Wiegand, Shirley A. 1947-

PERSONAL:

Born October 10, 1947. Education: Urbana University, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1976; University of Kentucky, M.A. 1980, J.D. (with distinction), 1983.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Tallahassee, FL. Office—Marquette University Law School, Sensenbrenner Hall, 1103 W. Wisconsin Ave., P.O. Box 1881, Milwaukee, WI 53201. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, lawyer, and educator. Admitted to the Bar of the State of Wisconsin. University of Oklahoma, College of Law, Norman, member of faculty, 1988-95; Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee, WI, professor emerita, 1997—. Former volunteer attorney, Legal Action, Milwaukee, and former member of advisory board, American Civil Liberties Union's Youth and Civil Liberties Council.

MEMBER:

American Law Institute.

WRITINGS:

Library Records: A Retention and Confidentiality Guide, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1994.

(With Wayne A. Wiegand) Books on Trial: Red Scare in the Heartland, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Shirley A. Wiegand graduated summa cum laude from Urbana University in 1976. Wiegand next attended the University of Kentucky where she earned her M.A. in 1980 and her J.D. in 1983. Wiegand is a professor emerita at Marquette Law School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and has taught courses that focus on alternative dispute resolution, civil procedure, law conflict, law and literature, and minority representation in the legal profession. Wiegand has served on the American Civil Liberties Union's Civil Liberties Council Advisory Board. Wiegand's research and professional interests include the areas of civil litigation and dispute resolution as well as the conflict of laws.

Wiegand's first full-length book publication, Library Records: A Retention and Confidentiality Guide, was released in 1994. The text is a reference book for those in the library, digital asset, and document retention professions. It provides detailed information regarding the use and handling of sensitive legal materials as well as general library records. According to the publisher's web site, the text is divided into two main parts. Part one details the legal statutes and guidelines dictating the management and public access of library record information organized by individual state. Part two contains a thesis stating the ethical and professional obligations surrounding the care and maintenance of this type of information and the need to construct more laws governing its employment by various entities. Library Records also provides a summary analysis of the development of current statutes affecting the library and information sciences field and areas of possible vulnerability within these guidelines.

Wiegand's Books on Trial: Red Scare in the Heartland, written with Wayne A. Wiegand, was published in 2007. In an interview with Jonathan Ames for the Literary Dick Web site, Wiegand stated that her motivation for writing the text is rooted in "the parallels to today's events." Focusing on civil liberties and constitutional rights, she stated that the work holds "timely" relevance due to the passage of the Patriot Act and its resulting uses. One of the connections that she illustrates in the narrative juxtaposes the events surrounding a series of trials in Oklahoma, in which United States citizens were criminally charged for selling books containing subversive content, with the legal challenges that have arisen in the post-September 11, 2001, political environment. In the account, Wiegand follows four main characters, Robert and Ina Wood, Eli Jaffe, and Alan Shaw, from their arrest and detainment to their appeals process in court. Heather Phillips, in a review for LLRX: Law and Technology Resources for Legal Professionals, stated: "This thoroughly researched account does not examine these events in a vacuum. Rather, the book examines it within the legal and cultural circumstances of its time." Phillips, further noting the importance of historical context, added that the authors "show the effect of external events on the atmosphere surrounding these arrests, trials and appeals." The narrative places equivalent emphasis on the events and legal analysis as well as the characters and institutions involved. Kansas History contributor Fred Whitehead remarked: "A particularly valuable feature of this book is its depth of documentation, taken from a wide variety of primary sources and fashioned into a clear and readable narrative." Whitehead suggested that the story serves as a "useful ‘case study’ on the dynamics of government repression and suggests long-term effects on social consciousness." Moreover, a contributor to Publishers Weekly found the text to be "particularly interesting" and commented that the authors "conclude on a cautionary note, linking present-day antiterrorism fears to the anticommunist hysteria of 1940."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Libraries, January 1, 2008, "Librarian's Library: Dangerous Minds."

Choice, February 1, 2008, R.J. Goldstein, review of Books on Trial: Red Scare in the Heartland, p. 1041.

Kansas History, spring, 2008, Fred Whitehead, review of Books on Trial.

Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2007, review of Books on Trial.

Library Journal, September 15, 2007, Duncan Stewart, review of Books on Trial, p. 72.

Publishers Weekly, June 18, 2007, review of Books on Trial, p. 43.

Reference & Research Book News, August 1, 1994, review of Library Records: A Retention and Confidentiality Guide, p. 58; February 1, 2008, review of Books on Trial.

Times Literary Supplement, December 7, 2007, James M. Murphy, review of Books on Trial, p. 29.

ONLINE

Literary Dick (as in Private Detective),http://www.jonathanames.com/ (June 15, 2004), Jonathan Ames, author interview.

LLRX: Law and Technology Resources for Legal Professionals Web site,http://www.llrx.com/ (December 23, 2007), Heather Phillips, review of Books on Trial.

Marquette University Law School Web site,http://law.marquette.edu/ (May 30, 2008), faculty profile.

Red Dirt Book Festival Web site,http://reddirt.pls.lib.ok.us/ (May 27, 2008), author profile.