Judith Gire

In addition to running the law library, Professor Gire taught legal research in the first year Legal Skills Program. She is a member of the American Association of Law Libraries and a past president of the Law Librarians of New England. She is also a Director of the New England Law Library Consortium, Inc. and serves on the Advisory Committee of the New Hampshire State Law Library. Prior to coming to Pierce Law as Assistant Law Librarian in 1977, Professor Gire worked as Librarian for the Pennsylvania Department of Justice and as Head of Technical Services at the University of Akron, School of Law. “As a law school library director, my job has many facets ranging from administration and personnel to collection development, reference and teaching. Every facet relates to linking our faculty and students to the information they need to complete a classroom assignment, to understand a legal issue, to assist a client with a legal problem, or to pursue independent research. The role of information provider gives me the satisfaction of helping people, both directly and indirectly. Whether I am answering a student's reference question, planning an assignment or selecting a new title for the collection, I am providing a service. I have been a law librarian for over 30 years and am still amazed at how much legal research has changed and how much it has remained the same. When I began my first job, legal research was confined to books. Now, the online formats of LEXIS and WESTLAW are standard legal research fare and the Internet is the new research frontier. But we still rely on books for many aspects of research. One of my primary goals at the University of New Hampshire School of Law is to ensure our students enter the legal profession as efficient, competent legal researchers. I am proud that most do.”

Education

• BA, Wilson College
• MLS, University of Michigan
• MA, Simmons College
• JD, Franklin Pierce Law Center