Let’s hope it can get to 200 years!
Today’s guest post is by the Law Librarian of Congress, Aslihan Bulut. Aslihan has previously authored the following posts for In Custodia Legis: A New Year’s Greeting from the Law Librarian of Congress, and
A Holiday Greeting from the Law Librarian of Congress (2022), (2023), (2024), and A Holiday Greeting from the Law Librarian of Congress (2025).
Each year on July 14, we celebrate the anniversary of the Law Library of Congress’s establishment. On this day in 1832, Congress approved legislation creating a separate law library to support its legislative work, laying the foundation for what would become the world’s largest law library. The statute remains in force and is codified in the United States Code at 2 U.S.C. §§ 132, 134, 135, and 137.
Nearly two centuries later, the Law Library continues to fulfill that mission while serving a broad community that includes Congress, the federal judiciary, legal professionals, researchers, and members of the public, by preserving and providing access to legal knowledge from the United States and around the globe. Although the Library has grown dramatically since its founding, its purpose remains remarkably consistent: to collect, preserve, and provide access to legal information.
What began as a modest collection has grown into an extraordinary resource comprising millions of legal materials representing jurisdictions from nearly every country. The collection includes constitutions, statutes, judicial decisions, legal treatises, historical documents, and rare legal texts spanning centuries. Together, these resources document the development of legal systems and the rule of law across cultures and time and support research into everything from ancient legal traditions to today’s emerging legal questions.
Behind these collections is the work of the Law Library’s law librarians and legal reference specialists, attorneys, foreign law specialists, digital collections specialists, outreach specialists, and many other staff members whose expertise makes the collections discoverable and usable. Their work ensures that the Law Library continues to meet the evolving needs of its users while preserving the legal record for future generations.
The anniversary is also an opportunity to reflect on how access to legal information has changed. Researchers who once needed to travel to Washington, D.C. to consult many of the Library’s resources can now explore growing digital collections, online research guides, recorded presentations and webinars, and reports and publications from wherever they are. Expanding digital access remains an important part of the Law Library’s ongoing commitment to connecting people with reliable legal information.
Birthdays naturally invite reflection, but they also encourage us to look ahead. As the Law Library approaches its bicentennial, it continues to build collections, embrace new technologies, strengthen partnerships, and expand access to legal knowledge in support of Congress and the public.
On this anniversary, we celebrate not only the founding of the Law Library of Congress on July 14, 1832, but also the people whose dedication has sustained its mission for nearly two centuries. We invite you to visit us in person or virtually, to explore the Law Library’s collections, publications, research guides, and educational programs, and to join us in celebrating another year of preserving and sharing the world’s legal heritage.
Happy birthday, Law Library of Congress!
Aslihan Bulut
Law Librarian of Congress
https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2026/07/happy-194th-birthday-law-library-of-congress/
