Instead of highlighting a database this month in our Resource Spotlight, we thought that the beginning of the new school year was a great time to re-introduce our talented group of librarians. From library administration to cataloging to research support, our librarians provide a wide range of services to the Northwestern Law community, often behind the scenes. This month we would like to feature our librarians as our in-house resource.
George Pike is the Director of the Pritzker Legal Research Center and a Senior Lecturer at the Northwestern University School of Law. He teaches legal research and intellectual property at the School of Law in both the J.D. and Northwestern’s innovative Master of Science in Law program. Previously, Prof. Pike was Director of the Law Library at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and held professional positions at the Lewis and Clark Law School and at the University of Idaho School of Law, and was a practicing attorney in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Eric Parker is the Associate Director for Collection and Bibliographic Services. He has been with Northwestern since 2003. Eric received his B.A. from Cornell University, his M.A. in English Literature from University of Chicago and his M.L.I.S. from University of Illinois.
Jamie Sommer is the Associate Director for Public Services and oversees reference, instruction, faculty support, circulation and access services in the law library. She coordinates the research instruction for the Communication and Legal Reasoning courses and teaches Advanced Legal Research. In her free time she enjoys hiking, biking, kayaking and hanging out with her dog, Ziggy.
Tom Gaylord is the Faculty Services and Scholarly Communications Librarian. He is currently editor of Law Library Journal and enjoys travel, cooking, music, reading, and sports. He is father to one son, one Chihuahua, and, begrudgingly, a hedgehog. He received his B.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University, his J.D. from University of Illinois College of Law, and his M.L.I.S. from Dominican University School of Information Studies.
Lisa Winkler is the Clinical Services Librarian, serves as the designated liaison for the Bluhm Legal Clinic’s faculty, fellows, staff, and students, and provides proactive research, teaching, and reference support to the law school community. Her specialties include clinical legal education and legal technology trends, outreach, and legal research instruction. Lisa actively participates in several library associations, including the Association of College and Research Libraries, Chicago Association of Law Libraries, American Association of Law Libraries, and in 2018, presented at AALL’s annual national conference. Outside the library, Lisa enjoys chasing around her toddler Weston and orange and white tabby cat Wentworth.
Clare Willis is the Research & Instructional Services Librarian, a role that helps plan and improve the library’s slate of learning opportunities from guest lectures to our Advanced Legal Research course. Clare is teaching Advanced Legal Research this Fall and writing an article on the best practices for using hypotheticals to teach legal research. Clare lives in Chicago with a husband, a rising first-grader, a rising toddler, and two ill-tempered cats.
Sarah Reis is the Foreign & International Law Librarian and also directs the International Team Project program. Sarah is a graduate of Northwestern Law and obtained her MLIS degree from the University of Washington’s law librarianship program. Sarah enjoys spending time with her black cat, Pepper, and is a huge fan of Premier League football and college basketball. She is looking forward to traveling to Australia and Greece this upcoming year for the International Association of Law Libraries conference and for ITP.
Jesse Bowman is the Associate Law Librarian for Technology Initiatives and Instruction. This is his sixth year at Northwestern, before which he worked at Valparaiso University Law School and the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. Jesse teaches courses in both legal research and legal technology. When he’s not working, Jesse enjoys visiting craft breweries and spending time with Willow, his one year old PBGV.
Terence O’Connell is the Catalog librarian. He prepares the records for the online library catalog. Terence attended the graduate schools at Loyola University Chicago and the University of Chicago. His hobbies include watching movies and reading Wikipedia entries.
Brittany Adams is the Special Collections, Digitization, and Archival Services Librarian at the PLRC. She handles all things old, but also enjoys dabbling in digital projects, such as web and graphic design. In her spare time, she’s obsessed with mysteries and true crime.
As a reminder, all full-time and visiting faculty member are assigned a library liaison—a reference librarian who will be their primary contact in the library. If you have any questions about research, resources or services that the library offers, please feel free to reach out to your liaison. A complete list of liaisons and contact info is available on the library website.
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