A Place of One’s Own: How Law Libraries Support Democracy by Protecting Citizens’ Right to Read. Amy A. Emerson. LAW LIBRARY JOURNAL Vol. 113:4 [2021-14 – This is a PDF edition – please scroll down the document to locate this article.] “By offering places for private reading and contemplation, law libraries foster well-informed citizens capable of independent thought. This process, in turn, provides a foundation for understanding the law, questioning the law, and ultimately challenging the legal status quo, all necessary elements of a well-functioning democracy…”

Knowledge institutions comprise a multitude of organizations that collectively support and protect the foundations of our democracy by providing educational access and factually accurate and objective information necessary to create an informed citizenry. They include private and public institutions that together form a “knowledge ecosystem.” Here, individuals have the opportunity to evaluate, question, parse, and, when needed, resist manipulation to participate in governance, from engaging with the policy positions of their elected officials to enforcing the rule of law.Law libraries, through the spaces they provide for conducting research and engaging in contemplation with our country’s laws and the commentaries written about those laws, are uniquely positioned within the infrastructure of knowledge institutions to contribute significant support to our democratic foundations..”