Joseph D. Jamail Center for Legal Research: Tarlton Law Library
The Tarlton Law Library in the Jamail Center for Legal Research supports the research and curricular needs of the students and faculty of the School of Law, as well as the research needs of the University community, members of the bar, and the public. The highly qualified library staff provides reference services, offers individual and group instruction, and maintains and organizes the collection for efficient use.
The Tarlton Law Library is one of the largest academic law libraries in the country, with a physical collection of more than a million volumes and equally extensive electronic resources. In addition to a comprehensive collection of United States primary and secondary legal materials in print and digital formats, the library has a broad interdisciplinary collection from the social sciences and humanities. Special collections at Tarlton include significant foreign and international law resources; the papers of former United States Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark; feature films and fiction related to law and popular culture; and, in the library’s Gavel Archive, a collection of recent winners of the American Bar Association’s prestigious Silver Gavel Award. The library is a depository for United States, European Union, and Canadian government documents. The library’s collection of rare and antiquarian law books exceeds ten thousand volumes and includes noted collections of early legal dictionaries, Texas law, and the works of John Selden.
The library offers law students access to BloombergLaw, LexisNexis and Westlaw, the major online legal research services. Computers, a building-wide wireless network, and printers and scanners are available for law student use. The facility has group study rooms and a student lounge, and tables, carrels, and comfortable seating throughout. The Tarlton Law Library Web site offers a number of online resources and finding aids, including digital collections highlighting Texas legal history and law school traditions.
Almost 1000 paintings, prints, documents, textiles, and pieces of furniture from the Hyder Collection enhance the ambience of the library and create an intellectually rich environment for research and study.
The library’s facilities and information services are open to the University community and to visitors. Non-University borrowers may purchase a guest borrower card. Fees are waived for visitors with valid TexShare cards. Most library materials, including primary source materials, digests, looseleaf binders, microforms, periodicals, and reference resources generally do not circulate outside the library.