This August, Shamika Dalton brought her expertise in teaching, leadership, and scholarship to Colorado Law, joining the faculty as Associate Professor and Law Library Director of the William A. Wise Law Library. Before joining CU, Dalton served as Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Katz Law Library at University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Law (UT).
In July 2019, Dalton received the Joseph L. Andrews Award for her book, Celebrating Diversity: A Legacy of Minority Leadership in the American Association of Law Libraries (2nd edition). She holds a Bachelor of Social Work, Master of Library Science, and Juris Doctor degrees from North Carolina Central University.
In this interview, Prof. Dalton sits down with Colorado Law’s Emily Battaglia to share a little more about her work.
Thank you so much for joining me today, Prof. Dalton! To kick off our questions, I would love to know, outside of your new role, what excites you most about life in Colorado?
SD: I am most excited about meeting new people and forming new friendships. In my short time here, I’ve already met some great people at CU and in the Denver area where I live. I look forward to nurturing those relationships and adding a few new ones.
Can you share a bit about any current projects you are working on?
SD: Next summer, I plan to begin work on the 3rd edition of Celebrating Diversity: A Legacy of Minority Leadership in the American Association of Law Libraries. The 20th anniversary of the 1st edition is fast approaching (2026), so I want to give myself and the other authors plenty of time to work on the new edition. I would also like to create a new legal research class that allows students to work through real-life hypotheticals around diversity and social justice issues.
What initially drew you to your work as a law librarian?
SD: It wasn’t until I took an Advanced Legal Research (ALR) class at North Carolina Central University School of Law (NCCU), with Professor Deborah Jefferies, that I learned about law librarianship. After taking ALR, I was hooked. NCCU has a joint JD/MLS program, so I took law school classes during the academic year and library courses during the summer. NCCU is the only HBCU in the country with a library school, so I feel very fortunate for the opportunity to get two degrees at once.
What is your proudest career accomplishment so far?
SD: It’s a tie between achieving tenure and co-authoring the 2nd edition of Celebrating Diversity: A Legacy of Minority Leadership in the American Association of Law Libraries. Both accomplishments required passion, resilience, determination, and focus. Both endeavors were unfamiliar and uncomfortable for me as a first-gen, but I pushed through. I learned so much about myself during those years.