About Laura N. “Lolly” Gasaway
Laura N. “Lolly” Gasaway was the director of the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library at the UNC School of Law from 1985 to 2006 and a Professor of Law from 1985 to 2013, when she became Professor Emerita. Professor Gasaway’s career in law librarianship and legal education stretched across five decades, and in addition to holding law library directorships at two other institutions, Professor Gasaway served as President of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) in 1986-1987 as well as in many other distinguished service capacities. She has been a prolific scholar in the area of copyright law and shaped policy as a member and leader of copyright committees at the university, regional, and national level.
In 2012, an oral history interview with Professor Gasaway, in which she discusses her career in detail, was recorded and a companion profile of her accomplishments was prepared by Frank G. Houdek. For a view on Professor Gasaway’s time as AALL President and with the organization, see Frank G. Houdek, “Laura N. Gasaway,” in AALL History through the Eyes of Its Presidents, 98 Law Libr. J. 299, 321-22.
In 2018, the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library at the UNC School of Law named its Graduate Assistantship in honor of Professor Gasaway.
More detailed information about Lolly’s career and accomplishments follows on this page.
Career: Law Library Director and Professor of Law
Professor Gasaway was Director of the Law Library and a member of the faculty at the University of Houston from 1973-1975, before becoming Director of the Law Library and Professor of Law at the University of Oklahoma, serving from 1975-1984. In 1985, Professor Gasaway began her 21-year tenure as Director of the Law Library and Professor of Law at the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library of UNC Chapel Hill School of Law. In 2006, she became Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, serving until 2010. In 2013, she became Paul B. Eaton Distinguished Professor of Law Emerita.
Service to Law Librarianship, Legal Education, and Copyright Policy
- Chair, AALL Recruitment Committee, 1973-74
- President, Southwestern Association of Law Libraries, 1974-76
- Vice-Chair, AALL Education Committee, 1975-77
- Chair, Program Committee for 1978 AALL Annual Meeting
- Chair, AALL Copyright Committee
- Chair, AALL Taskforce on Nominating Procedures, 1982-84
- AALL Vice President/President-Elect, 1985-86
- AALL President, 1986-87
- AALL Immediate Past President, 1987-88
- Member, ABA Accreditation Committee, 1987-1995
- Chair, AALL Special Committee to Advance the Fair Use of Electronic Information Resources in Law Libraries and by Law Librarians, 1994-96
- Member, Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, 1997-2002
- Chair, AALL Centennial Planning Task Force, 2001-02
- Chair, University of North Carolina Faculty Assembly, 2004-2006
- Co-chair, Section 108 Study Group, U.S. Copyright Office & Library of Congress, 2005-2009
Awards and Honors
- H.W. Wilson Award, Special Libraries Association, 1983 and 2004
- John Cotton Dana Award, Special Libraries Association, 1987
- Distinguished Alumnae Award, Texas Woman’s University, 1988
- Fellow, Special Libraries Association, 1988
- Marta Lange/CQ Press Award, Association of College & Research Libraries, American Library Association, 1998
- American Association of Law Libraries Presidential Certificate of Appreciation, 2000
- American Association of Law Libraries Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award, 2011
- American Association of Law Libraries Hall of Fame Inductee, 2011
Selected Works of Scholarship
Selected Articles, Essays, and Book Chapters
- Laura N. Gasaway & Steve Margeton, Continuing Education for Law Librarianship, 70 Law Libr. J. 39 (1977).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Management Techniques Using Traditional Library Records, 70 Law Libr. J. 315 (1977).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Comparable Worth: A Post-Gunther Overview, 69 Geo. L.J. 1123 (1981).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Academic Law Library Statistics: 1876-1992, 84 Law Libr. J. 573 (1992).
- Laura N. Gasaway & Judith Welch Wegner, Women at UNC and in the Practice of Law, 73 N.C. L. Rev. 705 (1995).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials in the Practice of Law, N.C. St. B.J., Winter 1996 at 12.
- Laura N. Gasaway, Women as Directors of Academic Law Libraries, in Law Librarianship: Historical Perspectives 497 (Laura N. Gasaway & Michael G. Chiorazzi, eds., 1996).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Libraries, Educational Institutions, and Copyright Proprietors: The First Collision on the Information Highway, 22 J. Acad. Librarianship 337 (1996).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Fair Use for Faculty-created Multimedia, 6 Info. & Comm. Tech. L. 153 (1997).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Copyright, the Internet, and Other Legal Issues, 49 J. Am. Soc’y. Info. Sci. 1003 (1998).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Distance Learning and Copyright: Is a Solution in Sight?, 22 Cause/Effect 6 (1999).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Values Conflict in the Digital Environment: Librarians Versus Copyright Holders, 24 Colum.-VLA J.L. & the Arts 115 (2000).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Distance Learning and Copyright: An Update, 49 J. Copyright Soc’y. U.S.A. 195 (2001).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Impasse: Distance Learning and Copyright, 62 Ohio St. L.J. 783 (2001).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Balancing Copyright Concerns: The TEACH Act of 2001, EDUCASE Review, November/December 2001 at 82.
- Laura N. Gasaway, America’s Cultural Record: A Thing of the Past?, 40 Hous. L. Rev. 643 (2003).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Libraries, Users, and the Problems of Authorship in the Digital Age, 52 DePaul L. Rev. 1193 (2003).
- Laura N. Gasaway, The New Access Right and Its Impact on Libraries and Library Users, J. Intell. Prop. L. 269 (2003).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Copyright Ownership & the Impact on Academic Libraries, 13 DePaul-LCA J. Art & Ent. L & Pol’y 277 (2003).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Law Librarians Lobby for Library Users, in The Spirit of Law Librarianship: A Reader 107 (Roy M. Mersky & Richard A. Leiter eds., 2d ed. 2005).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Electronic Reserves and Copyright: A Collision Course?, in The Center for Intellectual Property Handbook 55 (Kimberly L. Bonner ed., 2006).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Amending the Copyright Act for Libraries and Society: The Section 108 Study Group, 70 Alb. L. Rev. 1331 (2007).
- Laura N. Gasaway, A Defense of the Public Domain: A Scholarly Essay, 101 Law Libr. J. 451 (2009).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Libraries, Digital Content, and Copyright”, 12 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L. 755 (2010).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Copyright Basics: From Earliest Times to the Digital Age, 10 Wake Forest Intell. Prop. L.J. 241 (2010).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Libraries and Copyright at the Dawn of the 20th Century: The 1909 Copyright Act, 11 N.C. J.L. & Tech. 419 (2010).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Jane Ginsburg, Maria Pallante, Shira Perlmutter, & Richard Rudick, The Legal Landscape, 36 Colum. J.L. & Arts 527 (2013).
- Julie L. Kimbrough & Laura N. Gasaway, Publication of Government-Funded Research, Open Access, and the Public Interest, 18 Vand. J. Ent. & Tech. L. 267 (2016).
Selected Books
- American Indian Legal Materials: A Union List (Laura N. Gasaway, James L. Hoover, & Dorothy M. Warden, comps., 1980).
- Laura N. Gasaway & Maureen Murphy, Legal Protection for Computer Programs (1980).
- Laura N. Gasaway et al., Law Library Management During Fiscal Austerity (1992).
- Laura N. Gasaway & Sarah K. Wiant, Libraries and Copyright: A Guide to Copyright Law in the 1990s (1994).
- Law Librarianship: Historical Perspectives (Laura N. Gasaway & Michael G. Chiorazzi eds., 1996)
- Growing Pains: Adapting Copyright for Libraries, Education and Society (Laura N. Gasaway ed. 1997).
- Get Copyright Right: A Collection of Copyright Corner Columns from SLA’s Information Outlook (2006).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Copyright Questions and Answers for Information Professionals: From the Columns of Against the Grain (2013).
- Laura N. Gasaway, Pocket Copyright Guide for Publishers (2014).
N.C. Journal of Law & Technology: Lolly N. Gasaway Tribute
In 2010, the North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology, which Professor Gasaway was instrumental in founding, devoted an issue to her career and accomplishments. Links to each article written in honor of Professor Gasaway in the special issue are included below:
- Ann Bartow, Handcrafted Collaborative Copyright, 11 N.C. J.L. & Tech. 405 (2010).
- Kenneth D. Crews, Tribute to Laura Gasaway, 11 N.C. J.L. & Tech. 411 (2010).
- Kate Spelman, Tribute, 11 N.C. J.L. & Tech. 415 (2010).
- Deborah Gerhardt & Madelyn Wessel, Tribute to Lolly, 11 N.C. J.L. & Tech. 417 (2010).
- Deborah Gerhardt & Madelyn Wessel, Fair Use and Fairness on Campus, 11 N.C. J.L. & Tech. 461 (2010).
- Llewellyn Joseph Gibbons, Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) and the Protection of Digital Works of Photographic Art, 11 N.C. J.L. & Tech. 531 (2010).
- Anne Klinefelter, Library Standards for Privacy: A Model for the Digital World, 11 N.C. J.L. & Tech. 553 (2010).
Laura N. Gasaway Graduate Assistantship
In a ceremony in May 2018, the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library at the UNC School of Law named its Graduate Assistantship in honor of Professor Gasaway.