Services for Students

See also: Library 1L Survival Guide

The Collection | Study Space | Research and Reference | Course Reading | Exam Files | CALI | ExpressO | Printing, Copying, and Scanning


The Collection

The Thurgood Marshall Law Library contains over 400,000 volumes of Anglo-American legal materials as well as an outstanding international and foreign law collection. Extensive collections of both primary sources and secondary materials such as treatises are available. The library has also served as a selective depository for United States government documents since the 1970s, receiving many of the law-related documents that are published. Many electronic resources are available, including subscription access to legal and non-legal databases. The library's Catalog provides access to its holdings, as well as the holdings of other libraries within the University of Maryland System. Consult this guide to learn how to search the Catalog.

In addition to law library borrowing privileges, law students and faculty may borrow from 14 additional Maryland public colleges and universities either by visiting the other libraries in person or by using the self-service "hold" delivery system available in the Catalog. Books requested via the "hold" system will be delivered to this library. The library also provides an interlibrary loan service for items not found in its collection or in the collections of other University System of Maryland libraries. For more details regarding borrowing from the Thurgood Marshall Law Library or other institutions, please see our Circulation page.  

Study Space

Six group study rooms on the third floor (3320 - 3325) are available for use by law students only and must be reserved. Choose “Reserve a Room” from the Quick Links menu on any library web page.  A minimum of two names (first and last names) with @umaryland e-mail addresses must be given for each reservation request. Three hours is the maximum reservation time per session and per day. Reservations for rooms will be taken only up to one week in advance.  

In addition to the group study rooms, students may use the individual study carrels, tables and soft seating located throughout the library. Study carrels are wired for laptop use and Ethernet cables.  The library also offers an accessible work station for students and faculty who require machine-assisted support.

Research and Reference

Reference assistance is available at the User Services Desk at the library entrance and Email.

Research librarians are available to assist students for more in-depth assistance and for advice on strategies for researching seminar paper topics or other research problems. A library liaison has been assigned to all current law school courses to give students a contact for all library-related questions that arise in the context of the course. Information about the librarian liaison and an e-mail address are automatically included on each Blackboard course page.

Students should also consult the list of library research guides, which are authored by research librarians and highlight the best resources, in both electronic and paper formats, for a particular legal topic.

In addition to working with students on research projects, the library’s team of experienced law-trained librarians teach required research courses. These courses include an introduction to legal research, taught to first-year students during the spring semester, and Advanced Legal Research, offered to students in the fall semester. Advanced Legal Research courses are offered in several legal subject areas, including environmental, business, and health law.

Course Reading

The library provides one copy of all assigned and recommended course books in the Rothenberg Reading Room for in-house (non-circulating) use.  For a listing of the available books, go to Quick Links and click on “Course Reading.”   The Reading Room also contains basic legal books and treatises for many courses, including all of the first-year classes.

Exam Files

The library maintains a file of previous course exams to which faculty members may choose to contribute. Exams are available to UM Law students, faculty and staff only.

CALI

The law school is a member of the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction which distributes CALI programs on various topics. The CALI library of exercises is a collection of more than 270 computer-based lessons covering more than 30 legal education subject areas such as civil procedure, torts, contracts, property, and criminal law. The exercises are designed to augment traditional law school instruction. They can be used as supplemental materials or integrated with other course materials. Students may download CALI exercises from http://www.cali.org.

ExpressO

The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law underwrites support for students who wish to use ExpressO to submit a paper for publication.

Printing, Copying and Scanning

All library computers print to the GoPrint Pay-Per-Print system.  Students may configure their Windows or Mac laptop to print to the black and white GoPrint printers. Printing costs $0.06 per side for the default duplex printing, $0.10 per page for singled-sided black and white copies, and $.50 per page for color copies using the library’s dedicated color printer. Printing may be paid for with UMB1One cards (the University of Maryland, Baltimore ID card). There are photocopiers in the Imaging Room on level 2 of the library. Photocopies cost $.12 per page. Visitors may purchase a OneCard for one dollar from the UMB1One machine in the imaging room on level 2 of the library.

The Law Library has a touchscreen Scannx Book ScanCenter in the Copy Room to scan books and documents into searchable PDF, Word doc, JPEG, TIFF and PNG file formats. The Law Library also has a computer with flatbed scanner that is reserved for UMB faculty, students and staff and is meant for small scanning projects (1 - 2 pages). It is not recommended for copying books.

Further information can be found on the library's technology information page.


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