The Rhode Island State Law Library is one of the jewels of the Rhode Island legal system. It’s a great place for research and a jumping-off point for difficult legal questions. Still not sold on taking a field trip to visit? Here are eleven reasons why the State Law Library is awesome (in the words of Nigel Tufnel, why have a Top 10 list when it can go to 11?):
(photo used with permission)
#11 Reason: The State Law Library has the look and feel of an old-school library where lots of people have come up with important legal ideas. The stairs to the second level have a slight creak. Desks are in nooks and crannies. The library looks beautiful with gleaming railings, and it was recently renovated and re-dedicated after the late Chief Justice Joseph Weisberger. He could recite legal citations from memory, so the Library is aptly named.
#10 Reason: The General Assembly, in its infinite wisdom, has assigned statutory tasks to the State Law Library. The library is so important that the General Assembly has imposed its hours of operation by statute (subject to revision by the Chief Justice). R.I. Gen. Laws 29-3-2. Municipalities must transmit copies to the State Law Library of all ordinances within 10 days after they’re published, and must also transmit copies of zoning ordinances and local subdivision regulations. R.I. Gen. Laws 45-6-7, 45-23-54, 45-24-45.
#9 Reason: The Library is nimble on its feet. Back in the day, before the advent of digital databases, the Library was one of the principal sources for basic case law research. If an attorney wanted to find a legal principle in a case, or check whether a case was still good law, the Library was one of the best bets and it used to be jammed with attorneys on Saturdays as they rushed to finish briefs. These days, the rise of electronic databases have largely negated the need for hard-copy case research. But the Library has persevered! It has transformed itself into a treasure of secondary sources that are highly useful and cannot be organized or accessed digitally nearly as well as they appear in the Library.
#8 Reason: The Library has many primary sources not available digitally. Looking for the Rhode Island Public Laws and Special Laws (that aren’t codified in the Rhode Island General Laws)? The Library has them all the way back to the beginning (opening up one of those old books is like opening up history)! Need to find an obscure arbitral decision for an alternative dispute resolution proceeding? Heck, until recently, I didn’t even know what a cite like “25 LA 567” meant. Not to worry – the Library has an extensive collection of arbitration decisions, and the knowledgeable library staff can help you find them quicker than Dave Roberts can steal second base.
#7 Reason: The Library has copies of Rhode Island Supreme Court briefs. Sometimes a Rhode Island Supreme Court decision will allude to contractual language in a case without quoting it, or maybe you need to know more about the backstory of a case. There’s no better place to look than the actual briefs that the litigants filed with the Supreme Court. The Library has most of them for the last 100 hundred years (and the older ones are in the Pawtucket records center).
#6 Reason: All the major treatises are at the library. Need Sutherland on Statutory Construction because the Rhode Island Supreme Court cites to it? E.g., O’Connell v. Walmsley, 156 A.3d 422, 427 n.4 (R.I. 2017). What about Williston on Contracts for the same reason? E.g., W. Res. Life Assurance Co. v. Adm Assocs., LLC, 116 A.3d 794, 805 (R.I. 2015). And don’t forget Clark on Receivers, a favorite of Judge Silverstein. E.g., Peck v. Jonathan Michael Builders, Inc., No. KM 06-0236, 2006 R.I. Super. LEXIS 145, at *14 (Super. Ct. Oct. 27, 2006). The Library also has older historical treatises upstairs, which can be useful depending on the topic. Believe it or not, property rules from the horse and buggy days still come in handy. And if you want a deep dive into older law review articles that aren’t otherwise available, the library has access through Hein Online. The Library also recently added a United States Congressional document and agency decision collection to Hein Online.
#5 Reason: Access to Rhode Island and Massachusetts continuing legal education resources. The library has a large hard-copy section devoted to Rhode Island law and continuing legal education resources. The Rhode Island CLE books are a great place to start on the basics of virtually any area of Rhode Island law. You can also search digitally and e-mail the text of many Massachusetts and Rhode Island CLE resources, which often serve as a great jumping-off point for research.
#4 Reason: The new digital scanner! Law books are heavy and tough to carry back to the office, and finding spare change to make copies is operationally challenging. The Library has solved this problem with its new digital scanner — it allows you to make copies for free and e-mail them to yourself.
(photo used with permission)
#3 Reason: The organization of the Library. The first floor stacks are intuitively and logically organized and well-marked. For example, if you have a property issue, not only will you find the treatises in one place, but you’ll also find books on leases, condominiums, and easements. Just perusing the titles in one section can sometimes lead to an idea that wouldn’t have occurred to you, if all you did was digital research. The Library gives you peripheral vision to come at a legal topic from multiple angles, just by perusing the stacks.
#2 Reason: Open access to digital case law databases on Westlaw and Lexis/Advance. Digital research on the major legal databases can be expensive (I get stressed out when asked to pay like $56 to click on a link outside a subscription), and sometimes your subscription doesn’t cover what you need. The Library has several computer terminals on-site that permit open access to Westlaw and Lexis/Advance (in addition to other programs like word processing).
…. and ….
The #1 Reason the Rhode Island State Law Library is Awesome: Its staff! They can’t give you legal advice, but they will help you find what you’re looking for, whether you’re an attorney, member of the press, pro se litigant or member of the public. The staff is extremely knowledgeable and helpful. I once asked a question about researching public laws, and the staff told me I could trace the public laws by topic in a part of the Secretary of State’s website – saving me hours of work! And if you need a book from another library, they’ll track it down with the tenacity of a Boston Marathon runner slogging through 26.2 miles in the freezing rain. Or if you have a question about a specific source, chances are they can answer it quicker than C-3PO can calculate the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field.
Directions and Logistical Details:
The Rhode Island State Law Library is located on the 8th floor of the Licht Judicial Complex at 250 Benefit Street in Providence (just down the street from the Providence Athenaeum — another great library). The State Law Library is free and open to the public six days and week (hours are here).
Under Rhode Island state law, state officials and attorneys can borrow books from the library, but members of the public cannot. R.I. Gen. Laws 29-3-1. You can access the library catalog online here.
Check out the State Law Library out next time you’re in the vicinity. Even if you don’t need to research something, stop by and give the librarians a high five just for being awesome!