Reference Services

The University of Toledo LaValley Law Library is located on three floors of the Law Center with the entrance to the law library on the third floor of the building. The law library maintains a growing collection of Anglo-American materials in print, digital, microform and video-cassette formats comprising over 350,000 volumes and volume equivalents. The Law Library has significant electronic collections, including access to the research database collection for members of the OhioLINK consortium and a variety of specialized electronic legal research sources.

Most of the collection is in open stacks readily accessible to patrons. The general American law collection is arranged according to the Library of Congress classification system and is located on the third floor of the Law Center. All current Ohio materials are also shelved on the third floor. A separate reference area containing directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, digests, Ohio Shepard's Citations, and other reference sets is located on the south side of the third floor. The microform collection is also located near the reference area. The law library is a selective U.S. Government Depository Library; most of these documents are integrated into the general collection.

Periodicals are arranged alphabetically by title and are shelved on the mezzanine level of the law library. International Legal materials and legal materials for all states except Ohio (see above) are shelved on the second floor of the law library. Materials which are chiefly of historical interest and have been designated "inactive" are shelved on the first floor of the law library.

If you need help using sources, print or electronic, or if you need help with research strategies, please contact one of the public services librarians:

Robert Jacoby, Senior Legal Research Librarian
Ryan Overdorf, Senior Electronic / Media Services Librarian
Rick Goheen, Assistant Dean for the LaValley Law Library

Mr. Jacoby, Mr. Overdorf and Prof. Goheen work primarily from our offices, and an email or an in person visit are the most effective means of contacting us. Nights and weekends are generally covered at the reference desk by part time librarians Joe Fugere, Barbara Avery and Galen Avery. The reference desk telephone number is (419) 530-2946.