Guide to Columbia Law Library Services and Policies

Casebooks and other required texts may be placed on Course Reserves at the request of the instructor. If a required text for your class is not on Course Reserves, ask your professor to fill out the Google Form emailed by the Law Library. 

Course Reserves may be available electronically, in print, or both.

Print Course Reserves are located behind the Circulation Desk in the Law Library.  You may borrow a Course Reserve book and use it within the Law Library for a two hour loan period. They are not permitted to leave the Law Library. 

Use our Law Library catalog, Pegasus, to search for a book, journal, or electronic resource by title, author, or keyword. Use post-search filters to narrow your list of results. Advanced search with more functionality is available.

Once you have found a particular book or item, click to see its catalog record. On the record page, make note of the Location, Call Number, and Availability.  Books may be housed on the 4th Floor, in the 3rd Floor Core Collection Reading Room, in the Cellar, or in an offsite storage facility. Look for the "Map It" link in the record to identify the book on a map of the Law Library. "On shelf" means a book is available for you to retrieve. If a book is stored in the "Offsite ReCAP" facility, you may request by contacting a reference librarian. If a book is not available, consult a reference librarian to discuss other options, like electronic availability or InterLibrary Loan.

Students may borrow materials from the Law Library for one semester by bringing them to the Circulation desk to check out. Some items, however, do not circulate, including:

• items placed on reserve for a course
• items located in the Core Collection Reading Room or Reference Office
• primary law sources
• damaged items
• special collections materials

All borrowed materials must be returned to the Law Library. If you return a Law Library item to any other library, you will be responsible for any fines or replacement costs for the item.

Items may be renewed in person at the Circulation Desk or online by viewing your patron record in Pegasus. For further information about your Law Library account, please contact the Circulation Desk.

Your Law Library books do not appear on your CLIO account; we do not use the same circulation system as the other Columbia University Libraries.