10
20 YEARS:
STETSON LAW LIBRARY
Walking into the Dolly and
Homer Hand Law Library, a
white board greets passersby
with a joke. Sometimes, it is submitted by
students. Oftentimes, it is seasonal and a
tad corny. Always, it is meant to put a
smile on the face of all who enter the
library.
“Ever since I got here, I think the idea was
that law school is stressful enough,” said
Sally Waters, reference librarian and adjunct
professor. “If you could do something that
was going to make things a little bit nicer,
you try.”
Twenty years ago, making things nicer
meant advocating for a new library building
where students would have the space to
study and Stetson Law would have the space to grow.
Librarian Emeritus J. Lamar Woodard served Stetson as the
director of the law library from 1971 to 2001. During most of
Woodard’s tenure, the library was housed in a scant and uninviting
spot in the Dana building.
“We knew we were outgrowing the old library,” Woodard said.
There was a cramped Lexis and Westlaw terminal that required dial
in and small typing areas for students, but little study space.
Under Dean Emeritus Richard Dillon, who served as dean from
1968 to 1981, the original library underwent an update in the
mid-70s.
Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law Bruce Jacob J.D. ’59,
who served as dean from 1981 to 1994, hired architect Charles
Canerday to design a new library building.
Dean Emeritus Lizabeth Moody became dean in 1994, and in her
five years as dean, made the library project her own. While some
found the idea of a physical library to be less necessary due to
growing technology, she and the library staff insisted that libraries
are worth more than the books on the shelves. Students needed a
place to study, to work in groups and utilize resources.
Groundbreaking for the new
building began in 1997. In
the summer of 1998, the
building stage was complete.
The new library has hit its
fair share of milestones since
opening in the fall of 1998,
beginning with its opening
ceremony. U.S. Supreme
Court Associate Justice Ruth
Bader Ginsburg spoke at the
dedication.
The late Justice Antonin
Scalia visited Stetson twice:
once in 1990, prior to the
new library’s opening, and
once in 2007, in the current
building. Justice Clarence Thomas visited the library in 2010.
Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning author of Night, visited
the library in April of 2002.
The new law library was named for Dolly and Homer Hand,
longtime trustees of Stetson Law, in October of 2010. Dolly Hand
graduated from Stetson Law in 1949 as the only female in her
graduating class and the youngest student to graduate from the
College of Law.
In 2015, the library staff won an award from the American
Association of Law Libraries for a promotional video, “James and
the Giant Library,” in which Professor Emeritus Peter Fitzgerald’s
therapy dog James explored the library.
Today, the library building houses Academic Success and the
Information Technology departments.
“The building has held up well for 20 years,” Woodard said. “If
there ever comes a time when a physical library isn’t necessary, and
I hope that never happens, it could be used for something else.”
The library, a second home for many students, is the legacy
that decades of administrators, staff, and faculty have left to the
students of Stetson Law.
B R I E F S
B Y B I A N C A LOPE Z
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spoke at
the dedication.