It’s because we are mourning the loss of our dear friend and colleague Carolyn Upton, who passed away on Sunday night.
Carolyn was the quintessential librarian, who did everything
she could to provide a simple, sensible research experience to every user of
the library. Her philosophy followed Ranganathan’s Five laws of library science:
- Books are for use
- Every reader his [or her] book
- Every books its reader.
- Save time of the reader
- The library is a growing organism
She thought about everything in relation to how it applied
to legal research. For example, Carolyn constantly questioned how general
library search tools could be made useful for legal researchers. She was adamant
about saving time for the ‘reader’, thoroughly testing online legal resources
for the benefit of staff and students. In classes, she sought to demystify the
research process. “Think like a lawyer” was her mantra.
Carolyn was fiercely intelligent, didn’t suffer fools, and
treated everyone with due respect. Her sense of humour was dry,dry,dry: often
coming out in witty word plays and astute observations.
Although we will miss her as a colleague and friend, she has
set a high standard of librarianship for us to remember her by.
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