Debora Person is an Associate Law Librarian at George William Hopper Law Library at the University of Wyoming College of Law and a member of the College of Law faculty. At the law school since 1994, she has served as Circulation Manager and Head of Public Services. She is currently the Head of Reference and Public and Technical Services and teaches a Fall semester legal research course to incoming law students. In the course of her employment at Wyoming she has served on many college committees, including Admissions, Academic Policies, and Academic Planning, and she was a member of the university's Budget Committee, Faculty Senate, and Faculty Senate Library Committee, where she served as chair. An active member of AALL, she has had the opportunity to sit on AALL's Research and Publications Committee and is an incoming member of CRIV. She is a past president and current member of WestPac and a long-time member of ALL-SIS where she has participated on several committees.
Debora has published on Wyoming legislative history and early Wyoming legal history. She was a contributing author to the award-winning, Prestatehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide, Including New York City and the District of Columbia, and co-authored articles on Wyoming initiatives and referenda and a CALI legal research lesson. She organized a law-librarian authored column in the Wyoming State Bar Association journal, Wyoming Lawyer, and has contributed to a variety of newsletters and legal research publications for librarians and legal professionals. Most recently she is working on a project in conjunction with the State Department of Corrections and the State Library for correctional facility staff and inmate legal research instruction.
I began my service in libraries long before the term "digital native" came into use, and I envy my colleagues for whom technology is intuitive. For me, technology is something that presents new challenges every day; learning new software, new gadgets, and new applications does not come naturally to me. But I know that I cannot afford the luxury of ignoring new technology. What I value about our profession, therefore, is that I am given the opportunity to work with these technologies, developing and refining my information literacy skills. I have developed web pages, written and published electronic course guides, participated in virtual reference assistance, authored a CALI lesson, presented submission software options to our college faculty, and facilitated their ExpressO and SSRN submissions. I have presented legal research internet instruction to paralegals, librarians, law students, attorneys, and judges. I have investigated social networking software and written about them for the benefit of beginners.
None of this makes me stand out from any other law librarian. Our profession calls on us to do these things. But it is my great good luck to work with professionals who are willing to share their knowledge and push me beyond my comfort area working directly with patrons into the expansive growth areas of technology. I expect technology and the librarian's response to technology will be a main focus of our future, and because academic institutions have responded to the need with strong technology departments, I believe they will lead the way for the profession.
Not all law graduates will go to big cities and large law firms, though. Many will find work in small offices and rural environments. There will always be a need for voices from smaller institutions, and I feel I can represent the merger of modern technology with small institution and rural outreach. I ask for the privilege to learn more about ALL-SIS by serving on the Executive Board, giving me the future opportunity to learn and share with my students and my colleagues.
