Law Library Reading Room

About the Law Collections

With approximately 2.9 million volumes, the Law Library’s collection of primary and secondary sources constitutes the largest legal collection in the world.

Rare Book Collection

The Law Library’s collection of rare books consists of approximately 90,000 volumes of books and bound manuscripts, many issued prior to 1801.

Gazette Collection

The Law Library of Congress has been collecting foreign official gazettes since the mid-nineteenth century and maintains one of the largest collections of these sources in the world. Official gazettes are primary sources of law published by national governments to disseminate new legislation, regulations, and decisions of governmental bodies. These publications may also contain other information including the text of international agreements, court decisions, official announcements, and government notices. For countries with civil law systems, the official gazette often serves as the sole source of the authoritative texts of laws until updated codes are published. In most countries, a law enters into force on the date of publication in the official gazette.

Microform Collection

The Law Library Reading Room contains a variety of legal and legislative materials from around the globe in microfiche, microfilm and ultrafiche.

Digitized Collections

The Law Library continues to digitize legal and legislative materials to help users gain access to important historical documents.  Our collections include:

Last Updated: 12/31/2020