Montague Law Library: A Brief History

Located in the Lewis Katz Building, the H. Laddie Montague, Jr. Law Library provides a state-of-the-art research facility for the students, faculty, and staff of Penn State Law and the Penn State School of International Affairs.

Upon launching operations at the University Park campus in 2006, the law school and the law library occupied space in the Beam Building, a former student housing facility and once the temporary home of the Smeal College of Business, until construction on a new law building could be completed.  The Lewis Katz Building opened in 2009 and the Montague Law Library’s collections, study facilities, and business operations now span large portions of three of the building’s four floors.  Among the primary features of the University Park law library are a digital teaching center, ample group study rooms, numerous study carrels and table seats, and a picturesque, quiet reading room overlooking Beaver Stadium and Mount Nittany. 

The law library’s collection of print and electronic resources provides valuable state, federal, and international law and law-related research sources and those collections are regularly evaluated and updated to ensure that researchers will always have access to legal research resources and technologies most relevant to the legal professional today and in the future. Additionally, as part of the Penn State University Libraries organization, the law library is able to provide researchers with access to exceptional interdisciplinary collections and subject specialists offered by Penn State’s main library and its campus libraries located throughout Pennsylvania.