43 8/Maryland Manual

statutes. The Library's legal periodical holdings
includes 300 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
libraries.

The State and federal government documents
holdings is a vast area of valuable information. The
Library has been a select U.S. Government deposi-
tory for federal agency and congressional publica-
tions for many years, and as a result has collected
and indexed thousands of reference publications in
the area of social sciences, economies, law enforce-
ment, legislative histories, and numerous other
disciplines. The Maryland government documents
collection is probably the most complete retrospec-
tive holdings of State agency documents available.
In addition, all local governments must file copies
of their codes with the State Law Library.

A third distinct subject collection and a heavily-
used resource is the local history and genealogy
collection. This resource, which has been actively
developed over the years, complements much of
the original source records researchers have access
to in the State Archives and Maryland Historical
Society. Included among the holdings are the

Maryland census schedules from 1776 through
1910 with name indexes; a complete and invaluable
original file of the earlier issues of the Maryland
Gazette (1745-1838); a complete run of the
Baltimore Sun (1837 to date); and numerous
county histories, family genealogies, and research
guides.

Additional items of interest are the Library's
holdings of rare books, early Maryland maps and
documents, including the subscription edition of
James Audubon's four-volume elephant folio,
Birds of America. Also on display in the Library
are the classic lithograph prints of each of the
official state birds for thirty-five states and the
American Bald Eagle, commissioned by the Na-
ture Society and painted by Richard Sloane. The
State Law Library was designated as the official
depository for these prints by the Governor in
1970.

Finally, the Library serves as the distributing
agency for the Maryland Reports and the Mary-
land Appellate Reports (Code Courts and Judicial
Proceedings Article, sec. 13-504). The Library also
distributes the Annotated Code of Maryland under
the direction of the Board of Public Works. The
Library publishes a quarterly list entitled Recent
Acquisitions, as well as miscellaneous bibliogra-
phies and a descriptive brochure on the Library.