Lois C. Davidson Law Library, County Court House
470 Water Street
Peterborough, Ontario
K9H 2N3

GPS location:  Latitude: 44.307874 ; Longitude: -78.317313

Toll Free: 1-866-556-8395
Phone: 705-742-9341
Fax: 705-742-6173
Email: library @ peterboroughlaw .org
Key Contact: Laura Dobbie

Hours: Monday – Friday from 9 am to 4 pm

GPS coordinates:  Latitude: 44.307874 ; Longitude:  -78. 317313

Serves:
Approximately 120 lawyers throughout the Peterborough Area.

 

 

Not open to the public.  Members may sign out textbooks for two weeks. Visting counsel are welcome to use the collection in the library.  The library participates in interlibrary loans with other county and district law libraries.

Online resources: (in library only)

Special Collections:

 

The library has a number of books from the Library of Sir John Beverley Robinson, the first Chief Justice of Ontario. He was the brother of Peter Robinson who arranged for the Irish immigrant settlement of Peterborough and for whom the city is named. In 1899 Christopher Robinson, Q.C. gave the Peterborough Law Association a number of his father's reports and textbooks, including complete sets of early Ontario law reports and statutes of Upper Canada from 1792. The library holds complete sets of bound statutes from that date to the present for both Canada and Ontario. Complete sets of early English reports, including both the Revised Reports and the English Reports, are also available.
To access the library's list of holdings, visit the Law Society of Upper Canada's central database, INFOLOCATE

 

The Peterborough Law Association was incorporated on November 12th, 1897 under the Ontario Library Associations and Mechanics Institutes Act. “The purpose shall be the formation of a law library for the use of its members and the taking cognizance of all matters relating to the welfare of the legal profession in the Town and County of Peterborough.”
 

For four years the association leased the library from one of its members until, as a result of a lawsuit in 1893, the association decided to purchase its own books. The library has always been located in the county court house, an historic building on the top of the hill overlooking Victoria Park in the centre of Peterborough. The court house was built in 1835 of limestone from nearby Jackson Creek, and is a historically designated building.

The collection was nearly lost in 1916 when sparks from the Quaker Oats Company fire set alight the roof of the court house. There are still older books on the shelves which were scorched or water damaged by the fire. After the fire, the library was moved to the ground floor where it remained until 1972. For the last 34 years the library has been located in the upper north end of the court house.

 

In 2000 the association designated the library as the “Lois C. Davidson Law Library” in recognition of the services of the lawyer who had guided the library since 1967. 
 

Computer User Workstations: 6
 

Facility:The library is located on the upper north end of the courthouse. It has a collection of about 2,000 textbooks, housed in a common area shared with two robing rooms, a conference room, computer and research space, and a lounge.  Parking is limited on site and is $4.00 cash only.  Tokens may be purchased at the County of Peterborough offices at opposite end of building. 

 

There are no food services on site, but self-serve coffee and cookies are available.

 

Photocopy and print services are available for .25 / per page.  Please speak to the librarian for more information.

Accessibility:
 

Not wheelchair accessible. A handicapped equipped washroom is located on the second floor. The washroom itself is not accessible, being at the top of a flight of stairs.

 

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