All Oral Histories
An Interview with James Heller
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Interview Date
4-3-2024
Description
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."-- Jim Heller (and Yogi Berra)
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In this oral history, dated April 3, 2024, James “Jim” Heller gives us an overview of his long career in law librarianship, 31 years of which he spent as Director of the Wolf Law Library at William & Mary Law School. He shares insight into a number of defining moments throughout the law library’s history, including the development of the Digital History Display, the creation of the George Wythe Collection and Wythepedia, and the total renovation of the library in 2007. We learn about the lasting Jim-inspired hiring process at the law library, the history of his band, “Winslow Ridge,” and the amusing origin story of a life-size doll named Prudence who once roamed free across the library. Jim also shares touching memories about his friend and former colleague, the late Betta Marie Labanish, who devoted nearly 35 years of her life to William & Mary Law School.
Run Time
01:48:37
Keywords
American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), Copyright, Law librarians, Law school buildings and facilities, Law school community, Law schools--Accreditation, Legal research, SEAALL Annual Meeting (2010 : Williamsburg), Teaching--Law school, Wythepedia, Betta Labanish, Maureen Moore, George Wythe
Local Identifier
OH.2024.005
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
These materials are available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). You may freely copy, remix, and build upon the interview, but only if you credit the original source, use it for non-commercial purposes, and distribute your contribution under the same license as the original.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Heller, James S. and Relvas-Veliadis, Daniella, "An Interview with James Heller" (2024). All Oral Histories. 16.
https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/oralhist_all/16
Comments
A transcript and guide to the oral history are available as additional files, above.