Garbrecht Law Library is staffed and funded primarily to serve the scholarly needs of the University of Maine School of Law students, faculty, and staff, and to provide a place for the study and research of law.
The Law Library serves attorneys, judges, paralegals, residents of Maine, and the public who wish to conduct legal research or to use Federal Depository Library (FDLP) materials. Visitors not affiliated with Maine Law or the University are welcome to use the Library and many of its resources. However, priority service is given to University students, faculty, and staff.
Visitors are allowed most weekdays. Please make an appointment to visit the Law Library. Details on how to make an appointment, storm related closings, and Library Hours are available on our Law Library Hours page. Access to the Law Library is restricted during weather events, evenings, weekends, holidays, and some semester break periods. Entering or remaining when access is restricted is criminal trespass under 17-A M.R.S. §402.
Become familiar with our CONDUCT EXPECTATIONS before visiting.
Save a trip! Often the fastest way to borrow is to request and pick up circulating Law Library materials at your local library via MaineCat or through your local public library's interlibrary loan service. Use your local public library account number. As an example, here's Portland Public Library's Interlibrary Loan Service.
Street parking is sometimes available near the law school. Most on the street parking is metered. Please read the signs. Public parking garages are also available.
Legal
Maine Law faculty, students, and staff are unable to provide legal advice or do legal research for patrons.
A list of resources for legal services is provided by The State of Maine Judiciary Branch at Legal Aid & Help.
Reference
The Reference Desk is located in the Law Library Reference room on the third floor. Reference librarians are available to answer basic questions and to help you locate materials. Library hours vary. While librarians are prohibited from giving legal advice or interpreting legal materials, other types of assistance are available. Reference librarians may:
What we CANNOT do for you:
If you are unfamiliar with legal research:
Borrowing
Most of our collection does not circulate. For the item that do circulate, Maine residents with government issued photo ID may obtain a library card free of charge. To use Reserve materials in the Library, visitors must have a "clean" library record and history of library behavior.
Loan periods: General Treatises — 4 week loan with one (1) renewal. All other materials must be used in the library.
Interlibrary Loan services are available through your local public library. The Maine legal community may request interlibrary loan for a fee or through paid membership in the Donald L. Garbrecht Law Library Association. In addition, USM Libraries (including Glickman Family Library) offer fee-based interlibrary loan services.
Computers
Maine Law Library currently provides access to two public computers for purposes associated with an academic library, such as research and accessing electronic resources. One terminal has LexisNexis Public Access, which includes statutes and regulations, case law (appellate court decisions), and Shepard's citation service. Public access computers are shared with the Maine Law community.
Use is limited to sixty (60) minutes per day; 30 minutes when others are waiting. Checking email, checking Facebook, surfing the web, etc. are not appropriate uses of the computers.
If you are found using computers for purposes other than legal research or government documents, you may be asked to leave.
Wireless
Visitors with personal laptops may connect to the University of Maine's "MaineEDU-Guest" wireless service to access our databases. (Lexis Nexis Public Access is available exclusively on one public access computer.)
Databases
Databases are online collections of published works. Legal databases at Garbrect Law Library are reliable, credible, authenticated, current information collections that include legal articles and laws. These databases are available to you on-site using our public computer or our Guest wireless:
Printing
Print services are no longer available at Garbrecht Law Library. Visitors must go to USM Glickman Family Library for print access. To retain your research without cost, we suggest that visitors send their research as an email attachment, use Scan to Email on the photocopier.
From outside the Law School building
Search URSUS, our online catalog. Narrow your search to Maine Law Library materials using the dropdown titled "=Search Entire URSUS Catalog=" and choosing "University of Maine School of Law" (UMLAW). Legal materials identified as "LEG" are located at the State Law & Legislative Library in Augusta.
More information for visitors to the Garbrecht Law Library
Free Legal Research
Looking at these sites first may help you formulate your research plan. Free legal research services are available from any computer with internet access and consist of web pages or a combination of web pages and databases: