The Temple University Beasley School of Law Library has a long history as a research library and as a service-oriented facility to the Law School. It survived a fire in 1972 at which time students, staff and other members of the Temple community passed books out of the burning building until it became too dangerous and they were ordered to stop. They managed to save a large number of rare and valuable volumes, but more than 150,000 books were destroyed. The library has since that time restored and enriched its collection.

The collection is particularly strong in 18th and 19th century Anglo-American monographs. The addition of the Rawle Collection gives Temple Law Library a special character. The library also has a unique collection of African materials.

Part of the collection is in closed stacks behind the Information Desk and must be accessed through Information Desk personnel. In the closed stacks are reference materials, the reserve collection, copies of past exams, most of the monographs, rare books, unbound periodicals. The collection is, for the most part, classified in the Library of Congress Classification and monographs must be requested by call number.