I’d
like to personally welcome the new 1L and LL.M. students to the
Alexander Campbell King Law Library. And, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say
WELCOME BACK to the returning 2Ls and 3Ls. I hope everyone had a good
summer break and that you weren’t subjected to too much intense summer
heat. Rest assured, before you know it, there will be a nip in the
air and football season will be underway.
Although I am newly appointed as the Law Library Director, I am not new
to the University of Georgia School of Law. In fact, in 1984 (was
it really that long ago?) I was a new 1L myself. While the music and
fashions have changed, I still remember the overwhelming amount of new
information that you have to absorb and that nervous feeling in the pit
of my stomach. You might find it hard to believe right now, but in a
few weeks, you’ll be well-settled and will feel like an old pro
at the law school. I’m sure the 2Ls and 3Ls will agree with me.
Whether you are a new 1L/LL.M. or a returning 2L/3L, I hope you will
make the law library the heart of your intellectual life during the
upcoming academic year. All of us here in the library look forward to
seeing familiar faces and making new friends. Whether you’re visiting
us digitally or in person, you know you are always welcome here.
The Torch Passes Ann Puckett, Professor Emeritus
After
16 rewarding and eventful years as director of the University of
Georgia Alexander Campbell King Law Library, I retired July 1, 2010.
Though I looked forward eagerly to retirement, I confess I had some
fears that my unknown successor might want to reverse some of the
progressive policies that were implemented during my tenure. Happily,
my fears were unfounded.
Carol Watson, formerly Associate Director for Information Technology,
was selected to be the new Director of the Law Library after an
exhaustive national search. She is perfectly suited to the task. Carol
earned her JD from UGA in 1987 and her MLS from Clark-Atlanta
University in 1990. She practiced law as a defense attorney for Legal
Aid for a short time before deciding to come to work at the Alexander
Campbell King Law Library.
From early on, Carol was a leader in developing technology in both the
law library and the law school. When David Shipley was hired as dean,
he put Information Technology (IT) under the law library’s
administration. Carol was the obvious choice to head that effort. She
faced quite a challenge, because the law school, while it was
outstanding in many ways, was behind the curve technologically. Up to
that point, there was only one law school employee devoted to
technology, there was no budget for computer equipment, some faculty
members did not even have a computer, nearly all faculty members were
still using a DOS operating system, and the various administrative
offices used antiquated and incompatible business enterprise systems.
Today, Computing Services (CS) has five full time employees, not
counting Carol, a host of part time student assistants, and a budget
all its own. Equipment is replaced on a regular schedule,
administrative offices use a sophisticated relational database for
their enterprise system, and CS staff are readily available for
training and trouble shooting. Thanks in major part to Carol
Watson, with a big nod to James Donovan as well, the UGA law school has
implemented UGA Law's Digital Commons one of the first and most comprehensive institutional repositories
in the country. Law schools like Yale and Duke contact UGA for advice
in setting up their own repositories. Carol and James authored
the White Paper that has become the standard go-to source for other law schools preparing to implement institutional repositories.
On the personal side, Carol is married to college sweetheart Mike
Blake. She has one daughter, Mica, who is entering the Parsons School
of Design in the fall of 2010. Carol is also, belatedly, a dog lover,
having added a small gray poodle named Louis to her family just a
couple of years ago.
Carol is respected and admired by her colleagues on the law library
staff, the faculty, and the law school staff. Please make a point to
welcome her in her new role as Director of this venerable law library.
I couldn’t have left it in better hands.
Remembering Gabriel Wilner Anne Burnett, Foreign and International Law Librarian
While
others have already memorialized Associate Dean and Professor Gabriel
Wilner, who passed away in May, we express gratitude specifically
for the impact that Dean Wilner had in the Law Library.
Dean Wilner worked with us every year to ensure that the LL.M. students
in the Graduate Legal Studies program became familiar and
comfortable with the Law Library and its resources. His dedication to
improving both J.D. and LL.M. student research skills is
evidenced by the course he established in International Legal Research
and which I have co-taught with him since 1999. Our students and the
library have both benefited from his
recognition of the importance of developing efficient legal research skills.
In the mid 1980s, Dean Wilner initiated the process to designate the
UGA Law Library as a depository for European Union documents. We
are one of only 11 U.S. law libraries with EU depository status, and
this distinction has supported the research of our patrons and
influenced the development of our collection over the past two decades.
He will be greatly missed by the Law Library, but his influence continues to be felt here.
For more about Dean Wilner, see his obituary in the university's Columns newsletter.
A Library with a View Blog
The Law Library launched its new blog this summer. It's called A Library With a View,
which is a word play on the great view from our reading room and the
blog's use by the librarians to present views and information on many
different topics. The blog features prominently the iconic award
winning photograph taken by retired Professor Robert Brussack in the
Reading Room.
The blog, in addition to this newsletter, is another way for us to
convey information about our services, databases, and important legal
topics. Please add it to your RSS feed (if you don't know what an RSS
feed is, just ask a librarian)!
Meet Our Research Fellows and Research Associates
The
Law Library is pleased to welcome the following recent UGA Law
graduates as our 2010 Research Fellows. We are fortunate to have this
able crew assisting us and the Law Faculty with numerous projects:
Chase-Julian Cheatham
Daniela Costan
Arkesia Jenkins
Lauren Peel
Stanton Porter
Drew Register
We are also fortunate to have on board a great group Research Assistants:
Micah Engler, 2L
Rachel Hudgins, 2L
Ashland Johnson, 3L
Nate Viebrock, 3L
Law Dawg of the Month
Back by popular demand! The
Law Library continues to seek your submissions for Law Dawg of the Month
(and remember, we define "dawg" loosely - photos of cats, birds, horses, rabbits, and more are welcome).
If you would like for your furry (or feathered or scaled) companion
to be entered in our random drawing each month, send a digital photo to
aburnett@uga.edu.
Duke is our Law Dawg for August. He claims Research Fellow and 2010 graduate Stanton Porter as his person.
Crossword Puzzle created by Stanton Porter, Research Fellow
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or later, Netscape 7, Mozilla, Firefox, or Safari. If you have disabled web page scripting, please re-enable it and refresh
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