*Note: The following is from our archived collection of older documents, and may not reflect the most current information.
Roberta I. Shaffer is the executive director of the Special Libraries Association (SLA). Her appointment was announced on April 13, 2001 and her tenure officially began on September 4, 2001.
Her contact information is:
Roberta I. Shaffer
Executive Director
Special Libraries Association
202-939-3635
roberta@sla.org
Roberta was the Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Texas at Austin. For the eight years preceding her post at Texas, she was the Director of Research Information Services at the Washington-based, international law firm of Covington & Burling.
Roberta has worked in the nation's capital at George Washington University Law School and at the Law Library of Congress. At the University of Houston (Texas) Law Center, she was the Director of the Research and Writing Program, and the Assistant Director of the Law & Technology Center. In 1987-88, she was a Senior Fulbright Researcher in Israel and Portugal. In both posts, she was involved in government-sponsored projects dealing with constitutional reform and legislative drafting.
Roberta earned her bachelor's degree in Economics from Vassar College; her law degree is from Tulane University; and her master's in librarianship from Emory University. Roberta is admitted to the D.C., Texas and U.S. Supreme Court bars.
From 1991 to 1999, Roberta was the Coordinator of the Law Libraries program at the Catholic University School of Library and Information Science. She has written numerous articles, and edited a book (with Raisch) on law libraries and legal research. She regularly lectures at bar and library association conferences on topics dealing with intellectual property, knowledge capitalization, and other technology-driven issues that affect information.
For several years, Roberta has been active as a volunteer lawyer and advocate for the arts, and holds a graduate certificate in Arts Management from American University (D.C.). In the late 1980''s, Roberta worked for the Washington Project for the Arts during its controversial exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs. She has been a frequent presenter at the Foundation Center (Washington, D.C.) on nonprofit organization management and external relations.
Roberta is now serving a three-year term as Vice-President of the International Association of Law Libraries. This affords her the opportunity to pursue some of her favorite pastimes - foreign travel and archaeology. Roberta is also a master swimmer, and teaches drownproofing for children under one year of age, and water safety to mentally retarded adults. Roberta and her mother collaborate as jewelry designers under the name "Cornelia's Jewels" (after the children's story).
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