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| Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library | |
|---|---|
| Name | Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library |
| Formation | 1820 |
| Jurisdiction | State of Maine |
| Headquarters | Augusta, Maine |
Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library
The Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library serves as a statutory, archival, and research center supporting the Maine Legislature, the State House (Maine), and citizens of Maine by preserving legislative documents, legal materials, and historical records. It provides research services, reference collections, and access to statutes, session laws, committee reports, and legislative journals for representatives, senators, staff, and members of the public. The Library interacts with state institutions, judicial libraries, and federal repositories to support policy development, historical research, and legal reference.
The Library functions within the legislative framework alongside the Maine Senate, the Maine House of Representatives, the Legislative Council (Maine), and the Joint Standing Committees (Maine Legislature), offering research, cataloging, and archival services. It maintains collections related to the Maine Revised Statutes Annotated, the Public Laws of Maine, the Maine Legislative Record, and materials relevant to the Governor of Maine, the Attorney General of Maine, and state agencies such as the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services and the Maine Secretary of State. The institution collaborates with entities including the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, the New England Regional Library Association, and academic libraries at the University of Maine, Colby College, Bates College, and Bowdoin College.
Founded in the early years of Maine statehood contemporaneous with the admission of Maine under the Missouri Compromise, the Library grew alongside legislative developments including the passage of major statutes such as the Maine Temperance Act and later reforms tied to the Progressive Era. Its archival holdings document legislative responses to events like the Great Depression, the New Deal, World War II mobilization and veterans' legislation, and environmental initiatives following the Cuyahoga River fire-era conservation movement influencing regional policy. The Library preserved records spanning administrations from governors like William King (Maine politician), Percival Baxter, Edmund Muskie, Angus King, to Janet Mills, and legislative milestones including reapportionment cases, referendum campaigns, and landmark bills on taxation, fisheries, and timber. It has engaged with federal efforts such as the Federal Depository Library Program and regional projects like the New England Document Conservation Center.
Operated under statutes enacted by the Maine Legislature and overseen by legislative leadership including the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and the President of the Maine Senate, the Library organizes staff into divisions for reference, archives, cataloging, and digital services. It provides statutory research comparable to services in state capitols such as Massachusetts State House and New Hampshire State Library, supports committee hearings for bodies like the Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary (Maine Legislature), and supplies briefs for legislators involved in intergovernmental matters with entities like the United States Congress, National Conference of State Legislatures, and Council of State Governments. The Library also coordinates with the Maine State Archives and the Judicial Branch (Maine) for legal and historical records.
Holdings include volumes of the Maine Revised Statutes, complete runs of the Laws of Maine, legislative journals from early sessions, gubernatorial papers, committee prints, agency rulemaking records, and historic maps of regions like the Penobscot River watershed and Acadia National Park environs. It holds special collections on figures such as Edmund Muskie, Margaret Chase Smith, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and records related to industries including Maine lobster fisheries, the timber industry, and shipbuilding in Bath, Maine. The Library houses rare pamphlets, campaign literature from gubernatorial contests, municipal charter copies for cities like Portland, Maine, Lewiston, Maine, and Bangor, Maine, and archival materials linked to social movements including labor actions tied to the Industrial Workers of the World and civil rights petitions.
Services include legislative history research, bill tracking summaries for sponsors, compilation of precedent and comparative law across states such as Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, and reference assistance to constituents, journalists, and scholars. The Library prepares legal and policy background memos used by legislators working on topics touching the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, the Maine Department of Transportation, and environmental policy relevant to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. It supports educational outreach with tours of the Maine State House, exhibits on figures like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and events such as the Great Fire of Portland (1866), and provides interlibrary loan and reproduction services for researchers at institutions including the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
The Library implements digitization projects for historical legislative records, collaborates with the Digital Public Library of America, and participates in metadata standards efforts like the Dublin Core through partnerships with academic repositories at the University of Southern Maine and the University of Maine at Augusta. It supports searchable online access to bills, committee reports, and session journals, aligning with open information practices promoted by organizations such as the Sunlight Foundation and the Open Knowledge Foundation. Preservation initiatives utilize conservation techniques consistent with the Society of American Archivists guidelines and digital preservation recommendations from the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program.
Governance is established by legislative rule and administrative practice involving the Legislative Council (Maine) and oversight from elected leaders such as the Majority Leader of the Maine Senate and the Minority Leader of the Maine House of Representatives. Funding derives primarily from state appropriations approved in the biennial budget process by the Maine Legislature with supplemental grants from federal programs including the Institute of Museum and Library Services and cooperative agreements with the National Endowment for the Humanities and foundations supporting archival digitization. The Library’s operations parallel funding and governance models seen in other state legislative libraries like the New York State Legislative Library and the California State Library.
Category:Libraries in Maine