Oregon Legal Research Blog
Whenever someone tells you that they “don’t need no stinkin’ law library,” beware – why doesn’t that person want you to have access to the nation’s laws and to the collected wisdom of legal scholars through the centuries?
U.S. Supreme Court Justices are some of the smartest legal scholars in the country and not only do they have the smartest law clerks from the best law schools, but they have a stellar law library. You don’t hear any of them saying, “why don’t we save some taxpayer money by closing the law library” – do you?
I saw this quote in a recent article about the retirement of the current U.S. Supreme Court Law Librarian – they have a staff of 28!
“In the earliest years, the Court did not have its own Library. Members of the Court used their own personal collections or borrowed books from the Library of Congress or other sources. Today, the Librarian manages the Court’s splendid collection of more than 500,000 volumes, directs a staff of 28, and provides irreplaceable research in support of our work.”