Our Reference Desk is staffed by five dual-degree law librarians. The Reference Librarians are uniquely situated to assist Law Faculty with a breadth of legal and non-legal research activities, including:
Please contact the Reference Desk with any research- or library-related questions you may have. You can reach the Reference Librarians through the dedicated faculty and staff reference email address (lawref@law.columbia.edu) or the chat function on this page. The current Reference Desk hours can be found on the Law Library Reference Hours calendar.
Full-time Law Faculty engaged in long-term or in-depth research projects are welcome to consider utilizing the Law Library's Liaison Program.
Librarians are available during the following hours* for in person, chat, and email reference:
Monday-Friday 10am-6pm
Librarians are available during the following weekend hours* for chat and email reference:
Saturday and Sunday 12pm-6pm
*Hours are subject to change and national and university holidays.
Upon request, the Law Library will arrange for one of our Reference Librarians to serve as the long-term Law Library Liaison for any member of the full-time Columbia Law Faculty. In addition to fulfilling and coordinating requests that are usually routed through the Reference Desk, your Law Library Liaison can provide highly personalized, responsive support for your research, instruction, and scholarship activities.
To discuss the Law Library Liaison program, or to be paired with a librarian, please contact the Reference Desk.
The Law Library offers a broad variety of services to aid faculty in keeping up with recent developments and scholarship in their particular areas of interest. Services include email alerts from major research databases, pre-publication abstracts of articles within the SSRN network, table of contents alerts, and journal routing. The Reference Librarians provide current awareness services for subjects within the legal academy and for interdisciplinary focuses. If you are interested in coordinating current awareness services through the Law Library, please reach out to the Reference Desk or your Law Library Liaison.
The Reference Librarians provide a yearly update on library resources and services to the Law School's Faculty Support Team. Upon request, a Reference Librarian will meet individually with members of the Faculty Support Team to further discuss library services and provide training on using our print and electronic resources.
For more information or to arrange an individual meeting with a Reference Librarian, please contact the Law Library's Faculty Outreach or the Reference Desk.
The Law Library encourages faculty to hire student research assistants for their projects. The Law School's Career Services Office posts position announcements. Please contact them at careerservices@law.columbia.edu for such requests.
The Reference Librarians are happy to offer training sessions for all student research assistants, or to schedule individual research consultations. Please email the Law Library's Faculty Outreach or the Reference Desk for more information.
To allow your research assistant to borrow books from the Law Library on your behalf, please have the student pick up an application at our Circulation Desk. If you wish to allow your research assistant to borrow books on your behalf from other campus libraries, please contact the Columbia University Library Information Office.