Law library quality - A significant factor? Forum

[androstan]

This question is probably best answered by graduates/attorneys, but anyone with any relevant experience or knowledge should chime in. Is the extent of a particular law school's law library collection particularly relevant? Is it a significant advantage to be at a LS with more titles, more volumes, etc.?

One of the reasons I ask is because I'm leaning hard toward GW and I noticed that GW has that most titles in its law library. More than Yale, Harvard, UTx, GULC, etc. I was wondering if that might actually be a benefit for me.

GW doesn't, by any stretch, have the most volumes. Which suggests it tends to have fewer copies of a particular title than other places. That could be bad, it could be hard to get what you need.

[Sauer Grapes]

This question is probably best answered by graduates/attorneys, but anyone with any relevant experience or knowledge should chime in. Is the extent of a particular law school's law library collection particularly relevant? Is it a significant advantage to be at a LS with more titles, more volumes, etc.?

One of the reasons I ask is because I'm leaning hard toward GW and I noticed that GW has that most titles in its law library. More than Yale, Harvard, UTx, GULC, etc. I was wondering if that might actually be a benefit for me.

GW doesn't, by any stretch, have the most volumes. Which suggests it tends to have fewer copies of a particular title than other places. That could be bad, it could be hard to get what you need.

You won't care when you are there. It doesn't matter one tiny bit who has the most titles.

[bk1]

Even if it was relevant, how would it ever be close to the relevancy of placement power?

[androstan]

Even if it was relevant, how would it ever be close to the relevancy of placement power?

That's a new question. A question which I answer with "it's not as significant as placement power". However, I may get accepted to BU also, and I think the placement power is similar. It would also just be nice to know if there were some boon to going to GW since I can't get into GULC anyway.

[bk1]

Even if it was relevant, how would it ever be close to the relevancy of placement power?

That's a new question. A question which I answer with "it's not as significant as placement power". However, I may get accepted to BU also, and I think the placement power is similar. It would also just be nice to know if there were some boon to going to GW since I can't get into GULC anyway.

Again, even if it is relevant, it is behind a huge host of factors that I couldn't see it realistically coming in to play because the other things are never equal:

Placement Power, Cost, Location, Atmosphere, etc.

[Voyager]

Law libraries? Worthless. Have no idea why it is included in ranking calculations. Everyone uses Westlaw if needed.

[Kobe_Teeth]

The amount of seats in the library can play a big factor.

[LurkerNoMore]

Not relevant in the slightest. Books are highly over-rated in legal research. Cases and statutes are primary sources, and most of the academic banter goes on in journals. Books are good for background research, theory pieces, and figuring out how a certain area of the law works (treatises -- but a lot of the most recent versions of these are being published online through Westlaw and Lexis).

Also, pretty much every law library uses some sort of interlibrary loan system, which means you can get books that your library doesn't have in a couple of days.

Cooley's seat count makes more sense than a title or volume count. But even then, only if you actually like studying in libraries.