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GW Law Library
Research Guides

Library Tour

A virtual tour of the GW Law Library is provided.

First Floor

Jacob Burns Law Library Main Entrance

The Library is located on 20th Street between G & H Streets, NW.  
Hours of operation are posted on the Burns Law Library, Operations website.

The Library has implemented a number of safety measures to promote social distancing and safeguard your health.  We are constantly monitoring and revising our health and safety protocols to ensure consistency with public health recommendations, and will expect all members of our community to comply with these measures.

Access to the Law Library will be limited to currently enrolled GW law students.  Access will be by reservation ONLY.  Reservations to use the Law Library must be made by midnight of the day before you plan to come to the library.  Reservations are for an hour at a time, and a student can make a reservation for a block of up to four hours for a day. 

Reservations are not required if you are only coming to the Law Library to retrieve books requested through “Grab and Go” or coursepacks. Access will be to the Law Library only.  All other areas of the Law School complex are closed to students. For information on accessing other areas of the Law School, contact Dean Hank Molinengo (hrmolinengo@law.gwu.edu).  Access will be conditioned on observance of testing policies instituted by the University.

All members of the GW community are expected to wear cloth masks or face coverings at all times in the Library.  In order to enforce the mask policy, food and drink are not permitted.  Hand sanitizer and wipes are located throughout the Library.  Please make use of them!

 

Circulation/Reserve Desk

Circulation staff are available to assist patrons with obtaining Course Reserve materials and checking out Mac and PC chargers, chargers for phones and iPads, bike locks, and study aids, including Nutshells and Examples and Explanations. Staplers, an electric three-hole punch, and electric pencil sharpener also are available. 

Materials from the Reserve collection may be used only once every 3 days unless they have been sanitized.

When books are checked out and returned, they will be sanitized or quarantined for 3 days before re-shelving.  Laptop & cell phone chargers will be sanitized by Library staff between each use.

Circulation Desk Circulation Desk Map

Stairwell to Stockton Cellar

Stairs located to the right as you come through the 1st floor Library turnstiles take you to the Stockton Cellar.

 

Hallway to Reference Commons

From the Circulation/Reserve Desk, a short hallway displays rare books and current faculty publications, and leads to the Reference Commons and Reference Desk.

 

Reference Services

Librarians are available to provide assistance to patrons by phone, chat, or email. 

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Reference Commons

Research computers in the Reference Commons are used for searching legal research databases and JACOB, the Law Library's catalog.  Please sanitize the computer keyboard and mouse before using.

A small reference collection includes legal encyclopedias and dictionaries, thesauri, manuals, and legal biographical directories. No food or drink permitted.

 

Tasher Reading Room

Quiet study space. No food or drink allowed.

Tables and chairs have been placed so as to provide at least six feet between users.  Yellow caution tape has been placed in some areas where seating is not permitted.  PLEASE DO NOT MOVE TABLES OR CHAIRS.
Cleaning supplies have been placed throughout the Library.  Please sanitize an area (table and chair) before settling in to study.

 

Rare Book Room

The Rare Book Room displays only a small portion of the Library's more than 35,000 rare books, incunabula, manuscripts, and archival material. The collection's original foundation of early Anglo-American legal works and international materials acquired from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has expanded in recent times thanks to donations, major purchases at international auctions, and continuing selection of materials from antiquarian booksellers worldwide. Today the collection is noted especially for its Continental materials, with particular strength in French legal history.

 

Law School First Floor Printing

Printers are located on the 1st floor of the Law School.

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