About the Law Library

The Law Library is essentially a research and reference library, offering online access to a wide range of Australian and foreign legal resources.The majority of the library's holdings comprise the statutes and law reports of the Australian Commonwealth and States, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. Collection strengths include significant journal holdings and text collections in comparative, international and environmental law.

The Law Library is located in the Law School (Ligertwood) Building. The Law Library, (also known as the Sir John Salmond Law Library), established with the founding of the Adelaide Law School in 1883, was renamed in 1969 in honour of the third Professor of Law, Sir John William Salmond, 1897-1905.

The Law Library was originally housed, as part of the University Library, on the first floor of the Mitchell Building, and remained in the Mitchell Building after the opening of the Barr Smith Library in 1932. The Library remained with the Department of Law through two successive moves until it reached its present location, on the ground and lower ground floors of the Ligertwood Building, in 1967.

A history of the Law Library was recounted by Gwenda Fischer, first Law Librarian of the University of Adelaide, in "The Law Library at the University of Adelaide, 1959-68" Australian Library Journal (July 1969) pp.213-218. The subsequent development of the collection is briefly described by the second University of Adelaide Law Librarian, Mr. Richard Finlay, in "The Law Library : an introduction to its collection" in University of Adelaide Library News (August 1980).

A brief, downloadable "Guide to the Law Library" is available.

Library Staff