Fred Shapiro Receives Honors from American Association of Law Libraries

Fred Shapiro, Associate Director for Collections and Special Projects at the Lillian Goldman Law Library and Lecturer in Legal Research at Yale Law School, is being recognized by the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) for his exceptional achievement in law librarianship and contributions to the field. 

Shapiro has been named a 2024 recipient of the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award, the AALL’s highest honor. The award recognizes a career of outstanding, extended, and sustained service and achievement in law librarianship and to AALL. Shapiro has been a member of AALL for four decades.

“Fred has raised the profile and visibility of the profession in unparalleled ways through his exemplary writings and special projects,” said Law Librarian and Professor of Law Femi Cadmus. “In addition to his annual compilation of popular quotes and the publication of books such as The Yale Book of Quotations, he created the highly regarded book series — the Yale Law Library Series in Legal History and Reference — published by Yale University Press. His studies of most-cited law review articles and most-cited legal scholars are renowned in the legal academy.”

Shapiro also received the annual Frederick Charles Hicks Award for Outstanding Contributions to Academic Law Librarianship, named in honor of the former Yale Law School Law Librarian and Professor of Law who once served as AALL’s president. Hicks was at the Law School from 1929 to 1945.

“I have been lucky to receive a lot of recognition in my life. But this honor is special because it comes from my colleague law librarians,” said Shapiro. “Law librarianship is a very important profession, and AALL is our central organization. Bestowing the Marian Gallagher Award on me is a kind of affirmation by AALL that the academic and scholarly aspects of law librarianship are still a vital part of the profession.”

Shapiro will receive both awards at the AALL annual meeting in July, where he will also be inducted into the AALL Hall of Fame that recognizes those members whose contributions to the profession and service to AALL have been significant, substantial, and longstanding.

In addition to his longtime roles at the Law School, Shapiro is the editor of The Yale Book of Quotations and the Oxford Dictionary of American Legal Quotations, as well as many other books, and has been recognized as the leading contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary. He holds a J.D. from Harvard University, an M.S.L.S. from the Catholic University of America, and an S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.