About the Library
We are pleased to welcome you to the Duke University Law Library, which has reopened after a complete renovation. The library has been redesigned to meet the twenty-first century information needs of the Duke Law community, offering a variety of spaces for individual and collaborative study, providing ready access to library, media and technology services, and highlighting the library's excellent collection of more than 625,000 volumes.
The Reading Room
The most notable transformation can be seen in the Reading Room on Level 3, which has been updated with entirely new furniture, carpeting and light fixtures. The renovation also created a bright, spacious window wall, next to comfortable seating areas in the Reading Room as well as on the Level 4 mezzanine.
The former Reference, Circulation and Computing Help desks have been combined into a single, unified service desk, in order to provide library users with streamlined assistance from our highly knowledgeable and skilled staff.
The renovation also created a new home in the Reading Room for the Floyd M. and Marguerite F. Riddick Rare Books and Special Collections Room, to better showcase the library’s superior collection of historic English and American legal treatises.
Computing & Media Technology
The library continues to provide complete wireless network coverage throughout the building, as well as power at all table and carrel seats to support student laptop computers. Twelve public computer terminals will be available in the Reading Room for quick access to the library’s electronic resources. The library also offers more than 50 computers for law student use, with the majority distributed in study carrels on Level 2.
The renovation included the creation of a new document production center on Level 3, which features state-of-the-art high-speed printers, a network scanner, and photocopiers. Two additional printers are located on each remaining library floor. Level 3 will also feature a new student media workshop with video and audio production equipment.
Study Space
Public space has been expanded throughout the library, which now provides table seating for 300 and carrel space for 180. The enlarged Reading Room on Level 3 is an ideal place for collaborative work, as are the subject alcoves located on Levels 2 and 3. In addition, Level 2 offers eight study rooms, all equipped with integrated videoconferencing and video recording capability. Students may reserve a study room in advance at the service desk on Level 3.
Individuals may prefer the soft seating by the window wall on Level 3, near the Leisure Reading and Cox Legal Fiction collections. For visitors seeking a quieter place to work, a range of small and large individual carrels, alcoves, and tables are also available on the lower floors, including a spacious carrel study area near the new windows on Level 2.
Our Collections
To provide a variety of comfortable study space throughout the library, some existing collections were relocated to the second floor:
- The Clarence W. Walker North Carolina Alcove has relocated from Level 3 to Level 2, providing alcove researchers with more convenient access to other state-specific publications in the library’s general collection.
- The Dean Pamela B. Gann Tax Alcove and Richard E. Thigpen Tax Collection have relocated from Level 3 to Level 2, nearer to the additional tax-related materials in the library’s general collection.
Other collections on Level 3 (such as the William F. Stevens Federal Alcove, the Practice & Procedure Collection, the Christie Jurisprudence Collection, and the Henry J. Oechler, Jr. Reference Area) remain on the same floor, but in slightly different locations. Please consult a library staff member for assistance with navigating the new library layout.
