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Library Policies

Access Policy

Members of the general public with current photo identification are permitted to use the library collection after signing in with the guard at the entrance to the building.

Accessibility

The facility provides accommodations for those with disabilities that go beyond what is required by law. Switch plates are operational on the main library entrance door as well as on all restroom doors. All study carrels and tables in the library will accommodate wheelchair users. Students who have questions about library accessibility issues or who have special needs should contact libraryweb@law.umaryland.edu.

Cell Phones

Cell phone use is limited to designated cell phone areas in the law library. The designated areas are the Lounges on the 3rd and 4th floors, all Group Study rooms, and the Fayette Street stairwell. A cell phone booth is also located just outside the law library entrance.

Cell phone users should set phones on an inaudible setting while in the library. If you receive a call, please go to one of the designated areas to use your cell phone. Please note that cell phones should not be used in the TAL Center.

Circulation Policy

The Thurgood Marshall Law Library is primarily a research and reference collection of law and law-related materials to be used within the library. Therefore, many categories of legal materials do not circulate, including court reports, statutes, codes and regulations, digests, indexes, encyclopedias, directories, periodical volumes, parts of multi-volume treatises, and looseleaf services. These books must be used in the library and should be reshelved immediately after use to ensure availability to other patrons. Library materials that are available for general circulation, primarily monographic works, circulate via the library’s automated circulation system.

In addition to law library borrowing privileges, law students and faculty are entitled to direct borrowing privileges at 14 Maryland public colleges and universities either by going to the other library or by using the self-service "holds" delivery system available in the Catalog. Books requested via the "holds" system will be delivered to our library. The library also provides an interlibrary loan service for items not found in its collection or in the collections of other University System of Maryland libraries. If you are a University of Maryland School of Law alumni, please refer to our alumni borrowing page for more information.

For more details regarding borrowing from the Thurgood Marshall Law Library or other institutions, please see our Circulation page.

Debit Cards

The library sells debit cards from machines located in the imaging rooms on level 2. The cost of the card, without value for copies, is $1.00, and it is reusable. The debit card dispensers have instructions on how to add value to the card after purchase. Both dispensers will issue a receipt. Please print your name on the card; lost cards are often returned to the User Services Desk on level 2 of the library. The card can be damaged by proximity to magnetic fields and by physical abuse. The library will not take responsibility for any value lost as a result of damage to the card or from loss of the card.

One photocopier on level 2 of the library accepts change and dollar bills, and the cost per image is $.15. A Thurgood Marshall Law Library debit card is needed to copy at the other library photocopiers, the microform reader/printers, and the laser printers. All prints and copies made with a debit card are $.10 per image, except for prints from Blackboard course pages, which are $.05 per image.

Debit cards purchased at the Thurgood Marshall Law Library cannot be used at any other facility, nor may cards purchased elsewhere be used here. Refunds cannot be given for value remaining on debit cards after use. When adding value to the debit card, remember that the full amount of the bill or bills inserted in the dispenser will be added to the debit card.

Food & Beverages

Beverages in spill-proof containers are permitted in the library except in the reading rooms on levels 2 and 3 and in equipment areas. Hot food and food that requires utensils is not permitted. Essentially cold snacks are allowed, but meals must be consumed outside the library. Food and drinks are not allowed in equipment areas, the two computer labs, library stacks, or either of the two reading rooms. If you spill, please clean up your mess. Restrooms on every level have paper towel dispensers.

Please follow these simple rules and do not force us to become food and drink police. Not many libraries allow food or drink of any kind, because the potential for damage to the books and computers is great. Because we want to make your study time as comfortable as possible, we are stretching the rules. We need your cooperation to keep this up.

Group Study Rooms

Study rooms are available for use by law students. Two study rooms on the third floor of the library (Rooms 3321 and 3322) may be used on a first-come-first-served basis. Other third floor study rooms (3320, 3323, 3324 and 3325), plus study room 2214 on the second floor, can be reserved via the Room Reservation System. Room availability should be checked on the Room Reservation System page before sending a request. Reservations that violate or attempt to abuse library policies will be cancelled. A minimum of two names (first and last names) with umaryland e-mail addresses must be given for each reservation request. Three hours is the maximum reservation time per day and per session. Reservations for rooms will be taken only up to one week in advance. All of the study rooms double as media viewing rooms. Library staff may check IDs at any time.

Paging & Messages

The library does not have a paging service, nor does it have a place to post messages.

The open areas of the library have been designated as quiet zones for studying and research. Please conduct all conversations in the lounges

Reshelving

To insure maximum availability of library materials, patrons are expected to reshelve all materials they have used. If you do not know where a book belongs on the shelf, please leave it on a table or on a cart in an Imaging Room.

Smoking

Smoking is not permitted inside any part of the library or law school, including the courtyard and the roof terrace.

Telephones

One public telephone is located just outside the entrance to the law library, and another telephone is located in between the law library and the law school on the first level. Campus telephones are located in the Imaging Rooms on levels 1, 2 and 3.