The Thurgood Marshall State Law Library is committed to improving public access to its comprehensive collections of legal and government information. Consequently, the Library has embarked on a program to digitize those printed Maryland materials that are both fairly unique to the Library and frequently used by legal researchers.
Our current collections include:
County and Municipal Codes
The Library has an extensive collection of superseded county and municipal codes. This digital collection of Maryland County and Municipal Codes includes select county and local laws/codes from prior to 1978, as well as recent editions of the Baltimore City Code.
Judicial Conference Proceedings
Scanned copies of the Proceedings of the Maryland Judicial Conference, dating from 1947 to 1997, provide historical information on the work of the Judiciary.
Judiciary Administrative Orders
This digitization project includes all scanned copies of Administrative Orders of the Supreme Court of Maryland (formerly the Court of Appeals), since 1955. Traditionally, Administrative Orders have been issued by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Maryland, and less frequently, by the full Court, pursuant to powers vested by Article IV, § 18 of the Maryland Constitution. These Orders cover a broad array of topics including: court administration, conferences and boards, technology, and records and reporting. The site also includes “Local Orders” of Circuit Courts (which most often include inclement weather closings).
Legislative Bill Files
The Library, in cooperation with the Legislative Services Library, provides online access to bill files from the 2003 Session and subsequent sessions as they become available. A few miscellaneous bill files pre-2003 are available in the collection. The bill files contain information collected by the General Assembly's Standing Committees about bills submitted to them for review.
Legislative Council Materials
The Maryland Legislative Council, which existed from 1939 through 1975, studied various problems facing the State during the legislative interims. Reports from the Legislative Council consist of summaries of legislative proposals, minutes from Council meetings, and full-text copies of Council bills. Between 1940 and 1958, the Research Division of the Legislative Council produced 32 studies on topics ranging from almshouses to tax sales.
Rules Committee Materials
Researchers now can search the full-text of more than 60 years of Agendas and Meeting Minutes of the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure to find mention of the adoption of specific rules.
Task Force Reports
These reports are often helpful sources of information used to determine legislative intent.
Transactions of the Maryland State Bar Association
With permission from the Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA), the Library digitized the entire set of Transactions of the Maryland State Bar Association, beginning with transactions from the first annual meeting in 1896, with Volume 1, until the publication of the transactions ceased in 1991, with Volume 96.
Maryland Historic Rules
The Supreme Court of Maryland, the highest court in Maryland, is empowered to adopt rules of judicial administration, practice, and procedure which have the force of law. Though not a complete representation of historic rules, this collection includes rules and procedures issued by the Supreme Court of Maryland between 1896 and 1960, a small collection of local rules from Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, the Second Judicial Circuit, as well as historic Tax Court Rules of Procedure.
The Library welcomes comments on the usability and usefulness of these collections. Please send your comments to [email protected].