Pam Clancy, 2004 VALL Honoured Member
On December 16th, 2004, the Vancouver Association of Law Libraries added three new honoured members to the association - Anne Beresford, Anne Rector, and Pam Clancy. Throughout their careers, this group has maintained the highest of standards for contribution and leadership in the VALL community, and are indeed worthy to follow in the footsteps of previous honoured members Marjorie Keddy, Tom Shorthouse, Catherine Kerr, and Astrid Kenning.
To quote Diana Inselberg, from her tribute to Marjorie Keddy - VALL's first honoured member, "By making you a Life Member we are not only honouring your great contribution to our community but are also ensuring that you do not leave us entirely." (VALL Review, December 1991) This sentiment holds true today for all of our newest honoured members - these ties are important - to you, to us, and to the historical record of VALL.
After the meeting in December, I asked each of the new honoured members to answer some biographical questions, to which (I hoped) might allow us to record a small portion of their personal history. The following is a brief biography of Pam Clancy, who among her many accomplishments, was the first ever President of VALL. My goal for the future, is to publish some sort of biography for each of VALL's honoured members. We'll see how I do. :-)
Pam Clancy, VALL Honoured Member (December, 2004)
Pam Clancy was born in Victoria, BC. When asked where she grew up, Pam's response is quickly qualified by an appropriate "Not yet". So... Pam Clancy was 'raised ' at various locations throughout the Province, living in 'Victoria, Abbotsford, Vancouver (again), Vernon, Kamloops, and Vancouver (third time!)'. Travelling around BC as a youth obviously suited Pam. To this day, she still has the 'travel bug' and travelling continues to play an important role in her life.
Pam received her MLS from McGill University in 1967, and proceeded to begin her career as a cataloguer, then reference librarian, at the University of British Columbia. From there, she moved on to work at the Alberta Ministry of Municipal Affairs in Edmonton as the Departmental Librarian from 1975 - 1979.
In 1979, Pam and her family moved to Nanaimo and started what she describes as her 'working-mum phase' which included school, sports, her parish, and a number of self-interest volunteering efforts. When the time came to pick up her career, and faced with the possibility of being the best educated muffin seller in Nanaimo, Pam created her own opportunity and (lucky for us) started her foray into Law Libraries. In 1982 she landed a job as a part-time library clerk at Nanaimo courthouse Library (part of BCCLS) learning her craft. As Pam describes, "I asked the lawyers and the odd Judge to let me learn legal reference by practicing on them". When she later moved back to Vancouver and began Freelancing (1984 - 1987), she found the process in Vancouver to be little more than a "finishing school" to the challenges she had faced back in Nanaimo.
In 1987, Pam moved over to the law firm of Campney & Murphy, where she worked as the Firm Librarian for 8 years until 1995. Pam finished her career, during the period from 1995 to 2002, working at the Legal Resource Centre of the Legal Services Society of British Columbia. Included in these time periods, she became one of the founding members of the Vancouver Association of Law Libraries, as well as the first President of the Association. Pam's contribution to Associations beyond VALL were also numerous, and included: CLA, 1973-2002; CASLIS, 1975-79, 1983-87; CALL 1982-2002; and BCLA 1995-2003.
Pam remained an active member of VALL until 2003, a year after she had retired; and at the December 2004 lunch was introduced to the Association as a new Honoured Member. When asked if there was an accomplishment that she was most proud of, her response was:
"Because library people in general, and especially law library folk, are generous in assisting each other, I have received an amazing amount of help, information and support from my colleagues. At some point I became a sort of mentor or library crone to a few beginners. Then it was a real pleasure to teach the legal bibliography course at UBC for a few years and similar short course at Langara's library technician program." This was very true of Pam. My first introduction to her in 2000, was when she asked me to Moderate and Co-present at a VALL workshop on Intranets. Being new to VALL, I was nervous to say the least. I'm not sure I would have gotten through without a few 'Pam Clancy pep-talks'. Needless to say, I did get through, and Pam can take credit for yet another mentoring moment. Her teaching both formally at UBC & Langara, as well as her informal guidance to those of us just getting our footing, will be remembered as a significant part of her legacy.
Pam and her husband Ron, also a newly retired librarian, are now embracing their love of travel. The retired life has also given them more time to hike, to garden, and attend choral concerts. So it would seem, just like in her working life, there's no slowing down Pam.
To quote Diana Inselberg, from her tribute to Marjorie Keddy - VALL's first honoured member, "By making you a Life Member we are not only honouring your great contribution to our community but are also ensuring that you do not leave us entirely." (VALL Review, December 1991) This sentiment holds true today for all of our newest honoured members - these ties are important - to you, to us, and to the historical record of VALL.
After the meeting in December, I asked each of the new honoured members to answer some biographical questions, to which (I hoped) might allow us to record a small portion of their personal history. The following is a brief biography of Pam Clancy, who among her many accomplishments, was the first ever President of VALL. My goal for the future, is to publish some sort of biography for each of VALL's honoured members. We'll see how I do. :-)
Pam Clancy, VALL Honoured Member (December, 2004)
Pam Clancy was born in Victoria, BC. When asked where she grew up, Pam's response is quickly qualified by an appropriate "Not yet". So... Pam Clancy was 'raised ' at various locations throughout the Province, living in 'Victoria, Abbotsford, Vancouver (again), Vernon, Kamloops, and Vancouver (third time!)'. Travelling around BC as a youth obviously suited Pam. To this day, she still has the 'travel bug' and travelling continues to play an important role in her life.
Pam received her MLS from McGill University in 1967, and proceeded to begin her career as a cataloguer, then reference librarian, at the University of British Columbia. From there, she moved on to work at the Alberta Ministry of Municipal Affairs in Edmonton as the Departmental Librarian from 1975 - 1979.
In 1979, Pam and her family moved to Nanaimo and started what she describes as her 'working-mum phase' which included school, sports, her parish, and a number of self-interest volunteering efforts. When the time came to pick up her career, and faced with the possibility of being the best educated muffin seller in Nanaimo, Pam created her own opportunity and (lucky for us) started her foray into Law Libraries. In 1982 she landed a job as a part-time library clerk at Nanaimo courthouse Library (part of BCCLS) learning her craft. As Pam describes, "I asked the lawyers and the odd Judge to let me learn legal reference by practicing on them". When she later moved back to Vancouver and began Freelancing (1984 - 1987), she found the process in Vancouver to be little more than a "finishing school" to the challenges she had faced back in Nanaimo.
In 1987, Pam moved over to the law firm of Campney & Murphy, where she worked as the Firm Librarian for 8 years until 1995. Pam finished her career, during the period from 1995 to 2002, working at the Legal Resource Centre of the Legal Services Society of British Columbia. Included in these time periods, she became one of the founding members of the Vancouver Association of Law Libraries, as well as the first President of the Association. Pam's contribution to Associations beyond VALL were also numerous, and included: CLA, 1973-2002; CASLIS, 1975-79, 1983-87; CALL 1982-2002; and BCLA 1995-2003.
Pam remained an active member of VALL until 2003, a year after she had retired; and at the December 2004 lunch was introduced to the Association as a new Honoured Member. When asked if there was an accomplishment that she was most proud of, her response was:
Pam and her husband Ron, also a newly retired librarian, are now embracing their love of travel. The retired life has also given them more time to hike, to garden, and attend choral concerts. So it would seem, just like in her working life, there's no slowing down Pam.
posted by Steve Matthews at 1/28/2005
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