Jordan Library

The Mission of the Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Esq. Law Library is to provide a quality, complete collection of legal materials for the Howard University School of Law faculty and students. Recognizing that the legal system extends beyond the Howard University School of Law community, the Jordan Library also provides access to legal materials for the practicing attorney, as well as people of all races, creeds and colors.

As repositories of knowledge and as places to learn, libraries are central to a university’s mission. In May 2001, the library moved into its state-of-the-art facility. The four-story, 76,000 square foot building provides space for a book collection of up to 215,000 volumes; can seat more than 295 students (more than 70 percent of the student population), including 90 open carrels; enlarged microfilm and audio-visual facilities; three distinctive rooms of wood and brick for special collections, newspaper and periodical reading, and a rare book collection.

The library is organized around the second-floor, triple-height Reading Room, which has wireless access to the Internet and faces the new courtyard and Holy Cross Hall to the south. The tall windows of this 4,000-square-foot space give views onto the landscaped courtyard and celebrate the display of readers and books to the campus. Table and lounge seating for 80 students is provided in this great room, as well as the 2,000-volume reference collection.

The dedication of the Law Library to to Howard School of Law Alumnus is symbolic and fitting.  President Frederick states, “Mr. Jordan is the kind of person who never met a stranger and who enjoyed mentoring students to help them succeed. He often told the story of how he would spend his summers in college working as a chauffeur for Mayor Robert Maddox, who had a vast library at his home. Mr. Jordan would spend his down time reading the books in the library and Maddox would reprimand him. One night at the dinner table, Maddox proclaimed in front of everyone, ‘Vernon can read.’ Mr. Jordan never forgot that backhanded comment and it became a pivotal moment in his vast narrative of triumph over controversy. Therefore, it is most fitting that we name one of Howard’s treasured libraries in his honor.”