In memory of Carolyn

You may have noticed some sad faces and a preponderance of flowers in the law library this week.
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:

1. Books are for use 
2.  Every reader his [or her] book
3. Every books its reader.
4. Save time of the reader
5. 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.