By 1980 the library had grown to 400,000 volumes with the Robbins collection itself numbering 125,000 monographs and periodicals. Val Mostecky retired in 1981, and professor Preble Stolz took over as interim acting director, until Robert C. Berring arrived in 1982. In the past 13 years Bob Berring has overseen perhaps the most dramatic changes in the century since the modest beginnings of the Law Library in Bacon Hall. In the last decade computers have revolutionized how legal research is done. Today the Law Library is able to provide materials outside its walls to Boalt Hall's students and faculty through electronic means, and it is likely that in the near future, the distinction between what is in the library and what is outside the library will have little relevance to the legal researcher.
Information is literally at the fingertips of today's law students.
A staff of 33 plus about 50 student assistants undertake the acquisition, cataloging, processing, shelving, circulation and reference activities that enable patrons to locate what they need inside and outside the Law Library. Most library staff perform their jobs using various computerized systems that have been developed since 1980. The Law Library acquisitions department has kept order and serials check-in records online since 1983. In 1987 the Law Library's online catalog Innopac first became available to the public, and the card catalog was closed the following year. Circulation records are maintained electronically now, through a barcoding system.