Rare Books Donation

The Law Library accepts rare books as gifts and occasionally purchases rare material based on the following criteria.

Criteria for Acquisition: General Materials

Books dated as follows, although these dates are not absolute:

  • Books and scholarly articles on a single topic printed in the United States before 1870.
  • Books and scholarly articles on a single topic printed outside the United States before 1800.
  • Publications done in intervals (such as journals, magazines, and reporters) printed in the United States or elsewhere before 1820.
  • Books of substantial historical interest, regardless of date of printing that cannot be obtained on the open market, either as in-print publications or as reasonably priced and easily available secondhand books.
  • Books that have a unique value or quality by virtue of their physical publication (e. g., limited editions, private printings, etc.), their past ownership or association, or internal notes or annotations of significance.
  • Books with a significant market value.
  • English nominatives that are original editions of English named reports covering cases before 1870.

Criteria for Acquisition: Arkansas Legal Materials

  • Books important to the legal history of Arkansas. This category includes biographies of Arkansas lawyers and jurists.
  • Pre-1950 Arkansas legal treatises.
  • Arkansas state and territorial primary law published 1850 or earlier.
  • ACTS OF ARKANSAS published before 1900.
  • Arkansas legal periodicals.
  • ARK-LAW, the Arkansas Law School yearbooks.
  • Exceptions to these criteria are made for items of significant value.