A Carleton government major, Catherine Lemann ’74 is widely recognized for her accomplishments as a law librarian and her service to the profession.
Lemann earned her JD from Tulane University and worked as an attorney for 10 years before returning to school to earn a master’s degree in library and information science from Louisiana State University–Baton Rouge. She then found her niche as a law librarian with the Law Library of Louisiana, the Alaska State Court Library, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia. Throughout her career, she devoted time and energy to promoting access to justice by assisting the public in navigating bureaucracy and legal tools in her role as a court law librarian. She also volunteered with AIDSLaw of Louisiana to provide legal services to HIV-positive individuals. She also served on the Alaska court system’s task force on language access and led a redesign of its website. In 2019, she joined the Board of Trustees at Earlham College in Indiana, where she established the Library Immersion Fellowship Teams Program to help first-generation students hone information literacy skills with a college librarian.
Lemann also greatly contributed to the profession of law librarianship through the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). She has served as president of AALL and two of its chapters, as well as chair of numerous committees. In recognition of her work, Lemann has been awarded the AALL’s highest honor, the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award, and was inducted into the AALL Hall of Fame. She also received the O. James Werner Award for Distinguished Service to Persons with Disabilities, the Bethany Ochal Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession, and the Lucy B. Foote Award for Contributions to Special Librarianship, among many others. Lemann lives in Durham, North Carolina. Her granddaughter is in the Class of 2027.