Amy Emerson, Assistant Professor of Law & Director of the Law Library

Room 151 | (610) 519-7023 | email

Amy became the Director of the Law Library and Assistant Professor of Law in the summer of 2018.  She manages law library operations and strategic planning, oversees the legal research curriculum, and teaches Legal Research, Analysis, Writing, and Communication in the first year legal writing program. Professor Emerson’s areas of expertise include law library administration, emerging law library service models and technologies, alternative research platforms, and experiential legal research pedagogy.

Prior to joining Villanova, and following nine years in private practice, Professor Emerson served as Associate Director for Library Administration and Adjunct Clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law School.  While at Cornell, she created the Legal Research Clinic and became its Director, building the first generalist legal clinic of its kind.

Professor Emerson received her B.A. with honors from Wells College, and dual J.D. and M.L.S. degrees with honors from Syracuse University.

Benjamin Carlson - Head of Digital Initiatives and Legal Research Instructor

Room 160 | (610) 519-6256 | email

Ben manages the digital presence of the law library, including the law library website, online faculty scholarship, the Villanova Law Digital Repository, and other online tools and services that advance legal research, scholarship, instruction, and learning.  He also teaches legal research to the first-year students.  Ben joined the Villanova law library in the Fall of 2012.  Before coming to Villanova, he worked as a librarian at Northern Illinois University College of Law and the School of Law at Drexel University. He received his J.D. from the University of Notre Dame in 2006, and his Masters in Library Science from the iSchool at Drexel University in 2009.

Mary Cornelius - Head of Circulation and Reference Librarian

Room 162 | (610) 519-7189 | email

Mary is the Head of the Circulation Department and an experienced Reference Librarian. She handles the day-to-day operations of the Circulation/Reserve Desk and is responsible for hiring, training and managing the student Circulation/Reserve Assistants who work at this Desk.  In addition, Mary researches and fulfills inter-library loan requests from Villanova Law faculty and students and provides expert research support. She is also responsible for maintaining records and creating reports on various aspects of library services.  Prior to joining Villanova’s Law Library in 1988, Mary was a Reference Librarian at American University Law School Library and a Librarian for a medium size law firm in Washington, DC.  She holds a Masters in Library Science from The Catholic University of America and completed substantial coursework towards a JD at The Washington College of Law, American University Law School.

Lori Strickler Corso - Head of Staff Development
and Legal Research Instructor

Room 159 | (610) 519-7235 | email

Lori currently serves as the Head of Staff Development for the library, providing training to support library projects and identifying professional development opportunities for the librarians and library staff. She also manages our law databases, helps to maintain the law library’s website, creates and manages the library's research guides and develops additional tutorials for faculty and student use. Lori teaches the Advanced Legal Research elective course and guest lectures on research in seminar paper and other courses as well as the law school clinics. Lori joined the Villanova Law Library in 2010, after working as the firm librarian for a large law firm based in Los Angeles. She holds a JD from Northeastern University School of Law and a Masters in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University.

Steve Elkins - Associate Director for Collection Management

Room 164 | (610) 519-7780 | email

Steve coordinates law library activities involving the book collection and online resource procurement, including acquisitions, cataloging and collection management. He also manages the integrated library system and its public catalog interfaces. In addition, Steve supervises the law school archives and prepares law library statistical and budget reports.  Steve joined the library in 1989 after working as a cataloger at the University of Virginia law library.  He has a Masters in Library Science from the University of Maryland, a Masters in English Literature from the University of Virginia and a Masters in Theology from Wheaton College, Illinois.

Mary Jo Heacock, Head of Cataloging and Government Documents

Room L30 | (610) 519-7896 | email

Mary Jo supervises Law Library cataloging and our participation in the Government Document Depository Program. She maintains the Law Library catalog database, processes new materials for the collection and assembles data for the monthly acquisitions list and statistical reports. She also processes interlibrary loan requests from other academic libraries. Mary Jo joined the Villanova Law Library in 2004. She holds a Masters in Library and Information Sciences from Drexel University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Kutztown University.

Robert Hegadorn, Foreign, Comparative, and International Law Librarian and Legal Research Instructor

Room 163 | (610) 519-7021 | email

Robert currently supports the scholarly work of faculty as a faculty liaison librarian and as the foreign, comparative, and international law specialist. In addition to his reference and research support, he teaches several sections of Legal Research in the first-year curriculum. He also guest lectures on a variety of research topics including health law, litigation writing, and tax law for the Clinic and the Graduate Tax program.

Before joining the Law Library staff in 2006, Robert practiced law in Missouri, and was later a Reference Librarian at the University of Missouri -Columbia School of Law Library.  Robert earned his B.A. from Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri, his J.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, and his M.A., Information Science and Learning Technology, from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Information Science and Learning Technology. 

Regina Kozul - Circulation Assistant / Acquisitions and Accounting Specialist

Room 164 | (610) 519-6258 | email

Regina works in Circulation and Collection Management. In Circulation she handles day-to-day operations of the Circulation / Reserve Desk including answering visitors questions, assisting with catalog use, creating patron records, reviewing overdue notices, and processing Class Reserves and hold requests. She also administers user accounts for Lexis, Westlaw, and BloombergLaw. In Collection Management, she verifies and processes invoices for payment, prepares and revises online order records, and contributes to collection development by identifying new editions. She also is responsible for maintaining and creating reports on various aspects of library services and acquisitions. Regina has a degree from Immaculata University,  a Paralegal certificate from Widener University, and a Masters Degree in Liberal Studies from Villanova University.

Amy Spare, Associate Director for Library Services

Room 161 | (610) 519-7188 | email

Amy coordinates law library services to faculty, students and visitors for reference, ILL, circulation, reserves, collection development and permissions. She also teaches legal research in the first-year curriculum, serves as a faculty advisor in the Professional Development course and guest lectures in upper-level classes on research strategies in areas such as administrative law, criminal law, sexuality and the law, government documents, and fact finding.  Before coming to Villanova Law in 2005, Amy provided research services in a major law firm in Houston, Texas and headed the Government Publications Department at Rice University, a patent and trademark depository library.   As a practicing attorney, she worked for the Alaska Public Defender’s Offices in Bethel and Anchorage and for Central Pennsylvania Legal Services.  Amy holds a JD from Northeastern University College of Law and an MLIS from the University of Texas at Austin.