This tour will take you through the two levels of the Law Library (Plaza Level and Basement Level) and should be taken in conjunction with the attached Law Library map. As you walk through this tour, you will see titled areas on the map that correspond to the topics in this guide. We hope that these will increase your knowledge and understanding of the Law Library’s resources. If at any time you have a question about anything you read or encounter on your tour, please make a note of it and ask for more details at the Reference Desk.
You can print this walking tour or connect your mobile device to our wifi to access the guide (wifi is limited to currently registered students). To print, simply click the print icon above. Printing at the library incurs a charge of $0.13 cents per page. For further information on printing and connecting your mobile device to our wifi, please see the "Online Access and Printing" tab in this guide or contact a reference librarian.
Entrance
The entrance to the university libraries is on the first floor to the left of the information desk in the main lobby of the university. You will need your school ID or membership pass to access the library’s automated gate. If you are not affiliated with the university, you can purchase a membership or a daily pass or you can request access to federal or state depository materials. Restrooms are also on the first level.
Law library materials are on the Plaza and Basement levels.
Golden Gate University Libraries Online Catalog Computer Terminals
There are a number of public access terminals throughout all three levels of the library. From all of them you can gain access to the internet, and to the Golden Gate University Libraries Online Catalog (GOLDPAC). The catalog searches both the Law Library and the University Library collections. You can search the system by title, author, subject, or keyword. Additionally, the online catalog can connect you to our online databases and the index to legal periodical articles. These computers can also connect you to the online catalogs of other libraries. Please ask the reference staff if you need assistance with the online catalog and/or with locating materials within the library.
Reference Desk
On the plaza level is the law reference desk where a reference librarian is available to answer questions on legal research or about finding materials in the library. To the left of the Reference Desk is the reference collection. The collection includes legal dictionaries, encyclopedias, guides to legal abbreviations, along with guides to legal research and statistical sources (e.g., Statistical Abstract of the United States). Additionally, it contains several directories, including directories of lawyers, judges (e.g., The Almanac of the Federal Judiciary) and government officials (e.g., The United State Government Manual).
Open Reserve / Witkin / Newspapers / Current Periodicals
To the left of the reference desk is the area we call “Open Reserve.” This section holds the current and most-used federal and California practice materials including treatises, court rules, forms, and jury instructions. Also shelved here are the sets of Witkin California law encyclopedias. Witkin offers a brief overview of California law with numerous references to cases and statues. Witkin should be used as a starting place for research. The sets are useful for someone who just wants a brief summary as an introduction to a topic. A more thorough discussion can be found in the other primary California law encyclopedia, California Jurisprudence 3rd, which is shelved on the Plaza Level of the library. Most of the collection in the Open Reserve section does not circulate, although a few items may be checked out for 24 hours.
Photocopiers / Printers
Printing and photocopying is available on all three levels of the library. Our photocopiers do not take cash so you will need to obtain a copy/print card from the card dispenser, located near the copy machines. You must start with a $1.00 bill. You can then add additional funds to the card. This card will work at the print stations and photocopy machines in the computer labs. The cost for copying and printing is $0.13 per page.
Group Study Rooms / Computer Lab
Group study rooms are located on the plaza and basement levels, and are available for use by groups of TWO or more. You must check out a key at the Circulation Desk to use a study room. Reservations in advance are not permitted; study rooms are checked out on a first come, first served basis. There is a two-hour time limit for each room, although they can be renewed for another two hours if no one else is waiting.
The computer lab is on the basement level. The computer lab is available for the use of law students only. In addition to several computers, including Macs, the computer lab also has a photocopy machine, public printers, Westlaw and Lexis printers, and a copy/print card dispenser. Again, in order to make photocopies or print, you will need to obtain a copy/print card from the card dispenser. The exception to this is free Lexis printing only.
Study Carrels
On both the plaza and basement levels are many study carrels available for quiet study. The carrels are equipped with power outlets for laptop computers. In addition, while we have a wireless network in the Law Library for laptop internet access, the carrels are also equipped with data ports for internet access. Printing from laptops is not available.
California Legislative Materials / Past Exams
On the plaza level are legislative materials, California chapter statutes, Deering’s and West’s California codes, California Code of Regulations, and building codes.
Orange bound volumes of previous GGU Law School exams are also on the plaza. Exams going 5 years back can also be found online at https://lawlibrary.ggu.libguides.com/law-exams.
Unbound Current Periodicals
Directly across from the law reference desk are the unbound current periodicals. These are the current year journal volumes/issues to which we subscribe in print. They are shelved alphabetically by title. Numerous other journals are available online through our subscription databases. Please ask a reference librarian for assistance.
California Cases, Digests, and Forms / California Jurisprudence 3rd
The remaining shelves hold California case law, in both official and unofficial reporters. The official reporters are California Appellate Reports for appellate cases and California Reports for California Supreme Court cases. There are advance sheets for the reporters at the end of each set. West's California Digest is also on the plaza level. California digests provide subject matter indexing to California cases. The most recent cases reported from this jurisdiction are found in the daily advance sheets: the Daily Opinion Service and the Daily Appellate Report. These updates are newspaper inserts from the local legal newspapers and report all cases decided in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the District Court for the Northern District of California, as well as the California Supreme Court and the California Court of Appeal. One year of the Daily Appellate Report and the Daily Opinion Service are kept with the newspapers on the First Floor. Note that the reports do not report all the decided cases – just the cases that the courts mark for publication.
Here you will also find a collection of form books, both transactional and for pleadings, primarily for California or for general use. (There are federal form manuals in the basement.) Legal form books contain more than fill-in-the-blank forms. The better form books include a detailed discussion of the current law as well as examples of useful contract or pleading language. The California Judicial Council Forms are located here, along with Matthew Bender’s California Forms of Pleading and Practice and Points and Authorities.
Additionally, you will find the California law encyclopedia California Jurisprudence 3rd (Cal. Jur. 3d.) shelved here. Cal. Jur. 3d. provides a thorough discussion of all facets of California law with frequent references to both cases and statutes. Encyclopedias are meant to provide a general overview of the law. They should only be used as tools for starting research and should not be relied on as complete or current statements of the law.
Glass Enclosed Workspaces
At the far end of the Plaza Level and against the wall is a set of glass-enclosed carrels wired for computer use and to contain noise. The glass enclosed carrels are to be used specifically for slightly noisy activities such as typing.
The Basement Level is reached by the elevator, the stairwell next to the elevator, or the two stairwells in the middle of the Plaza Level that connect the Plaza and Basement Levels.
California Archive
The archive holds state government documents, older editions of important California treatises, as well as older editions of jury instructions, some forms books, and practice materials.
Law & Literature Collection
To the immediate left from the elevator and around in the alcove is our Law & Literature collection as well as a small collection of legal fiction. Enjoy!
Karen L. Hawkins Tax Collection
These shelves contain most of our tax resources. This is a collection of federal and state tax statutes, regulations, IRS pronouncements, and cases. In addition to primary sources, there are several finding aids, such as citators, loose-leaf services, and scholarly treatises.
Index to Legal Periodicals / Bound Periodicals
At the very beginning of the aisle, you will see a set of the Index to Legal Periodicals. This will help you find law review articles on a given topic. Past the Index, you will be at the beginning of the bound periodicals. These are shelved in alphabetical order by the periodical’s title. Periodicals, which include law reviews, law journals and bar journals, are good tools to research an unfamiliar area of law. Articles are usually written by legal scholars or law students who analyze specific areas of law. Numerous other periodicals are available online through our subscription databases. Please ask a reference librarian for assistance.
Continuing down the rows:
Non-Law, Comparative Law, Conflict of Laws, English & Canadian Law, and U.S. Treaties
After the periodicals you come to the beginning of the main portion of the stacks, shelved in Library of Congress call-number order. The first section of the stacks includes a small collection of philosophy, psychology, history, and social and political science (including international relations), that were collected to supplement our law collection. That is followed by jurisprudence, comparative law, conflict of laws, English and Canadian legal materials, and U.S. Treaties.
Federal Collection
The next section contains the federal collection. The library carries reporters of federal cases including all three Supreme Court reporters and reporters for federal appellate cases (Federal Reporter 1st -3rd) and district court cases (Federal Supplement). The library also carries federal statutes, both in chronological order in the Statutes at Large, and in subject matter order in the three U.S. Codes: United States Code (USC), published by the Government Printing Office, United States Code Annotated (USCA), and United States Code Service (USCS). Each of the three code publications contains the identical code language. USCA and USCS are commercially published and include historical information about each section and annotations to cases that interpret that section.
This area also contains the Supreme Court and federal digests which provide subject matter indexing to federal cases, in the same way the California digests index California cases. The federal collection also holds the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) which is a subject matter compilation of regulations promulgated by federal agencies.
ALR
American Law Reports, commonly called ALR, publishes selected state cases from around the country. The most valuable thing about ALR is that it includes articles that discuss legal issues and provide important citations to the laws of each state. Unlike law review articles, the publishers of ALR regularly update each article. The ALR is broken up into six sets. ALR 1st through ALR 6th have annotations to state cases, while ALR Fed and Fed 2nd have similar coverage of federal cases. There are unified indexes and finding aids for the whole set. This set is an excellent place to begin researching a topic and is valuable for updating your research.
Legal Encyclopedias and Decennial Digest
Legal encyclopedias are good starting places for legal research. Like the encyclopedias for California law, American Jurisprudence, Corpus Juris Secundum, and other legal encyclopedias have short discussions of various legal issues and concepts. You will also find West’s Decennial Digest in this area. This “mother of all digests” indexes American cases reported from the formation of the country.
Lower Level B2 (LL-B2) Copiers and Microforms
At the far end of the Basement Level and next to the B-4 computer lab is room LL-B2. Two photocopiers are located on the left side of this room as well as a copy/print card dispenser. Again, in order to make photocopies or print, you will need to obtain a copy/print card from the card dispenser. Deeper into the room, you will find the microform reader and the library’s microform collection. Our microform collection includes among other documents, federal legislative history materials, session laws from every state, the federal register, and some international materials. LL-B2 also contains many of our federal depository documents.
Please ask a reference librarian for assistance with microforms. Patrons seeking copies from these materials must page them. The copies will be made by our staff and emailed to you as PDF documents, or printed and held for you to pick up. Printing incurs a charge of $0.13 cents per page.
Treatises
Legal treatises provide detailed and scholarly discussions about specific legal topics. These materials cover a broad range of subjects, are organized by subject matter, and are shelved in Library of Congress call-number order. The online catalog will help you match treatise with call number so you can find what you are looking for on the shelves. See the tab "Using the Catalog" in this guide for further instructions.
U.S. Territories, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Public International Law
The final section of the Basement Level contains more legal treatises, and related books. This section also includes legal materials for American Territories, Asia, Africa, Europe, and public international law.