CS-SIS Member Spotlight: Elizabeth “Eli” Edwards

The Computing-Services Special Interest Section is made up of awesome law librarians doing interesting things.   The CS-SIS Member Spotlight is designed to shine light on our membership so that we can learn more about each other and stay connected.

CS-SIS Member Spotlight:  Elizabeth “Eli” Edwards

If you happened to meet Eli at the AALL meeting in Baltimore, you would have noticed that she has a wonderfully unique business card featuring Shuri from Black Panther.  After getting to know Eli better, I’d argue that she is just as cool as tech-savvy Shuri, and we’re lucky to have her as one of our newest CS-SIS members.

Eli has been working on and off in libraries since 1989.  She worked at the downtown Los Angeles Public Library while studying political science at California State University.  She later worked in technical services at Stanford, a kind institution who paid for her MLIS tuition at San Jose State University.   While working on the Google book project at Stanford, Eli grew interested in legal issues, specifically intellectual property rights.  This interest, with encouragement from mentor Mary Minow, took her to Santa Clara University School of Law where she earned her JD and formulated a lifelong mission to advocate for information access.  Since then, Eli has gained a wealth of experience in firm (Foster Pepper PLLC), court (Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals), and vendor (Justia) settings which positioned her return to Santa Clara University School of Law to fill the role of Emerging Technologies Research Librarian.

She is enjoying her new position very much, finding a balance between technology and teaching.  She serves as a resource on legal technology, tapping her law firm experience in identifying lawyer needs.   She just finished teaching her first class, Technology and Innovation in the Practice of Law, which she developed for her law school with the help of experts from AALL and CALI.  Spring semester she’ll be team teaching advanced legal research for the first time.  She beams with satisfaction when helping people find out of reach information and loves when students get that excited research glean in their eyes.

Eli is happy to be part of AALL and CS-SIS and is looking forward to meeting, working, and connecting with other law librarians.  She just got back from exploring the legal technology offerings at the AALS meeting, and she’ll be attending the ABA TECHSHOW and CALIcon in 2019.  She’s volunteered to serve on the CS-SIS blog committee, and I look forward to reading about her discoveries.

Of course, there is more to life than law librarianship.  Eli volunteers at a radio station run by a junior college, training to be a DJ and help with the music library, and appreciates fun people who are passionate about music.  She is also an avid sci-fi fan and is known to attend Steampunk conventions.  Eli adores Shuri, who she uses as her own avatar, and respects Shuri as a thoughtful leader who does not shy away from technology.

Thanks to Eli Edwards for her willingness to be interviewed for this CS-SIS member spotlight.   If you are interested in interviewing and writing a blog post about a CS-SIS member, please contact Tawnya Plumb at tplumb@uwyo.edu.  It is a great opportunity to learn about a fellow member.