438/Maryland Manual

Marvin H. Smith, Associate Judge, Court of Ap-
peals; John C. Eldridge, Associate Judge, Court
of Appeals; Richard P. Gilbert, Chief Judge,
Court of Special Appeals; James H. Norris,
Clerk, Court of Appeals, and Acting State Court
Administrator.

Michael S. Miller, Director, State Law Library

Courts of Appeal Building
361 Rowe Boulevard
Annapolis 21401 Telephone: 269-3395

Hours: Mon.-Wed., Fri., 8:30 A.M.^:30 P.M.;
Thurs., 8:30 A.M.-9:00 P.M.; Sat., 9:00 A.M.^t:00

P.M.

The State Library was originally established by
Chapter 53, Acts of the General Assembly of
1827, and at that time was an agency of the exec-
utive branch. Its primary purpose was to serve
the legal and general reference needs of the legis-
lative and judicial branches of State government.
The Library operated under this organizational
structure until the legislative session of 1978,
when it was placed under the Judicial Depart-
ment and given a new name (Chapter 128, Laws
of 1978). This reorganization formalized a rela-
tionship that the Library had with the Courts
since the establishment of the Library in 1827.

The Library Committee, which acts as the
governing board of the Library, is composed of at
least three members who are appointed by the
Court of Appeals (Code Courts Article, sec.
13-502). This Committee's powers include ap-
pointment of a director of the Library, appropri-
ate rule making, and purchase authorization for
new titles (Code Courts Article, sec. 13-503).

Besides the primary purpose of serving the le-
gal information needs of the State's appellate
courts and other branches of State government,
and also acting as a resource center for circuit
court libraries throughout the State, the Library
is open to the public and encourages the use of a
number of extremely valuable reference resources,
including law, general reference materials. State
and federal government documents, and State
and local history and genealogy. With a total col-
lection well in excess of 160,000 volumes, this Li-
brary facility offers the researcher access to a
unique information resource. The collection,
which is basically composed of reference material,
does not circulate except to State agency person-
nel. Much of the collection, however, is available
on interlibrary loan and photocopy facilities are
available to patrons.

Law-related materials constitute the major por-
tion of the total collection, including reported
court decisions from all appellate jurisdictions

Judicial Units, Boards, and Commissions

across the country in addition to some English
speaking foreign countries. Legislative enact-
ments, both in session law form and as statutory
compilations, are also filed in the Library from
almost every state, as are all federal and some
foreign statutes. The Library's legal periodical
holdings includes 300 current subscriptions from
all the major law schools and many bar groups
and commercial publishers. In addition there is a
strong and growing collection of legal texts and
topical looseleaf reporting services along with the
other legal reference materials found in most law
libraries.

The State and federal government documents
holdings is a vast area of valuable information.
The Library has been a select U.S. Government
depository for federal agency and congressional
publications for many years, and as a result has
collected and indexed thousands of reference pub-
lications in the area of social sciences, economics,
law enforcement, legislative histories, and numer-
ous other disciplines. The Maryland government
documents collection is probably the most com-
plete retrospective holdings of State agency docu-
ments available. In addition, all local govern-
ments must file copies of their codes with the
State Law Library.

A third distinct subject collection and a heavi-
ly-used resource is the local history and genealo-
gy collection. This resource, which has been ac-
tively developed over the years, complements
much of the original source records researchers
have access to in the Maryland Hall of Records
and Maryland Historical Society. Included among
the holdings are the Maryland census schedules
from 1776 through 1910 with name indexes; a
complete and invaluable original file of the earlier
issues of the Maryland Gazette (1745-1838); a
complete run of the Baltimore Sun (1837-date);
and numerous county histories, family genealo-
gies, and research guides.

Additional items of interest are the Library's
holdings of rare books, early Maryland maps and
documents, including the subscription edition of
James Audubon's four-volume elephant folio,
Birds of America. Also on display in the Library
are the classic lithograph prints of each of the of-
ficial state birds for thirty-five states and the
American Bald Eagle, commissioned by the Na-
ture Society and painted by Richard Sloane. The
State Law Library was designated as the official
depository for these prints by the governor in
1970.

Finally, the Library serves as the distributing
agency for the Maryland Reports and the Mary-
land Appellate Reports (Code Courts Article, sec.