Texas State Law Library:

An Inventory of State Law Library Records at the Texas State Archives, 1961-1962, 1970-2004, bulk 1971-2001

Agency History

The Texas State Law Library was created in 1971 by Senate Bill 528, 62nd Texas Legislature, Regular Session, consolidating the functions, duties, and resources of the libraries of the Supreme Court of Texas, Court of Criminal Appeals, and Attorney General's Office. The law library is a legal reference facility for use by the members and staff of the Texas Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Office of the Attorney General, other state agencies and commissions, and citizens of the state. The library provides and improves access to basic sources of legal information by identifying key resources, increasing distribution, producing finding aids, and assisting library users in developing effective legal reference skills. The library maintains a legal reference collection that includes statutes and case reports from the several states, legal periodicals and journals, and printed and published sources for research in Texas legal history. On-site information services include access to computer-assisted legal research. The library is an official selective depository for U.S. government documents as well as a depository for State Justice Institute documents.

The library provides an Inmate Copy Service, which provides Texas state inmates, whose case records are currently being held by the Court of Criminal Appeals or the 3rd Court of Appeals, with copies of their trial records at a reasonable cost. The board by unanimous vote may transfer library books, papers, or publications to the library of the Law School of the University of Texas at Austin. The State Law Library was removed from sunset review by the 76th Legislature in 1999 (House Bill 2954, Regular Session).

The policy-making body of the library is a board composed of the following ex officio members, or their designated replacements: the attorney general, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, and the presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals. These are nonsalaried positions and members elect the presiding officer.

The library is administered by an executive director, who is appointed by the board. As of January 1996, other professional librarian staff include a reference/information manager, a reference/acquisitions manager, a reference/friends group/volunteers/grants librarian, and a branch librarian. These positions report directly to the executive director. Other staff consist of a fiscal officer, an acquisitions assistant, two library assistants, and an accounting assistant. Directors of the State Law Library have been Frances DeBogory Horton, 1971-1972 (previously the Supreme Court Librarian); Jane Olm, 1972; Marian Boner, 1972-1981; James E. Hambleton, 1981-1987; Kay Schlueter, 1987-2001; and Tony Estrada, since 2002.

Friends of the State Law Library (FOSLL) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization created in 1992 to assist the Law Library in programs to increase services and benefits to clients. FOSLL supports the staff and programs of the Law Library by seeking contributions from beyond the Texas Legislature. Private law firms, attorneys, judges, legislators, and others of the legal community, as well as anyone interested in supporting legal information services, may join the Friends. Activities of the Friends have included sponsorship of Law Day or National Library Week celebrations, staff professional development, and other areas of special concern to the Library such as the current need for preservation of Texas materials in the Library, and a catalog of rare materials in the Library’s collection.

(Sources include the appraisal report prepared by Texas State Archives staff (January 1996); Guide to Texas State Agencies, 11th edition (2001); and the agency's website at http://www.sll.state.tx.us/ (accessed on March 31, 2005).)

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Scope and Contents of the Records

The Texas State Law Library is a legal reference facility for use by the members and staff of the Supreme Court of Texas, the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Office of the Attorney General, other state agencies and commissions, and citizens of the state. Minutes, administrative correspondence, and annual reports to the board document the administration of the State Law Library and its board. Materials date from 1961-1962, 1970-2004, bulk 1971-2001.

Minutes of the meetings of the Texas State Law Library board document the decisions made at board meetings, dating 1971-1994. Activities of the board concerning the operation of the Law Library are usually advisory with the actual administration left to the executive director. Attachments include board orders, letters of resignation and agreement, budget and expense statements, director's progress reports and memos, job postings, and policy statements. A few documents are not associated with specific board meetings, including some letters notifying the State Law Library director of changes in an agency's representative on the board and a few memos to the board detailing the director's actions. Subjects include staff changes, staff salaries and benefits, authorization for staff to handle agency affairs, funding sources and budget issues, adoption of rules, resource and space needs, collection development (including LEXIS and WESTLAW databases), and relations with the Attorney General's Office, Court of Criminal Appeals, Supreme Court of Texas, and University of Texas Law School Library.

The director of the Texas State Law Library provided annual reports to the State Law Library board from 1983 to 1985 summarizing budget, expenses, resources, staff, activities, needs, and statistics.

Administrative correspondence maintained in subject files documents the administration and operation of the Texas State Law Library and its relationship with other state agencies and universities, with corporations, and with the public. Documents in this series include correspondence, memos, lists, inventories, invoices, blueprints, newsletters, strategic plans, retention schedules, contracts, reports, plans, charts and tables, printed material, clippings, surveys, statistical profiles, forms, dating from 1961-1962, 1970-2004, bulk 1973-2001. Subjects are relations with the Attorney General's Office (including inventories of holdings, requests for purchases, and development of policies and procedures), the loan and display of artwork from the collection of Elton M. Hyder, Jr., the transfer of books to the University of Texas at Austin Law School library, presentations on legal resources, information resources, Friends of the State Law Library special events, records management, and interaction with state agencies providing services to or requiring information from the State Law Library.

To prepare this inventory, the Board meeting minutes and Annual reports to the board were placed in acid-free folders while the Administrative correspondence series was cursorily reviewed to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

Because of the possibility that portions of the Administrative correspondence series fall under Public Information Act exceptions, an archivist must review these records before they can be accessed for research. The records may be requested for research under the provisions of the Public Information Act (V.T.C.A., Government Code, Chapter 552). The researcher may request an interview with an archivist or submit a request by mail, fax, or email including enough description and detail about the information requested to enable the archivist to accurately identify and locate the information requested. If our review reveals information that may be excepted by the Public Information Act, we are obligated to seek an open records decision from the Attorney General on whether the records can be released. The Public Information Act allows the Archives ten working days after receiving a request to make this determination. The Attorney General has 45 working days to render a decision. Alternately, the Archives can inform you of the nature of the potentially excepted information and if you agree, that information can be redacted or removed and you can access the remainder of the records.

Restrictions on Use

Most records created by Texas state agencies are not copyrighted and may be freely used in any way. State records also include materials received by, not created by, state agencies. Copyright remains with the creator. The researcher is responsible for complying with U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.).

Technical Requirements

None.

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Related Material

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

(Identify the item and cite the series), Texas State Law Library records. Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

Accession Information

Accession numbers: 1997/116, 2004/048, 2005/091, 2006/247, 2006/257

These records were transferred to the Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission by the Texas State Law Library on May 12, 1997; November 5, 2003; January 28, 2005; and March 1, 2006; and by the Legislative Reference Library on January 26, 2006.

Processing Information

Tonia J. Wood, March 2005, March 2006

Appraisal Information

Texas State Archives staff completed an appraisal of State Law Library records in January 1996. Five series on the agency's retention schedule were determined to be archival: Biennial Budget Requests, Meeting Minutes - Board, Organization Charts, Correspondence - Administration, and Policies and Procedures Manual. Annual reports (non-fiscal), a defunct series, were located by SLL staff after the appraisal was completed.

The archival requirement for the biennial budget requests and organization charts series is fulfilled by sending copies of the biennial budget requests (which contain organization charts) to the Publications Depository Program of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. The Texas Documents Collection holds requests dated 1974-2005 received via the Publications Depository Program.

Location of Originals

Originals of State Law Library board meeting minutes are located at the State Law Library.

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Detailed Description of the Records

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