OR Tambo Law Librarian Head, Shirley Gilmore, closes the book after two decades of loyal service to the University of Pretoria

Posted on July 23, 2019

At the end of June 2019, the head of the Oliver Tambo Law Library (ORT Law Library), Mrs Shirley Gilmore (BSc, Information Sciences and BProc), closed the book on her two-decade career and loyal service to the Faculty of Law staff and students at the University of Pretoria (UP).  

In 1999, Mrs Gilmore was appointed as head of the Law Library.  ‘We were still in the Main Library Building at that time and moved into the ORT Law Library at the end of 2004. Moving the collection took three weeks. We were afraid of the collection getting into a muddle so the Law Library staff, with some strong men to help with the boxes, did the move ourselves.’

However, Shirley’s contribution to the South African community and the rest of the world stretches far wider than the effective management of the ORT Law Library.  In 2013, after months of cogitation, conceptualising and planning, and obtaining sponsorships, Shirley introduced and managed the University of Pretoria’s project 'Laws of South Africa: Consolidated Legislation' to date. The idea originated when Mrs Gilmore realised that most people in South Africa and abroad did not had the privilege of having online access to the latest South African laws contained in one source, readily and easily accessible, and free of charge.  Shirley’s dedication ensured that the project was realised and kept momentum, to the extent that this project was selected by the United States Library of Congress for inclusion in their historic collection of internet materials related to the Laws of African Jurisdictions Web Archive in March 2017.

This project not only ensured that the latest South African laws are literally at one’s fingertips, but also boosted the international visibility of the University of Pretoria.

Before her service at the Faculty of Law, Mrs Gilmore was in Australia for a year and worked at the Commonwealth Ombudsman's Office. Some years before that she had worked at the CSIR and Onderstepoort Libraries respectively.  

The Faculty of Law wishes retiring law librarian Mrs Gilmore the very best for the well-deserved rest and years to come, and thank her for the laws online legacy that she is leaving behind.

Mrs Audrey Lenoge has been appointed as acting Head of the Library.  Mrs Lenoge is an experienced law librarian with a track record of working in special and academic legal libraries, with skills in research support, cataloguing, li-brary training, information management, records management and knowledge management. She holds a bachelors degree from the University of the Western Cape and an honours degree in Information Science from the University of Pretoria. Her library work experience include working at the National Prosecuting Authority at the Prosecution Services Library and at the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit Library. She joined the University of Pretoria in February 2011 as Senior Information Specialist for Criminal law and Criminal procedure research support and cataloguer. 

- Author Elzet Hurter

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