The Howard University School of Law campus, including the Law Library, is restricted to current HUSL students, faculty, and staff at this time. Excluding holidays and university closures (listed below), and following official D.C. government guidelines, the Law Library will be physically open to the Howard Law community Monday - Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm ET. For current HUSL students that would like to study on campus, please confirm that a seat is available using the new Seats Reservation System. To familiarize yourself with the physical library space, a virtual tour of the library can be found here.
To streamline access and better serve you during this unpredictable and rapidly evolving period, HUSL community members are encouraged to send all questions to our reference@law.howard.edu email. This email will be monitored during regular business hours (Monday - Friday, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm ET) and will allow us to triage questions more efficiently.
Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. ET to 5:00 p.m. ET
CLOSED: Monday, January 18, 2021
CLOSED: Wednesday, January 20, 2021
CLOSED: Monday, February 15, 2021
CLOSED: Monday, May 31, 2021
CLOSED: Monday, July 5, 2021 (Observed)
CLOSED: Monday, September 6, 2021
CLOSED: Thursday, November 11, 2021
CLOSED: Thursday, November 25, 2021
CLOSED: Friday, November 26, 2021
This access information was compiled for Howard Law Students only. Access policies may be different for Howard University students in other schools and for members of the public. Always contact any WRLC library before visiting to check access information and hours.
The events calendar contains information about events across the law school.
To reach out to the Law School's Facilities call 202-806-8224 or fill out this form: Work Request Form.
To reach the Law School's Information Technology department, call 202-806-8013 or e-mail lawschoolhelp@law.howard.edu.
The following guides provide specialized subject, collection, and bar information. Submit suggestions for additional topics to reference@law.howard.edu.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, access to the physical collection is prohibited to all users until further notice. During this time, members of the public who are interested in researching physical items in our Federal depository library collection are encouraged to reach out to us at reference@law.howard.edu. In addition, access to online Government information is available through our catalog, government websites, and several Libguides. Contact information for nearby FDLP libraries can be found in the FDLP Library Directory. We look forward to seeing you in person once it’s safe to do so!
Take the Toll Road to 66 east. Once on 66 east take 495 north/east (towards Baltimore). Once on 495 east, take the Connecticut Avenue exit (Exit 31). Turn right and go south on Connecticut Avenue for about three miles. Turn left on Van Ness Street. Howard University School of Law is at the end of the street.
Take I-95 south to I-495 west. Once on I-495 west, take I-495 to Connecticut Avenue (Exit 31). Turn left and go south on Connecticut Avenue for about 3 miles. Turn left on Van Ness Street. Howard University School of Law is at the end of the street.
Welcome to the Howard University School of Law Library. We provide access to and maintain a collection of information resources that support law school programs, legal research, and the needs of all library users. The Law Library selects, organizes, preserves, and provides access to all of its resources as a way to assist those in their pursuit of justice.
The Law Library has a collection of approximately 225,000 volumes and is open 105 hours per week. Four librarians and four staff members provide excellent service for those who need legal research assistance. Our building is a 76,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility. With wireless access throughout, as well as oak tables equipped with data jacks and electrical outlets, computers for accessing the online catalog on each floor and a 52-seat computer training room, the Law Library is on the cutting edge of technology. Of course, the Law Library also has print resources. On the fourth floor is the Special Collections area, which houses the papers of such civil rights giants as Charles Hamilton Houston, Spottswood Robinson, and Phineas Indritz (a prominent Washington lawyer who helped desegregate the D.C. bar).
So, whether you visit the Law Library in person or via the Internet, we welcome the opportunity to assist you.
Kristina J. Alayan
Director & Assistant Professor of Law
kristina.alayan@law.howard.edu
202.806.8047
The Law Library mission is to excel in service by strengthening our community’s legal, research, and educational goals through innovative programming, practice-oriented instruction, and a collection across traditional and evolving formats.
In line with the Howard University School of Law mission, the Law Library is committed to:
As repositories of knowledge and as places to learn, libraries are central to a university’s mission. In May 2001, Howard University School of Law Library moved into its state-of-the-art facility at 2929 Van Ness Street, N.W., Washington D.C. 20009. The four-story, 76,000 square foot building provides space for a book collection of up to 670,000 volumes; can seat more than 295 students (more than 70 percent of the student population), including 90 open carrels; enlarged microfilm and audio-visual facilities; three distinctive rooms of wood and brick for special collections, newspaper and periodical reading, and a rare book collection.
The library is organized around the second-floor, triple-height Reading Room, which has wireless access to the Internet and faces the new courtyard and Holy Cross Hall to the south. The tall windows of this 4,000-square-foot space give views onto the landscaped courtyard and celebrate the display of readers and books to the campus. Table and lounge seating for 80 students is provided in this great room, which is home to the 2,000-volume reference collection.
The book collection and individual student carrels are distributed equally on the second, third, and fourth floors that open directly to the Reading Room. A wood-paneled lobby on the first floor connects the building entrances from the courtyard to the south and the parking areas to the north, and functionally separates the Law Library from the Smart classroom and student computer lab.
Framing the interior entrance to the library are display cases that inform visitors about the law faculty and the library. The west wing of the library provides a total of five private study rooms and six group study rooms that serve from two-to-eight students each and are on the second and third floors. Crowning the west wing and surrounded by a roof terrace is the Special Collections Rare Book Reading Room.
To get a better sense of the beautiful space that is HUSL Library, view our self-guided tour.
Internship hours are flexible and can be arranged to fit your schedule. You will be a member of the small, dynamic team and will be able to make an enormous contribution to the work we do at HUSL Library.
These are wonderful opportunities to gain specialized academic backend library services experience, public-facing information services experience, or a combination of both, at one of Washington, D.C.’s highly regarded law schools!