SIX MLIC EMPLOYEES RECEIVE RECOGNITION IN MAY FOR A COMBINED 95 YEARS OF SERVICE TO TU!!
by Lou Lindsey 5/13/02
This month as part of TU's employee apreciation week, six of the MLIC staff are being recognized for a combined 95 years of service! MLIC Director Richard E. Ducey, Carol Arnold, Melanie Nelson, and Theresa Eubanks are each receiving recognition for 15 years apiece; Christy Ryan, 10; and Kathy Kane 25!
Professor Ducey came to TU as the Director of the Law Library and Associate Professor of Law. He earned a law degree from New England School of Law and a library degree from Simmons College. He is a member of the Connecticut, Massachusetts and District of Columbia Bars. He was a state code editor for Michie Company in Charlottesville, and also served as a librarian at the University of Maryland and New England Schools of Law before moving to Tulsa.
Now, as Director of the Mabee Legal Information Center, on a daily basis he sees the reality of what were but dreams in 1986 for an impressive and beautiful new facility. He truly was the one who conceptualized the MLIC, and then worked tirelessly with architects, interior designers, university staff, and construction management to make real those dreams.
Over a decade of law students remember Professor Ducey as the inspiring teacher of Legal Authorities - a concentrated and detailed legal research course required of first year students. All entering students from 1987 to 2002 can reminisce about their first week of school, and the now-famous “Dog Law” sessions Professor Ducey led, presenting the basics of legal research through a theme of dog bite litigation and legislation. He is already working on Dog Law 2002 for the students joining us in August! His enthusiasm for teaching, and his dedication and excellence in the classroom led him to receive the University of Tulsa’s Outstanding Teaching Award for 2000.
His leadership has brought the library to new heights figuratively as well as literally. When he arrived in 1986, the library had 207,000 volumes. It now has 336,000 volumes, despite a reasoned and thorough “weeding” of many unnecessary volumes before the move out of the library prior to renovation. There were five librarians in 1986; now seven librarians, each with a subject or service speciality, work under Professor Ducey’s direction in serving students, faculty and the Tulsa legal community. Another six full-time paraprofessionals are part of the MLIC team. Professor Ducey is also active among law librarians. He served as the Vice President/President Elect and President of the eight state Southwestern Association of Law Libraries, concluding his term of office just as the organization turned 40 years old. He also planned the programs for two of the organization’s annual meetings.If you were to ask Director of Alumni Relations, Jane Kolesnik what her favorite memory is of Professor Ducey’s years of service, she is bound to recall what a hit he was, dressed in a black leather coat and sunglasses, singing “Leader of the Pack” for a karaoke fundraiser!
Congratulations to Professor Ducey for 15 years of outstanding service to the College of Law!
Melanie Nelson is being honored for fifteen years of service to TU. Melanie oversees collection development and government documents at the MLIC, and serves at the reference desk as well. She has thirty years of library experience, and of that has spent twenty-four as a law librarian. Before coming to TU, Melanie worked as a law librarian at Oral Roberts University College of Law and University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law School. As well as a cracker-jack full-time librarian, Melanie is a part time first year law student, enjoying the challenge as she gains insight to give the library staff her “student perspective” as well as her seasoned librarian viewpoints on issues. She prepared herself for the rigors of law school by taking a six day wilderness canoe trip last summer in The Boundary Waters Canoe Area of northern Minnesota. She is the mother of a daughter and a grandmother of three girls, one just a few weeks old! Melanie’s favorite quote came from a fortune cookie: “A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.”
Congratulations, Melanie, for 15 years of service!
A University of Tulsa alum, Carol Arnold is walking away from TU’s 2002 Employee Picnic this year with a 15 YEARS OF SERVICE pin! Carol’s employment predates both Professor Ducey’s and Melanie Nelson’s, but by just a month. This “old timer” has served the library in many capacities: in technical services and public services. She worked at the library full time while earning her library degree, and in 1995 started a professional position. She is the Access Services/Interlibrary Loan Law Librarian, overseeing the circulation desk and reserve room operations which are open 102 hours a week. She manages the borrowing from and lending to other libraries, so if there is any library material we don’t have on campus, Carol is virtually guaranteed to find it elsewhere and get it here! Carol is well known for her good taste in office decoration, even to the soft murmuring of flowing water to counteract the hum of equipment. On the extracurricular front, she is a Dallas football and a Duke basketball sports “maniac,” as she puts it! Carol’s favorite quote is “JUST DO IT!”
Congratulations, Carol, for 15 years of service!
Theresa Eubanks is also receiving her 15 year term of service award at TU's Employee Appreciation Picnic this year. Theresa began working for TU on August 18, 1986 as a temporary part-time employee at McFarlin Library's circulation desk. Before long she was permanent part-time, and within a year she began working as a full time employee doing reserves at McFarlin. She transferred to Bibliographic Services as a copy cataloger for McFarlin, and worked there until June 19, 2000 when she joined the Mabee Legal Information Center as Serials and Processing Coordinator.
Congratulations, Theresa, on your 15 years of service!
Christy Ryan receives her 10 year term of service award from The University of Tulsa this month. Christy is the Public Services/Serials Law Librarian at the Mabee Legal Information Center. She got her TU start here as a paraprofessional in February 1991 when she began as a permanent part time circulation desk worker. In June 1992 she accepted a full time post in Serials. While working at the law library, Christy discovered that she liked library work so much that she started work toward her masters in library science at OU, and obtained that degree in May 1997. Her first professional library job was as Serials Librarian at McFarlin Library, where she worked from August 1997 to August 1999. She returned to the the Law Library just months before it changed its name to The Mabee Legal Information Center, and was just in time to help move and settle into our beautiful new facility! Christy's always quick to tell her favorite reason for working at the MLIC is her co-workers! Congratulations, Christy, for 10 years at TU!!
