Mary Minow

Mary Minow says, "I was a librarian for ten years, and then I went to law school. I know that sounds a little odd. More often, it is discontented lawyers who return to library school to find greener pastures. Odder still, and despite the efforts of so many people I meet who cannot understand my career path, I never intended to be a law librarian. I care about libraries, and attended law school with librarian-eyes. While there, I studied library law, that is the combined study of First Amendment, Copyright, Local Government Law, Disability Law, Negotiations etc. Now what I care about is sharing the most practical parts of the law that I learned, the good, the bad and the ugly, with my former colleagues, the librarians of the world."

Minow is an attorney, consultant, and a former librarian and library trustee. She has taught library law at the San Jose State School of Library Science. She was President on the board of CALTAC in 2002, the California Association of Library Trustees and Commissioners, and now serves as its Policy Analyst.

Mary received her B.A. from Brown University, her A.M.L.S. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her J.D. from Stanford University.

She is the coauthor with Tomas Lipinski of The Library's Legal Answer Book (ALA Editions: 2003).

Minow is the first recipient of the California Library Association's Zoia Horn Intellectual Freedom Award, given in 2004. Minow's blog is at blog.librarylaw.com.