Courts libraries or Court library in the United States

In the law world, a Court library is a law library located in a courthouse, maintained for the use of judges, courthouse staff, lawyers and their clients, and members of the public, for example, the library of the US Supreme Court.

Generally, a court library is a large private library housed in a monumental building, similar to the libraries known to have existed in ancient Rome, financed by a wealthy nobleman, aristocratic family, or high-ranking Church dignitary of the Italian Renaissance whose love of books manifested itself in collecting. An expression of the humanist revival of interest in classical culture, court libraries were open for use by outsiders at the discretion of the owner and, according to Konstantinos Staikos (The Great Libraries: From Antiquity to the Renaissance, Oak Knoll/British Library, 2000), some even functioned as lending libraries for educated readers.