TS-SIS Long-Time Member Profile:
Rhonda K. Lawrence
Current Position
Head of Cataloging & Bindery
Hugh & Hazel Darling Law Library
UCLA School of Law
Los Angeles, California
lawrence@law.ucla.edu
On this page:
Place And Date Of Birth
Des Moines, Iowa. Baby boomer generation.
Educational Background
- University of California, Los Angeles. Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Master's of Library Science, June 1980
- Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. College of Science and Humanities, B.A. in English, November 1973. Honors Program Graduate, Dean's Honor Roll, graduated with honors.
Interests/Hobbies
Playing Mah Jonng, discussing the madness of the Republican administration, singing in a choir, reading a really good mystery, watching movies, traveling, gardening.
Inspiration For Becoming A Law Librarian
I had been employed part-time at the UCLA government documents library while enrolled in library school, and really enjoyed the legal research. After graduating I worked as a government documents librarian and performed both reference and technical services work with legal materials. I decided to hone my skills by taking courses in legal research and law librarianship at UCLA from Frank Houdek. An enthusiastic and excellent teacher, Frank helped me get a job as a law cataloger at the LA County Law Library. I regard him as my first mentor. I was also inspired and exasperated by Peter Enyingi, the Head of Technical Services at LA County Law. A temperamental Hungarian, he would erupt into fits of anger without any provocation, relishing a good argument the way some feast on a fine meal. But he and Melody Lembke taught me a lot about law cataloging.
Current Position Challenges
Keeping up-to-date with change — changes in cataloging codes, trends in providing access to electronic resources, changes in software. Change, change, change!
Prior Positions/Employment
- 2001–date: Head of Cataloging & Bindery, University of California, Los Angeles Hugh & Hazel Darling Law Library
- 1994–2001: Head of Cataloging, Hugh & Hazel Darling Law Library, University of California, Los Angeles
- 1989–1993: Bibliographic Access Librarian, Hugh & Hazel Darling Law Library, University of California, Los Angeles
- 1986–1989: Law Librarian III, Senior Cataloger, Los Angeles County Law Library, Los Angeles, California
- 1982–1986: Law Librarian II, Catalog Librarian, Los Angeles County Law Library, Los Angeles, California
- 1980–1981: Government Publications and Reference Librarian, Norwalk Library, Los Angeles County Public Libraries, Norwalk, California
- 1979–1980: Library assistant III, Data editor; Title IIC Serials Data Conversion Project, University Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles
- 1979: Teaching Assistant, Library Science Course 110, Information Resources and Libraries, University of California, Los Angeles
- 1978–1979: Student reference librarian, Public Affairs Service, University Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles
- 1977–1978: Assistant manager and art instructor, Arts and and Crafts Trading Company, San Francisco, California
- 1974-1977: English instructor; Bearden Junior High School and Austin-East High School, Knoxville, Tennessee
- 1973-1974: Library Research Assistant, McClung Historical Collection, Knoxville-Knox County Public Library, Knoxville, Tennessee
'Crazy' Non-Professional Activity
Going to Australia for six weeks with my first husband just as we were divorcing was like visiting one of Dante’s lower circles of hell! Insane!
Life's Passion
Mmmmmm. Shopping? Eating chocolate? Redecorating?
Earliest Childhood Memory
Looking critically at the dark green floral wallpaper as I stood in my crib (I was barely two according to my parents). Even at that age I wanted to redecorate my parent's house.
Where In Five Years?
Still living in Los Angeles ... fleeing from more migrations to new online systems ... fighting off the implementation of insane new cataloging codes ... trying to prevent LC from abandoning its bibliographic integrity ... taking care of a husband with Parkinson's Disease ... looking forward to retirement!!
Memberships
- American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), 1982-
- Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section (ALL), 1989-
- Online Bibliographic Services Special Interest Section (OB-SIS), 1983-
- Technical Services Special Interest Section (TS-SIS), 1983-
- American Library Association, 1979-
- Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS), 1982-
- Cataloging and Classification Section, 1989-
- Serials Section, 2001-
- California Academic & Research Libraries Association (CARL), 1989-
- Academic Reference Librarians Discussion Interest Group South, 2001-
- Southern Technical Services Interest Group, 2003-
- Library Information and Technology Association (LITA), 1997-
- Northern California Association of Law Libraries (NOCALL), 1997-
- Southern California Association of Law Libraries (SCALL), 1982-
- Southern California Technical Processing Group (SCTPG), 1985-
Awards
- Renee B. Chapman AALL Technical Services SIS Service Award, presented at the AALL Annual meeting in Seattle, Washington, July 2003.
- UCLA School of Law Team Incentive Award for work on the Law Library Online Circulation project (barcoding), awarded December, 2003
- "The Year's Best Professional Literature [for 1997]," Library Journal, June 15th, 1997, for Cataloging Legal Literature: a Manual on AACR2 and Library of Congress Subject Headings for Legal Materials. 3rd ed. By Melody Busse Lembke and Rhonda K. Lawrence. Littleton, CO: Fred B. Rothman for the American Association of Law Libraries, 1997. (AALL Publications Series, no. 22) ca. 500 pages
- William B. Rohan Chapter Service Award, given by the Southern California Association of Law Libraries to members of the Union List Committee for their work in compiling the first edition of the Union List, 1983
- Commencement speaker, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of California, Los Angeles, June 1980
- Lawrence Clark Powell Scholarship, UCLA Graduate School of Library and Information Science, 1979