In Memoriam: Tribute to Professor Roy Mersky
2008; Texas Law Review Association; Volume: 87; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1942-857X
Autores Tópico(s)Artificial Intelligence in Law
ResumoIn a list of the people who have been instrumental in bringing The University of Texas School of Law and its library to the preeminence they enjoy today, Professor Roy Mersky would be very close to the top. My personal experience with Roy's energy, enthusiasm, and ability to transform an institution dates back to September 1965, when Roy first joined us. I was a fledgling assistant professor and had been researching my first article, which involved statutes of a type common to oil-and-gas-producing states. I had earlier discovered to my dismay that very few collections of state statutes-other than Texas statutes-had been kept up-to-date in the law school library, and that was the case with virtually all of the states I was researching. The librarian whom I consulted told me that the statutes of other states were used so rarely that it was not worth the money to purchase annual updates. I mentioned this to Roy when I first met him. Well before the end of the fall semester, the collections of statutes of every state had current updates. This was, I believe, Roy's first step in transforming a library that was almost entirely Texas-oriented into one of the top research law libraries in the country and, indeed, the world. Roy's background; education; employment experiences; and above all, his intelligence, drive, and persistence, equipped him well for formulating and accomplishing his goal of transforming the library. Shortly after graduating from high school in the Bronx in 1943, he joined the Army. He served his country overseas for over two years, fought under General Patton in the Battle of the Bulge, and received a number of medals, including a Bronze Star. After his discharge, he attended the University of Wisconsin, earning a B.S., a J.D., and in 1953, a Master of Library Science. During this period he also spent time as a student at the London School of Economics; the Faculte de Droit, Sorbonne; and Oxford University. He practiced law for a short period in Madison, worked as a staff librarian at the Yale Law Library for several years, and was appointed Director of the Washington State Law Library in 1959. He held this position until becoming a Professor of Law and Director of Research at The University of Texas School of Law. His experiences in studying and working at major law libraries throughout the United States and Europe gave him insight into what was needed to turn The University of Texas School of Law library into a major center of legal research, just as his period of practice equipped him to appreciate the needs of practitioners. The transformation of the law library did not take place overnight. One of Roy's first achievements was to expand the availability of materials. I cannot say with certainty that the interlibrary-loan program was initiated under Roy, but I did not become aware of it until Roy arrived. Very early in Roy's tenure, books and other materials held by other libraries throughout the country became available to our own faculty under this program. In fact, Roy's basic rule was that any book or other material, wherever it was located in the world, would arrive for the faculty member within two months. If this rule was ever breached, I am unaware of it. Roy also was quick to recognize opportunities for collections that other libraries had ignored. One example among many is that we became one of the earliest depositories of U.S. Supreme Court briefs. Any significant expansion of the law school library's collection would require additional space, and when Roy arrived there were serious space constraints. The law library was located in what is now the Career Services Office and three or four half-floors-some above and others below that space. A small area that was later greatly expanded to create the Jeffers Courtroom was also part of the library's shelf space. The classrooms, small seminar and conference rooms, and hallway that are presently south of the Career Services Office were a single, gigantic study hall. …
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