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Collections

The Law Library collects legal and governmental materials, in various formats, to meet the diverse needs of Maine citizens, their government and the legal community and to reflect current and past actions of the Maine Legislature.

BOOKS AND REPORTS

Search the URSUS catalog for books, self-help titles, government documents, study reports, treatises, videos, and other cataloged items by title, subject or keywords. Our library’s holdings are identified as “LEG”. If a title is also available as a full-text version on the Internet, the bibliographic record will contain a link to “Connect to online version”.

CASES AND DIGESTS

We collect the official decisions of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, published in the Maine Reporter, which contains the Maine excerpts from the Atlantic Reporter. Preliminary editions of these decisions are available in print in the advance sheets to the Atlantic Reporter, which are retained until cumulated in the Maine Reporter.

We also receive United States Reports, the official decisions of the United States Supreme Court, through the Federal Depository Library Program.

The Maine Key-Number Digest provides topical access to Maine-related case authority from the Federal and state courts.

For all other court decisions, patrons have access in the Law Library to Westlaw.

COMPUTER NETWORK FOR THE PUBLIC

Computer stations are available for use by visitors. They provide access to the following electronic resources:

  • Bill Status
  • Canadian Legal Materials
  • Consumer Law (companion websites to NCLC print titles in our collection)
  • HeinOnline (includes full-text journals, state session laws, English Reports, historical Federal Register, et al.)
  • FDSys
  • Google
  • Hein Online
  • Law Library Website
  • LLDL (our own digitized collection of Maine legislative materials)
  • LLMC-Digital (non-profit multi-state digitized legal materials)
  • Maine : An Encyclopedia
  • Maine Legislature
  • Digital Maine Library (formerly MARVEL!)
  • Newspaper clippings (See News heading below for more information.)
  • OSHA
  • URSUS Library Catalog
  • Westlaw
  • WordPad & OpenOffice

FEDERAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS

We collect the U.S. Code, session laws, Federal Register, the Code of Federal Regulations, USCCAN and the U.S. Statutes At Large. For access to electronic resources please refer to our Federal Law page.

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS

As a partial depository library for federal government documents, we select hearings, reports, bulletins, administrative decisions and other documents appropriate to our collection. We also collect some, but not all, documents published by Maine state agencies and departments.

LAW AND LEGISLATIVE DIGITAL LIBRARY (LLDL)

An ever-growing online collection of high quality PDF resources, including the House and Senate Legislative Records, legislative histories and early Massachusetts laws.

LAW REVIEWS AND PERIODICALS

We subscribe to major law reviews and legal, governmental, and news journals. You can search URSUS for individual journal titles to verify our holdings and see the latest issue received. Some digital articles are also available in-house through our subscription to Hein Online’s Law Journal Library or through our Reference Department’s Lexis subscription. Some articles may also be available to Maine residents through the Digital Maine service.

MAINE LAW AND LEGISLATIVE MATERIALS

We collect, and retain in paper form, Maine bills and proposed amendments, session laws, statutes, study reports,  the Legislative Record, House and Senate Journals, session registers, History and Final Disposition pamphlets, executive orders and proclamations, roll calls, committee files and limited biographical information. Library staff also compile some legislative histories on major or recurring topics. We also compile a fact book which is useful for session statistics, names of former governors, treasurers, and secretaries of state, et al. and publish versions on our website. We have sets of current Maine Statutes and a complete historical set back to 1820. Many of these sources are available electronically in the LLDL collection or through electronic subscriptions available in our library.

NEWS

FRONT PAGE

A dailey selection of news articles which patrons can be added to upon request. We hope that this service, created and updated by Law Library staff, helps you stay in touch with news relevant to developments in and around Maine’s State House.

CLIPPINGS & PAPERS IN THE LAW LIBRARY

We subscribe to many Maine daily and weekly newspapers, as well as several top national dailies. Although we do not retain whole newspapers, we save clippings of any articles relating to Maine government, the Legislature, legal and judicial community and current legislative issues. Current news clippings are digitized and the coverage is also expanding retrospectively.

REFERENCE MATERIALS

Dictionaries, legal encyclopedias, government directories and other materials for quick or background information.

STATE CODES (Non-Maine)

Our collection includes print copies of the statutes of all 50 states.

 

 

5/8/2024         A-Z List