Introducing Amanda Watson, HLS Library’s new Assistant Dean for Library and Information Services

Dear HLS Community,



Over the summer, Amanda Watson joined the Harvard Law School Library as our new Assistant Dean for Library and Information Services.


Amanda previously served as the Director of the Law Library and Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Houston. She is an extraordinary talent who has a career-long track record of overseeing and contributing to law library teams that pioneer and provide phenomenal services.



Amanda has received national acclaim as the winner of the LexisNexis American Association of Law Libraries Call for Papers Award in 2021 (her winning paper was “‘The Report of My Death Was an Exaggeration’ — The Legal Treatise”). In recognition of her work, Amanda was selected by her peers to speak at Yale’s Law Library Symposium both in 2021 and 2023.



Prior to her time at the University of Houston, Amanda served as the Associate Director of the Law Library at Tulane University. She has also served as the State Librarian of Mississippi and clerked for Chief Judge Roger McMillan of the Mississippi Court of Appeals.



Amanda earned her B.A. from Mississippi University for Women as a first-generation student, graduating summa cum laude. She received her J.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Law, where she was a member of Phi Delta Phi, and her M.I.S. (Master of Information Science) from the Florida State University School of Information where she again earned summa cum laude honors.



Amanda brings to HLS a tremendous record of professional achievement. I am thrilled that she has agreed to contribute her extraordinary talent and experience to us and to the Harvard Law Library’s mission of providing exceptional services to students, faculty, alumni, and staff.



Please join me in welcoming Amanda to the HLS community, and feel free to stop by to say hello at her table at Love Your Library Fest (Sept. 25). 


Best,

Jonathan Zittrain
George Bemis Professor of International Law
  Harvard Law School
Professor of Public Policy
  Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Professor of Computer Science
  Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Director
  HLS Library | Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society