Nancy Johnson Fund for Law Library Excellence
The Nancy Johnson Fund for Law Library Excellence honors an extraordinary law librarian who served the Georgia State University College of Law for 30 years. Donations to this fund support the library’s efforts to provide outstanding services to students and faculty.
Associate Dean for Library and Information Services Nancy P. Johnson (1949-2014) worked tirelessly throughout her career to promote the importance of law libraries to students, faculty, the university, and the profession.
“She turned the GSU Law Library into a premier facility and did it with her love of research and her wonderful sense of humor.” – Judith Krone, Librarian, Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore LLP (retired)
Legal research instruction was one of Dean Johnson’s primary concerns. She enjoyed teaching Legal Bibliography to nearly 70 first year law students each year, as well as teaching the seminar-style Advanced Legal Research to upper level students most semesters. She authored several books and CALI lessons on the topic, including Georgia Legal Research, Winning Research Skills, and Legal Research Exercises, which were used in all sections of Legal Bibliography. She published three editions of her seminal book Sources of Federal Legislative Histories. It is currently in print and online through HeinOnline.
“I got my first and my last grades in law school from Nancy Johnson. Her professionalism and enthusiasm for legal research made a lasting impression on me.” – Amy Macrina, Class of 2011
Dean Johnson also left a lasting impression on the law library profession. She received the 2014 inaugural Association of American Law Schools (AALS) section award for “outstanding contributions to teaching and scholarship in the areas of legal information and academic law librarianship. Contributions also include outstanding service, mentoring and leadership.” In 2012, she was the recipient of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award, and was inducted into the AALL Hall of Fame in 2011. She received the 2009 AALL Hicks Award for Outstanding Contributions to Academic Libraries.
“Nancy P. Johnson was the quintessential law librarian. She was an excellent researcher, writer, teacher, administrator, faculty member, mentor, and human being. Nancy’s impact on academic law librarianship spans beyond GSU because of the many librarians who were once under her wing have gone on to leadership positions in other academic law libraries.” – Beth Adelman, Director of the Law Library & Vice Dean for Legal Information Services, The University at Buffalo State University of New York
Although she retired in 2012 and passed away in 2014, Dean Johnson’s presence will be felt in Atlanta and throughout the profession for years to come. She was instrumental in planning the Law Library’s move to the top floors of the new law building. Students, faculty, and the legal community love working and collaborating in the library’s new space.
