CS-SIS Member Spotlight: Elizabeth Outler

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 Outler

Elizabeth believed her undergraduate mentors when they told her to study what she liked best in school, which happened to be English.  After earning her bachelor’s degree from Smith College, she had little idea of what she wanted to do, so she delved into career exploration.  She taught as an adjunct at a community college, managed an office publishing the Florida Administrative Law Reports, and worked for an immigration law attorney.  While in Boston, she landed a job as an IT consultant where she built “canned” reports for companies with new data warehouses.  Over the years she applied and was accepted to law school four times, but talked herself out of it the first three times because she knew that she didn’t want to be a lawyer.  She did have a persistent interest in being a law student, however, and enrolled at the University of Florida where she earned her J.D., was research editor for the Journal of Law & Public Policy, and earned Order of the Coif recognition.  She also worked as a student in her law library and found that it was a job she enjoyed doing.  With encouragement from her law librarians, she pursued her Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Florida State University.

Since then Elizabeth has been enjoying law librarianship with its evolving job descriptions, ILS transitions, and new opportunities.  After working as Associate Director of the Legal Information Center at the University of Florida, she moved on to Barry University as Head of Technical Services.  Her life path then brought her to Louisiana where she is now Assistant Director of Technical Services at Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge.  In addition to supervising acquisitions, doing the cataloging, and serving as the systems librarian, she also teaches first year legal research in the spring.

An interest in technology has been a constant throughout Elizabeth’s work history, and she joined CS-SIS to keep up with innovation.  She appreciates being part of our “network of people who know how to do things” and is not shy about reaching out to fellow members.   Elizabeth is committed to pitching in on professional organizations and is serving her second year as a Member at-Large on the CS-SIS executive board.  The board has appreciated her time and expertise.

Elizabeth is a rare librarian in that she does not enjoy reading; she believes this is due to the pressured reading load of law school and studying for the bar exam.  She prefers watching SportsCenter and hanging out with her adopted dog, Keke.

Interesting pet name, eh?  Her dog is named after Barkevious Levon “Keke” Mingo, a NFL Super Bowl-ring-wearing defensive end who played college ball at LSU.   Needless to say, Elizabeth is a football fan who enjoys SEC football rivalries with her pup.

Thanks to Elizabeth 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.