Harold and Carol Ann Nix Academic and Advocacy Center
Sheridan and John Eddie Williams Legal Research and Technology Center
Sheridan & John Eddie Williams
Legal Research & Technology Center
Each of the three levels of the
west wing is occupied by the library. The circulation, reserve,
reference, and technical service functions, as well as the offices of
the library faculty and personnel, are on the first level. The
library is significantly larger than the library was at Morrison
Constitution Hall, but more importantly, it has been designed with the
objective of creating the first true technology-based library and not
the last
"old
style"
library. While the hard copy collection will continue to be refined and
enhanced, it is clear that the profession and our Law School community
will continue to become increasingly reliant on technology-based
information that is now available throughout the entire law center.
Aside from the first level reserve area, the hard copy collection of the library is held principally in stack areas on the second and third levels of the library, as well as in the reading rooms found on all three levels of the library. Study carrels and tables are located on the perimeter of the stack areas and in the reading rooms. Federal depository materials are held in a stack area on the third level of the Jaworski Center, accessible from a third level reading room or from the third level faculty suite in the east wing of the law center.
On each level of the library, all
spaces that face upon the river are dedicated to reading room spaces. The
library has been painstakingly designed to give users inviting vistas to
the outside environment from wherever they may work. The library totally
avoids the cramped, enclosed, and windowless spaces and study areas that
are too often seen in old style libraries.
The most prominent architectural feature of the riverside elevation of the law center is a three-story semicircular north-facing bay with a first floor reading room and a majestically tiered, atrium-styled second and third story main reading room. Each of the large reading rooms is flanked on either side (up river and down river) by smaller reading rooms. On the third floor, three reading areas open down into the second floor main reading room. The tiered reading room, just as in the case of each of the smaller reading rooms, will give the students and faculty members exceptionally spacious and open study areas with remarkable views down the river by reason of the expansive window exposures and the riverside elevation of the law center.