By Mark Stuckey

You may be like me and view the Law Library as merely a sensory deprivation chamber, to drown out the distractions of the outside world, so you can get at least some of the school work done that you should have been doing for the last 5 weeks. However, the Law Library serves a much higher purpose, it is home to multiple collections of both the legal and non-legal variety. Join me on a rather brief and truncated overview of the library’s physical collections.

Georgia Collection:

The Georgia collection is located on the lower level of the library across from the computer lab and is home to many useful sources, primary and otherwise. Specifically, the primary resources include the OCGA, Georgia Laws, Georgia Appeals Reports, and Georgia Digest. These primary resources will not only help you master your Legal Bib homework, but may also come in handy in the future if you need to do some cost effective Georgia legal research.  In addition to the primary resources, the Georgia Collection is home to secondary resources such as Georgia practice treatises on specific topics of Georgia law, Georgia CLE materials and loads of other great stuff.

• Note: for those interested in other state specific resources, the Law Library has state primary resources other than Georgia on the second floor. Federal Primary materials are located on the first floor near the Georgia Collection.

Reference Collection:

The reference collection is located on the first floor conveniently near the reference desk (that place where you see the friendly librarians). The reference collection contains, among other things, another copy of the OCGA, study aids, legal dictionaries, and Georgia Practice Materials (behind the reference desk). The Reference Collection is a great resource to gain a better understanding of broad concepts of the law (for your classes or generally edification), and Georgia specific practice issues.

Leisure Collection:

The Law Library knows that you’re stressed, and need to blow off some steam, and that’s why we have the leisure collection. In the leisure collection, you will find an assortment of DVDs from classic law related movies like My Cousin Vinny, to television series whose presence on the shelf of a Law Library is a little more enigmatic like Battlestar Galactica. Additionally, the leisure collection contains, get this, books that are actually entertaining, like the LOTR trilogy, and whatever the new John Grisham book is. Next time you find yourself in need of a brief distraction mosey over to the leisure collection.

Government Documents:

Apparently, the Law Library is a participant in the United States Federal Depository Library Program, and as such it houses government documents for the general public to peruse. The Government Documents are locate on the first floor between call numbers KF1 -101. I myself had no idea that this existed until a little while ago, so be adventurous like me and go check it out.

Microform Collection:

This may come as a shock, but that weird room, to the right, on the second floor houses the Law Library’s microform collection.  There are both microform and microfiche formats in this room. The collection contains a bunch of federal and state primary source. There is the ability to print copies of these materials.

Rare Books Collection:

The rare books collection is the last, but probably coolest collection that I am going to tell you about. Located in the locked cabinets of the Law Library Conference Room. As the name might suggest, this collection houses a mish mash of rare books, from 18^th century Blackstone’s commentaries on various topics to a signed copy of Professor Emanuel’s biography of Judge Tuttle.

There you have it, a very brief overview of the Law Library’s physical collections. It just goes to show that the Law Library is more than a place with great ambiance and friendly faces, it also houses a great volume of resources.