Law Library (Capital University)

Law Library (Capital University)
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Name	Law Library (Capital University)
Established	1960s
Location	Columbus, Ohio
Type	Academic law library
Collection size	over 500,000 volumes and equivalents
Director	Dean of Libraries (Law)

Contents

Law Library (Capital University) is the primary legal research library serving the Capital University Law School community in Columbus, Ohio. The library supports curricular programs in constitutional law, criminal law, corporate law, and international law while maintaining ties with regional institutions such as the Ohio State University and the Ohio History Connection. It houses rare materials and offers research services to students, faculty, alumni, and selected external patrons.

History

Founded during the expansion of Capital University's professional programs in the 1960s, the library's development paralleled trends at institutions like Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Columbia Law School, and Stanford Law School. Early benefactors included alumni connected to firms such as BakerHostetler, Squire Patton Boggs, Jones Day, and Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the library collaborated with the American Bar Association's accreditation processes and adopted cataloging standards from the Library of Congress and the Association of American Law Schools. Renovations in the 1990s reflected pedagogical changes influenced by centers at Georgetown University Law Center and George Washington University Law School. Partnerships with the Ohio Supreme Court and the Columbus Bar Association expanded access to state legal history collections.

The library occupies a wing adjacent to the main academic building structured with influences seen at the Boston Athenaeum renovation and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh restoration. Reading rooms were modeled after facilities at University of Michigan Law Library and University of Chicago D'Angelo Law Library to accommodate seminars inspired by programs at New York University School of Law and University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Facilities include quiet study carrels, group study rooms, a moot courtroom similar to those at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and a digitization lab reflecting practices at the Library of Congress and the National Archives. Accessibility improvements were informed by guidelines from the Americans with Disabilities Act and consultants who worked with the Smithsonian Institution.

Holdings include treatises, reporters, statutory compilations, and microform archives comparable to special collections at Georgetown Law Library and Duke University School of Law. Notable holdings feature state session law sets from the Ohio General Assembly, municipal codes from Columbus, Ohio, federal reporters such as the United States Reports and the Federal Reporter, and international law resources like materials from the International Court of Justice, United Nations, and the Hague Conference on Private International Law. The rare book room contains nineteenth-century volumes on Marbury v. Madison, materials related to Fletcher v. Peck, pamphlets from the Civil War era, and collections tied to jurists who clerked for the United States Supreme Court, including items associated with alumni connected to firms like Kirkland & Ellis and WilmerHale. Special holdings also include arbitration awards from the American Arbitration Association and legislative histories from the U.S. Congress.

Reference services follow models used by the American Association of Law Libraries and include advanced legal research consultations patterned after offerings at Cornell Law School and University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. The library provides online access to commercial databases such as Westlaw, LexisNexis, and Bloomberg Law, as well as open-access repositories like SSRN and digitized materials contributed to the HathiTrust Digital Library. Instruction programs coordinate with faculty from clinics inspired by Harvard Law School's Clinical Program and externships that mirror placements at the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Interlibrary loan partnerships extend to the OhioLINK consortium and exchange agreements with the Library of Congress and regional public libraries including the Columbus Metropolitan Library.

Primary patrons include students and faculty of the Capital University Law School, alumni, and credentialed researchers; reciprocal borrowing arrangements exist with institutions such as Ohio State University Libraries, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and private law firms including Taft Stettinius & Hollister. The library participates in state access programs administered by the Ohio Supreme Court and offers limited public use similar to policies at New York Public Library law divisions. Membership tiers accommodate visiting scholars from universities like Cleveland State University and practitioners from the Franklin County Bar Association.

Administration reports to the Capital University deanery with a director coordinating operations alongside subject librarians specializing in areas tied to faculty expertise in Antitrust Law, Environmental Law, Tax Law, Family Law, and Health Law. Staffing includes catalogers trained with Library of Congress classification, systems librarians managing electronic resources integrated with platforms like Ex Libris and OpenAthens, and archives personnel who have worked on grants with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Student employees include law clerks and research assistants who have gone on to clerkships at the U.S. Court of Appeals and positions at organizations such as Legal Aid Society and Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.

The library has hosted symposia featuring speakers from the United States Supreme Court bench, panels including scholars from Yale Law School, Harvard Law School, and practitioners from Cleary Gottlieb and Sidley Austin. Collaborative projects include digitization initiatives with the Ohio Historical Society and joint programming with the Columbus Bar Association for continuing legal education credits recognized by the Ohio Board of Bar Examiners. The library has participated in grant-funded research with partners such as the National Science Foundation and the American Philosophical Society and has hosted moot competitions modeled after the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.