Borrowing Privileges

Borrowing privileges extend to three types of patrons:

  • The Judiciary and court staff.
  • Members of the Erie County or the New York State Bar Associations in possession of a valid library card issued by the Supreme Court Library/Buffalo.
  • Employees of a law firm (including summer associates) who present a bar-coded library card issued in the firm's name. The law firm must understand that it is ultimately responsible for fines incurred on late returns and/or replacement of lost materials.

Borrowing privileges for the latter two groups will be suspended when accrued fines total $10.

All others have access to the library, its materials, equipment, and services but have no borrowing privileges. Such access is limited to regularly scheduled hours for all patrons.

Borrowing period:

  • Textbooks, treatises, and case reporters - 1 week with a maximum of 2 renewals

Non-circulating materials:

  • American Law Reports (ALR) indexes, later case and blue book
  • American Jurisprudence 2d (AmJur 2d)
  • City, town, and village ordinances
  • Dictionaries
  • Digests (New York, Abbotts, Federal Practice, etc.)
  • Directories
  • Legislative Annual
  • McKinney’s Session Laws
  • New York State agency reports:
    • Attorney General
    • Comptroller
    • Education Department
    • Freedom of Information Law/Open Meetings Law
    • Legislative Manual
    • Public Employee Relations Board (PERB)
    • Public Service Commission (PSC)
    • State Board of Equalization & Assessment (SBEA)
    • State Department
    • Tax Service Bulletin (TSB)
  • New York Codes, Rules, and Regulations (NYCRR)
  • New York Jurisprudence (NY Jur), 1st and 2d series
  • Ordinances (city, town and village)
  • United States Code Annotated (USCA)
  • Some Multi-volume loose-leaf/compression binder sets (includes spiral-bound volumes)
  • Reference books (Ref KF, Ref KFN)

In special circumstances - - e.g., a patron needs to copy 50 or more pages - - the principal law librarian or the senior law librarian may authorize a one-day loan. The volume must, however, be returned before 5 p.m. on the same day it is taken. This courtesy will be extended only to patrons with regular borrowing privileges.

The first working day after the due date is a grace day for which no fine is charged. The fine thereafter for overdue materials is $1 per item per working day. Please be prepared to pay the fine when you return overdue materials. We reserve the right to suspend borrowing privileges and access to the collection until all fines are paid.