AUSTIN, TX--February 2, 2010--The University of Texas at Austin School of 
Information announces the establishment of The Roberta I. Shaffer Graduate 
Fellowship in Law Librarianship & Legal Information Studies.  The $50,000 
student endowment will provide support to students enrolled in the new 
JD/MSIS joint degree program with the School of Law as well as iSchool 
students with a law degree who are interested in law librarianship.  

The fellowship is a gift from Roberta Shaffer, who was professor and dean of 
the UT Graduate School of Library and Information Science from 1999 to 2002 
and was appointed Law Librarian of Congress in 2009.  A leading figure in both 
legal and library communities, Shaffer was well known for her distinguished 
career in academia, private practice, and organizational leadership before her 
appointment to the Library of Congress.

"I am delighted that two stellar schools at the University of Texas at Austin--
the iSchool and the Law School--are joining forces to create a unique and 
much needed joint degree program in law librarianship," said Shaffer.  "On a 
professional level, I look foward to benefitting from the fruits of this endeavor 
in terms of the high-quality of graduates and scholarship in law libranianship 
that it will yield.  On a personal level, I am always pleased to have my name 
associated with an institution that is the focal point of such great memories for 
me."

"We are honored to receive this gift from such a good friend of the school," 
said Andrew Dillon, Dean of the School of Information. "Roberta is a leader 
within law libraries, and her support of our new program in legal information 
studies will enable us to recruit the best students to become the future leaders 
of the field."

The joint JD/MSIS degree was approved the faculties of the UT Austin School 
of Law and School of Information and launched in Fall 2010, and an article 
outlining the new program was featured in the Dec 2010 issue of Spectrum, 
the official publication of the American Association of Law Libraries.

####

Luke Dunlap
Director of Development & External Relations
University of Texas School of Information
1616 Guadalupe Street, Suite 5.202
Austin, TX 78701-1213
512.471.8421 desk
512.656.3598 mobile
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu