLIO account; we do not use the same circulation system as the other Columbia University Libraries. 

Study and Media Rooms
The Law Library has 5 study rooms that can be reserved for individual or group study use.
For more information and to reserve a study room, please see the the Guide to Columbia Law Library Services and Policies. 

Interlibrary Loan for Students
If the Law Library does not have a resource, we can likely acquire it via a loan. Please see the Student Services Guide for information on finding material from Columbia Libraries. 

Law students may use and borrow books from any of the other Columbia University Libraries through their online catalog CLIO. Law students can also consult with a Reference Librarian in the Reference Office to borrow materials through Interlibrary Loan from other libraries worldwide. The Law Library participates in OCLC’s sharing service, which makes searching library holdings worldwide available through WorldCat.

Non-law students can contact the Interlibrary Loan office in Butler Library.

Past Exams for Students
Exams given in past years by faculty members currently teaching a course are available in electronic format on the law student network G drive. You can also access this G drive folder through your web browser at http://remote.law.columbia.edu.

Consult the IT Help Desk for further assistance.

Services for Non-Law Students
All Columbia University students are welcome to use the Law Library and its materials, including borrowing and renewing items. The Law Library provides access to the internet and electronic resources through terminals in the Reference Office. Reference services are available on a drop-in basis and by contacting [email protected]. 

Access to individual Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg Law accounts is restricted to current law students, faculty, and staff. The Reference Office hosts Westlaw and Bloomberg Law desktop terminals for onsite access. These terminals are available on a first come, first served basis and research should be limited to 30 minute sessions.

The computer lab is available to Law School affiliates only. See the Law School’s IT page for more information.

During final exams, the Law Library holds study hall hours and restricts access to Law School affiliates and those seeking specific materials from the collection.

Computer Lab and Printing
Columbia Law School’s computer lab is located on the second floor. Open to Law School affiliates only, it has eight Macs and 24 Windows desktop computers.  

Printing in the Law Library is limited to law students. Troubleshooting and more information is available from the Law School IT department.

The Law Library provides two types of fee-based services for institutions, businesses, private libraries, and individuals who need access to its collections.

For more information, see the Fee-Based Services Guide.

Please use the form below to let us know if there are any books, treatises, DVDs, or other materials you would like placed on course reserves for your Fall 2022 courses. 

Once a course reserves request is submitted, library staff will check for available electronic versions of each requested reading. Whenever possible, links will be provided to the Library’s licensed electronic resources. We will also purchase licenses to ebooks that we do not currently have access to whenever they are available for libraries to license as individual titles.

Unfortunately, not all required course readings will have available electronic versions. Some publishers do not offer institutional licenses to all of their ebook content, especially textbooks, and some assigned readings, textbooks, or other materials may not be available electronically through the Law Library. The Library will place print copies of materials that can not be electronically licensed on Course Reserves. 

Columbia Law Library Course Reserves Request Form

To complete the form, you should have the name of the course, the course and section number, and the Title/Author/Year/ISBN of any material you wish to have added. Please also indicate how many students are anticipated to register for the course, as the Library will provide a specific number of electronic or print copies based on the number of registered students.

You or your faculty assistant will need to log in using your UNI and password to complete the request form. If you are signed in to any other non-Columbia Google product, you may have to sign out first. This form allows us to process your requests in a timely and efficient fashion, and we appreciate your use of it. 

All material placed on course reserves will be removed at the end of the semester. You will be asked again towards the end of the Spring semester for materials needed for Course Reserves in future semesters.

If you have any questions, contact the Special Collections and Public Services Librarian, Irina Kandarasheva or Head of Public Services, Mariana Newman.
 

All Columbia University Alumni have lifetime access to the Law Library. Alumni can access materials while on campus, however, some print items must be requested from off-site storage before your visit. Many databases are accessible on site. Just ask at the Circulation Desk for our visitor WiFi information (see Access to Electronic Resources below for more details).

In order to access Jerome Greene Hall and the Law Library, please obtain an Alumni ID from the Library Information Office in Butler Library. This will also provide access to a number of Columbia University libraries on campus.

Access to Electronic Resources
Alumni are invited to visit the Law Library during normal service hours. In addition, alumni have access to the Law Library’s online catalog, Pegasus, at any time.

When you are off campus, you do not have access to any of the Law Library’s electronic resources. On site, you have access to most of the electronic resources listed under Online Resources on the main page of Pegasus, including HeinOnline, via the Law Library visitor WiFi and the computer terminals located in the Reference Office. You will need to obtain login and password information from the Reference Librarian on duty for some of the electronic resources.

Access to individual Bloomberg Law, Lexis, and Westlaw accounts is restricted to current law students, faculty, and staff. The Reference Office hosts Westlaw and Bloomberg Law desktop terminals for on-site access. These terminals are available on a first come, first served basis.

Columbia University Libraries provides access to some electronic resources (including JSTOR and ProQuest) for alumni, which can be accessed via your Columbia UNI.

Scholarship Repository
Columbia Law School’s Legal Scholarship Repository provides free, permanent, and direct access to the scholarly work of our faculty, including published articles, works-in-progress, and other research and writing. Encompassing research on a wide spectrum of legal and law-related subjects, the Repository represents the breadth and depth of the cutting-edge, impactful scholarship undertaken at Columbia.

Questions, comments, and inquiries about the Repository may be referred to [email protected]. Columbia Law School’s Scholarship Repository is a part of the Digital Commons Network, a major source of open access legal information.