South Texas College of Law

About

The Fred Parks Law Library at South Texas College of Law, located in downtown Houston, provides materials that support the research and curricular needs of the South Texas College of Law community, which includes 55 full-time professors actively engaged in scholarly writing and approximately 1200 students training to become skilled, competent legal practitioners and leaders of the bench and bar.

The Library's physical holdings include more than 500,000 volumes and volume equivalents. Included is a wide selection of sources addressing the many areas of legal study and practice, as well as a substantial collection of interdisciplinary materials.

The Library's growing Special Collections Department houses valuable and rare books, including items dating to the 15th century. The library is also the custodian of the law school archive as well as the archive of Houston Area Law Librarians (HALL) and the Southwestern Association of Law Libraries (SWALL).

The South Texas School of Law opened in 1923. Organized by the Young Men's Christian Association in response to the need for adult education, it was one of twenty such law schools in the country. Houston in the 1920s was experiencing the explosive growth of the oil industry, which created a pressing need for lawyers to handle the business arising from the discovery, production, transportation, refining, and marketing of oil.

The only accredited law schools in Texas at the time were The University of Texas at Austin and Baylor University in Waco. For over 85 years the mission of the school has remained simple: provide accessible legal education, distinguished by its excellence, to a diverse body of students committed to serving their communities and the profession.