Women's History Month at the Harris County Law Library

March is women’s history month and the Harris County Law Library marks this important commemoration with an exhibit celebrating the contributions of Camille Elizabeth Stanford Openshaw. Among her many accomplishments, Ms. Openshaw was the first woman to serve on the Law Library’s oversight board and helped shepherd the institution through the Great Depression. All who benefit from access to legal information at the Law Library today can thank Ms. Openshaw for doing her part to ensure access to the Law Library for all.

To learn more about Ms. Openshaw, please visit the Harris County Law Library’s downtown location, where an exhibit honoring her accomplishments will be on display throughout the month of March. An accompanying digital exhibit can be viewed on the library’s website.

Harris County Law Library: 2018 by the Numbers

Click to download Harris County Law Library: 2018 by the Numbers

Last year was a busy year at the Harris County Law Library. Our patrons visited over 61,000 times and our law librarians answered more than 25,000 questions. That’s over 100 question per day at our reference desk! Click to download our report, Harris County Law Library: 2018 by the Numbers, to check out more stats on how we serve our community everyday.

Happy New Year... and, also, Happy Public Domain Day!

Happy New Year!

We’ve made another successful rotation around the Sun, which means two things for sure:

1. The Law Library is closed today, January 1, 2019, but don’t fret because we’ll be open tomorrow at 8 a.m.; and

2. New laws go into effect in Texas! While most laws from the last Texas legislative session went into effect in September, some have an effective date of today. Check the Effective Dates for Bills page on the Texas Legislative Reference Library’s website for details.

New Hampshire by Robert Frost is one of many works from 1923 entering the public domain on Jan. 1, 2019.

Happy Public Domain Day!

For many years, copyrighted works regularly entered the public domain each New Year’s Day. However, in 1998, Disney successfully lobbied Congress to extend existing copyrights by 20 years. Today marks the first time in two decades new works will be released for copyright-free use. Visit the Duke Law School Center for the Study of the Public Domain website for a listing of books, movies, and music published in 1923 that are now available to all.

1912 Houston Bar Association Bench & Bar Composite

Come see the latest addition to our library walls, an historic photograph composite from 1912 of leading members of Houston’s legal community. Seven of the featured portraits depict founders of the Harris County Law Library. On your next visit here, challenge yourself to spot them all.

Today, Houston is proud to be the most diverse city in the United States, and is defined by its rich and unique blend of cultures, both in our legal community and our population at large. While the 1912 Houston Bench and Bar was noticeably less diverse, the composite itself heralds change and hints and our city’s future as it includes portraits of two women, Hortense Ward and Alice S. Tiernan. Ward was the first woman licensed to practice law in Texas. Tiernan passed the bar shortly thereafter, and became one of the fewer than 1% of women trial attorneys nationwide.

Constitution Day - September 17, 1787

Constitution Day is observed each year on September 17 to commemorate the signing of our Constitution in 1787. On display in the Law Library lobby throughout the month of September is an exhibit featuring foundational documents that shaped the Constitution, including the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, along with examples of broadsides that were crucial to the states’ decisions to ratify our founding document.