Judicial Units, Boards and Commissions
The Court of Appeals created this Commission
in 1975 to supervise and administer the discipline
and the inactive status of attorneys. The Commis-
sion consists of seven attorneys appointed by the
Court of Appeals for four-year terms. The Court
designates the Chairperson. No member may
serve more than one full term. The Court also
created an Inquiry Committee as well as a Re-
view Board to act on disciplinary cases. At the
same time the Court of Appeals established a
Disciplinary Fund, contributions to which are re-
quired of all practicing attorneys.
The staff of the Commission investigates and
prosecutes misconduct of any attorney in Mary-
land. It is also responsible for the investigation of
petitions for reinstatement (Rule 1100, Chap. BV).
MARYLAND STATE LAW LIBRARY
Library Committee
Chairperson: Robert C. Murphy, Chief Judge,
Court of Appeals
Marvin H. Smith, Associate Judge, Court of
Appeals; Charles E. Orth, Jr., Associate Judge,
Court of Appeals; John C. Eldridge, Associate
Judge, Court of Appeals; Richard P. Gilbert,
Chief Judge, Court of Special Appeals; James H.
Norris, Clerk Court of Appeals; William H.
Adkins 11, State Court Administrator.
Michael S. Miller, Director, State Law Library
Courts of Appeal Building
361 Rowe Boulevard
Annapolis 21401 Telephone: 269-3395
Hours: Mon.-Wed., Fri., 8:30 A.M. - 4:30 P.M.;
Thurs., 8:30 A.M. - 9:00 P.M.
The State Library was originally established by
an act of the Legislature, Chapter 53, Acts of As-
sembly 1827, and at that time was an agency un-
der the Executive branch. Its primary purpose
was to serve the legal and general reference needs
of the Legislative and Judicial branches of State
government. The Library operated under this or-
ganizational structure until the Legislative session
of 1978, when it was placed under the Judicial
Department and given a new name (Chapter 128,
Laws of 1978). This reorganization formalized a
relationship that the Library had with the Courts
since the establishment of the Library in 1827.
The Library Committee, which acts as the
governing board of the Library, must be composed

Judiciary/385
of at least three members who are appointed
by the Court of Appeals (Code Courts Article,
sec. 13-502). This Committee's powers include
appointment of a director of the Library, ap-
propriate rule making, and purchase authoriza-
tion for new titles (Code Courts Article, sec.
13-503).
Besides the primary purpose of serving the le-
gal information needs of the State's Appellate
Courts and other branches of State government,
and also acting as a resource center for Circuit
Court libraries throughout the State, the Library
is open to the public and encourages the use of
a number of extremely valuable reference
resources—law, general reference materials. State
and Federal government documents, and State
and local history and genealogy. With a total
collection well in excess of 130,000 volumes, this
Library facility offers the researcher access to a
unique information resource. The collection,
which is basically composed of reference materi-
al, does not circulate except to State Agency
personnel. Much of the collection, however, is
available on interlibrary loan and photocopy fa-
cilities are available to patrons.
Law related material makes up the major
portion of the total collection^ and contains re-
ported court decisions from all appellate
jurisdictions across the country in addition to
some English speaking foreign countries. Legis-
lative enactments, both in session law form and
as statutory compilations, are also filed in the
Library from almost every state and include all
federal and some foreign statutes. The Library's
legal periodical holdings include 260 current
subscriptions from all the major law schools
and many bar. groups and commercial
publishers. In addition there is a strong and
growing collection of legal texts and topical
looseleaf reporting services along with the other
legal reference materials found in most law li-
braries.
The State and Federal government documents
holdings is a vast area of valuable information.
The Library has been a select U.S. Government
depository for federal agency and congressional
publications for many years and as a result has
collected and indexed thousands of reference
publications in the area of social sciences, eco-
nomics, law enforcement, legislative histories, and
numerous other disciplines. The Maryland gov-
ernment documents collection is probably the
most complete retrospective holdings of State
agency documents available. In addition, all local
governments must file copies of their codes with
the State Law Library.