Welcome to the Library
The mission of the Harvard Law School Library is to provide information resources and research services that will assist Harvard Law School in becoming the premier center in the world for legal scholarship and training in the twenty-first century. An important subsidiary mission is to deal responsibly with the extensive collections acquired to date, whatever their current level of use. The Law School now manages the second largest library at Harvard with a staff of almost 94 on an annual budget of ten million dollars. Its extensive special collections are widely known. Besides current professional research, the Library supports a wide range of historical and international scholarship. The collections stand at 1.7 million books and bound manuscripts, 450,000 volume-equivalents in roll microform or microfiche, significant manuscript holdings, and a unique art collection. Since World War II the School has acquired more than 20,000 new books each year. In recent years, annual weeding of the book stock, including conversion to microform, has approached 5,000 volumes. The Library is a busy organization confronted with many exciting and diverse challenges. Current activities include the implementation of a new online system, the conversion of thousands of brittle books to microform, the development of multi-library cooperative networks, the improvement of the research skills of our law students, meeting the information technology needs of our faculty, and the digitization of library materials so that the unique resources of Harvard Law School Library might someday be available through this home page. Daily concerns include training and keeping high quality personnel, dealing with old buildings, adjusting to international currency fluctuations, and finding innovative ways to store more and more materials. In the Caspersen Room of the Library can be seen Lord Coke's famous paraphrase of Chaucer: Out of ould fields must spring and grow the new corne. We believe the Harvard Law School Library is the most luxuriant, extensive, and carefully selected garden of law in existence. Unfortunately, time is limited for every member of the Harvard Law School community to enjoy the riches of the Library; there are many exciting demands on one's energy and attention. As you visit us either in person or through our home page, remember that we have many gardeners with a variety of skills and specialties. |
