The Law Library Reading Room recently got a new addition, just in time for Women’s History Month. In search of ideas to add some visual appeal to the Law Library, Legal Reference Librarian Olivia Kane-Cruz suggested that we display children’s books about the six women who have served as justices of the United States Supreme Court.
The Law Library has an extensive collection of Supreme Court biographies, but many patrons may not realize that the collection includes children’s biographies of the justices. The display showcases biographies for children of all ages, from board books to chapter books for young readers.
I asked Olivia to share her inspiration for this display:
When I started at the Law Library about a year ago, I randomly came across the book, Who is Ruth Bader Ginsburg?, sitting in the book return area at the reference desk. It really stood out because it was so colorful and many of the books in our general collection are bound in dark colors; even the Bluebook is bound in a dark maroon. I turned to my colleague in excitement and she told me that many of the books in our juvenile collection are not bound. She also explained that Margaret Wood, a senior reference librarian who worked for nearly 17 years at the Library of Congress, was involved in building this part of the collection. I began to explore the collection and thought about how these colorful books would be great for a reading room display. I had the opportunity to work with my colleague, Sarah Friedman, to create the display and showcase a unique part of the Law Library’s collection.
The book display is composed of select titles from our children’s book collection. Visitors to the reading room are encouraged to look through the books and explore this lesser-known piece of the collection.
The books on display are just a handful of the children’s books in our collection. You can find more children’s books about the United States Supreme Court justices by searching our catalog for the subject headings:
- United States. Supreme Court–Biography–Juvenile literature.
- United States. Supreme Court–Officials and employees–Biography–Juvenile literature.
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