Facts about the D'Angelo Law Library
The D'Angelo Law Library Tower
The University of Chicago Law School, founded in 1902, focuses on rigorous professional education and groundbreaking interdisciplinary scholarship. These values are reflected in the Laird Bell Quadrangle, a group of buildings of architectural distinction designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen in the late 1950's. The D'Angelo Law Library tower is the centerpiece of the Law School, built to support that focus in its spaces, collections and services.
- The Library tower was dedicated in 1960.
- Bookstacks are placed in the interior, surrounded by faculty offices overlooking the Levin Reflecting Pool.
- A 1987 renovation enlarged the building 45 feet to the south, converting the original rectangle into a square while preserving the original design.
- In 1987, the library was named the D'Angelo Law Library to honor Dino D'Angelo, Law School alumnus, real estate developer and philanthropist.
- In 2008, a second renovation added improved study spaces and consolidated services to students in the Library.
D'Angelo is part of the University of Chicago Library, providing Law School users with ready access to the University of Chicago's wealth of information resources in all subject areas.
D'Angelo's spaces
- 67,000 square feet of library space
- 18 miles of bookstacks, surrounded by faculty offices
- 7 conference rooms for collaborative work
- 200 study tables and carrels with nearly 500 seats for study
- The Fulton Room is a consultation space on the west end of the third floor that was created with funds donated by Maurice and Muriel Fulton.
D'Angelo's people
- 11 professional librarians, 7 with J.D. degrees as well as library science master's degrees
- 11 additional managers and staff members
D'Angelo's services
- 90 instructional sessions each year, including teaching legal research in the first year research and writing course
- 2 sections of Advanced Legal Research
- Guest lectures in doctrinal classes
- Individual research consultations
- 60 legal research web guides
- 175,000 website visits per year
D'Angelo's collections
- Over 700,000 volumes, with approximately 6,000 added each year, including materials in over 25 languages, and primary law from countries across the world and international organizations
- Over six million volumes in other University of Chicago libraries
- Over 700 licensed databases
- Access to print and digital collections of major research libraries across the country through consortia including the Ivy Plus Libraries, the Big Ten Academic Alliance, and HathiTrust
- Collaborative collection-building and resource sharing expanding research to resources held anywhere in the world
- Rare Book Rooms with more than 2600 volumes, most published from the 16th to 19th centuries; with strengths in English legal treatises, law reports, trials, Illinois territorial and early state materials, Roman law, international law, and canon law
Chicago Unbound, D'Angelo's digital scholarship repository
- Established January 2014
- Over 19,000 citations
- Approximately 100,000 downloads per month
- Scholarship of all Law faculty (current and historical)
- Full-text of the Law School’s student-edited journals and citations for the faculty-edited journals
- Current and historical Law School publications, including the Law School Record and the Announcements