Robert L. Oakley, Director of the Law Library and Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, died on September 29, 2007. Before becoming director at Georgetown, Bob was associate law librarian at Cornell Law School and the director of the law library and associate professor of law at Boston University School of Law. He received his B.A. and law degrees from Cornell and his library science degree from Syracuse University.
Bob was a leader among academic law librarians. He was at once a strong manager and a visionary. All who encountered him benefited from his wisdom and sage advice. With the coming of technology and digital materials, Bob was a strong spokesperson for libraries with respect to copyright and preservation. As an expert on copyright law, he wrote extensively on the subject. He was also a member of the Section 108 Study Group - a select committee convened by the Library of Congress and charged with updating the Copyright Act for the electronic world. He also represented U.S. library interests on copyright at the World Intellectual Property Organization meetings in Geneva. In 2003, Bob's interest in the importance of preservation led him to conceive and then found the Legal Information Preservation Alliance (LIPA). LIPA’s mission is “to provide the leadership, the necessary organizational framework, and the professional commitment necessary to preserve vital paper and electronic legal information [including born digital] by defining objectives, developing and/or adopting appropriate standards and models, creating networks, and fostering financial and political support for long term stability.” The majority of the now nearly 70 LIPA members are academic law libraries.
During his years at Georgetown, Bob lead the building of a strong American, foreign and international collection. His collection development ideas and “future thoughts” for law libraries were admired and listened to by many other law librarians. He also mentored and trained many now sitting law library directors. So, his legacy will live on both with those mentees, his present staff and all whom he has influenced.
Bob served on the AALL Executive Board for two terms (1991 - 1994 and 1999 - 2002); during the second term, he served as President from 2000 - 2001. As the long-term AALL Washington Affairs Representative, Bob was a strong supporter and advocate for academic law libraries. He regularly lobbied for law library interests in the U.S. Congress and worked collaboratively with other library associations to increase access to government information and to stress information policy issues.
Bob had many hobbies. From his days at Cornell, he developed an interest in Balkan folk dancing. He was an avid runner until he injured his knees running the Boston marathon the year his son was born. He also had a love for his CB and bemoaned the arrival of the cell phone, which lead to the demise of the lively CB culture. He was also a ham radio operator (obtaining his license in his early teens) and talked to people all over the world. He loved to travel. But, most of all, Bob was a caring, thoughtful man who found time to touch many lives and will sorely be missed by many colleagues throughout the AALL family.