National Center for State Courts

 

Improving Justice through Leadership
and Service to the Courts

     

  

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National Center for State Courts Library

The World's Leading Collection of Resources on Judicial Administration

"Knowledge and Information for State Courts"


Library  Staff

Larry Story Joan Cochet
Librarian Library Specialist

The Library is staffed with professionals dedicated to providing knowledge and information resources to its constituents through direct service and online resources.

Contact Us

E-mail: library@ncsc.org

Call:  800-616-6164
(Ask for the Library)

 

Library  Mission

The National Center for State Courts Library supports the operations of the National Center by providing access to information resources, providing services that meet the information needs of its library users and by serving as the primary archival repository for the Center's internal documents and records of historical significance.

Library  Vision

The National Center for State Courts Library will be recognized as the world's leading library in the field of court administration and will serve as the central nationwide repository for the work products of state court systems.

Library  Resources

Library  Services

The Library holds over 36,000 items in various formats: print, video, CD-ROM and microfiche. As part of its print collection, the Library receives – either by subscription or donation – approximately 200 professional journals, court newsletters, annual reports and other periodicals. (For detailed information regarding our collection practices, please see our Collection Development Policy.) Additionally, in pursuit of our mission to assist constituents in finding relevant information regardless of its physical location, we provide access to an increasing number of external electronic resources through our online catalog (for help with our catalog, please see our user guide).  

The Library strives to provide new content to support the mission of the Center and continuously adds new materials to the Library collection. Browse a list of titles recently added to our print holdings (updated monthly). We have also compiled a list of many state court newsletters available online.

As dictated by the Center's Records Management Policy, the Library is the official repository of all official National Center for State Courts publications, reports and studies. 

Records Management Policy

In addition to serving the information needs of the Center's staff, the Library also loans resources and provides photocopy services (please contact the library regarding photocopying fees and postage) directly to members of the court community, such as judges, court administrators, court clerks, and other court personnel. Others are encouraged to request library resources using the interlibrary loan service available through their employer’s library or another library with which they are affiliated. We are also happy to provide basic reference service to court personnel. Please bear in mind, however, that our staff is small and must strictly limit the time spent on reference requests.


Library Collection  Development Policy

The National Center for State Court's Library Collection Development Policy is a tool used to support the Library's mission and goals and to help build a collection that is more responsive to the needs of its users. The policy defines and communicates to the National Center for State Court’s staff and constituents the scope of the library collection and plans for future development of the collection.


Digital  Archive

The Library is committed to providing easy access to the Center’s growing collection of digitized Center publications. Using CONTENTdm digital asset management software, we are adding to a digital archive of research reports and other Center publications. These date back to 1971 and cover all areas of judicial administration.

All online legal research services provided by LexisNexis