ARL Law Library Rankings

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published its annual compilation of law library statistics, the ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2003–04. The publication presents compilations and rankings of data that describe collections, expenditures, personnel, and services in 77 (out of 113) law libraries at ARL member institutions throughout North America.  ARL cautions:

The tables presented in this publication are not indicative of performance and outcomes and should not be used as measures of library quality. In comparing any individual library to ARL medians or to other ARL members, one must be careful to make such comparisons within the context of differing institutional and local goals and characteristics.

Here are some of the rankings, which favor large law schools:

Law Library Rank, by Total Volumes
Rank	Law School	Volumes in Law Library
1	Harvard	1,704,219
2	Columbia	846,431
3	Yale	837,996
4	Texas	768,312
5	NYU	768,195
6	Iowa	745,466
7	Minnesota	677,966
8	Boalt	675,731
9	Michigan	671,758
10	Chicago	636,053
11	Rutgers	634,314
12	Virginia	614,225
13	Illinois	605,214
14	Pennsylvania	573,514
15	Northwestern	568,815
16	Ohio State	551,338
17	UCLA	541,299
18	Georgetown	527,262
19	Cornell	510,290
20	Indiana	455,270

Law Library Rank, by Current Serials
Rank	Law School	Serials in Law Library
1	Harvard	15,802
2	LSU	13,791
3	Iowa	12,626
4	Case Western	11,917
5	Virginia	11,378
6	Yale	10,873
7	Minnesota	10,486
8	Michigan	10,086
9	Georgetown	9,920
10	Indiana	9,051
11	Illinois	8,992
12	Chicago	8,855
13	Ohio State	8,629
14	Cincinnati	8,756
15	Pennsylvania	8,494
16	UCLA	8,131
17	Boalt Hall	8,007
18	Texas	7,977
19	SUNY-Buffalo	7,522
20	Rutgers	7,327

Law Library Rank, by Electronic Materials
Rank	Law School	E-Material in Law Library
1	Georgia	376,071
2	Georgetown	375,744
3	Louisville	315,656
4	Northwestern	283,286
5	Alberta	266,717
6	Miami	241,833
7	Yale	236,705
8	Florida	229,531
9	Columbia	227,434
10	Pennsylvania	216,491
11	Chicago	215,135
12	Case Western	212,734
13	Houston	206,097
14	Harvard	204,513
15	Virginia	202,834
16	NYU	189,372
17	Notre Dame	182,589
18	Missouri	181,851
19	Florida State	177,780
20	Washington University	174,612

Law Library Rank, by Total Library Expenditures
Rank	Law School	Law Library Expenditures
1	Harvard	$10,428,517
2	Georgetown	$6,625,212
3	George Washington	$5,814,154
4	Michigan	$5,740,538
5	Boalt Hall	$5,363,952
6	Yale	$5,355,695
7	Columbia	$4,758,358
8	NYU	$4,693,403
9	Iowa	$4,554,804
10	Rutgers	$3,906,996
11	Pennsylvania	$3,682,193
12	UCLA	$3,659,563
13	Minnesota	$3,414,887
14	Miami	$3,367,226
15	Case Western	$3,286,802
16	Texas	$3,240,879
17	Notre Dame	$3,203,869
18	Boston University	$3,050,198
19	Northwestern	$2,965,007
20	Connecticut	$2,907,938