UNT Dallas' Founding Librarian Leora Kemp

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University of North Texas at Dallas Honors Founding Librarian Leora Kemp

The University of North Texas at Dallas presented to Leora Kemp a plaque honoring her for her leadership, service, and support to the university and library this morning (Thursday April 14). Ms. Kemp was the founding librarian at the UNT Dallas campus.

Leora Kemp

Ceremony at UNT Dallas Library

UNT Dallas Librarian Brenda Robertson

UNT Dallas President Bob Mong, Brenda Robertson, Cindy Batman, and Leora Kemp

Leora

LEORA KEMP Biography

Leora Kemp served Texas students and libraries for nearly sixty years. She was known as a generous person who would hand out her cards to students, telling them that she was their “personal librarian.” People who worked with her referred to her as “a librarian’s librarian,” “the consummate librarian,” and “a wonderful supervisor.”

Her work in libraries started early as a student of Duncanville High School where she volunteered at the school library. She grew up in a world of books. Her mother and grandparents were voracious readers. She read anything from a Nancy Drew mystery, Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, or the World Book Encyclopedia. It was a Duncanville High School Teacher, Grace Brandenburg, who inspired Ms Kemp to continue her involvement with the library world.

Ms Kemp earned her bachelor’s degree at East Texas State (Texas A&M-Commerce), then earned her master’s degree in religious education at SMU’s Perkins Divinity School. For several years she worked at SMU’s Bridwell Library. After a short period at the University of Denver library and in New Mexico she moved to Alba, Texas where she taught middle school and worked at the school’s library. In 1978 she earned a master’s degree in library science from UNT and started working in the library at Texas State Technical Institute near Waco. In 1988 Ms Kemp began work at the Dallas Public library at Lakewood in East Dallas where she enjoyed serving the diverse user population. Five years later she transferred to the Hampton and Illinois Public Library branch of the Dallas public library.

While working at the Dallas Public Library she began researching adoption records. She would go on to assist 36 local residents to find their birth parents and relatives.

Ms Kemp began working at the UNT System Center at Dallas (University of North Texas at Dallas) on February 21, 2000. On her first day she was tasked with building a new library with only three empty book shelves, no tables, no chairs, and dozens of computers that were scheduled to be placed throughout the building. She admitted some apprehension after her first day, but she began networking with area libraries and serving on as many leadership committees as possible. With these relationships and insights, she laid the foundation of UNT Dallas’ virtual library.

When asked about her legacy Ms Kemp said she would like to be remembered as, “somebody who would listen and be empathetic...I’ve often told my staff that I want this library to be known as having the best service-attitude in the North Texas area. I’d say the world but that’s a little far-flung yet.” Ms Kemp said that her work as a librarian has been a “blessing from God, and I wish everybody had an opportunity in their lifetime to love a job as much as I’ve loved this one.”

Ms Kemp is the oldest child of Jimmy and Dorothy Barnham Kemp and has two brothers and a sister.

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Rembrandt Peale's George Washington Porthole Portrait Added to the UNT Dallas Library Collection

The UNT Dallas Library received a life portrait of George Washington at the February 19th Faculty Alliance meeting.

The portrait of Washington, sometimes referred to as the Porthole portrait, was painted by Philadelphian painter Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860). Peale was well known during his lifetime for his portraiture and replicas. His most prominent work was the Porthole portrait which he began in 1795 when he was only 17 years old. Washington sat for nine hours over three days for the portrait, however Peale felt he failed to capture the spirit of Washington during Washington's lifetime. He struggled for over two decades to capture his vision on canvas finally completing the portrait in 1823. The final portrait combines both an accurate portrayal and the ideal mystique of the man who lead the country during both war and peace and who helped establish the firm foundation upon which the government stands today. 

The original hangs in the old Senate Chamber of the United States Capitol, but you can view our copy at the UNT Dallas Library service desk located on the ground floor of building 7400 Founders Hall.

Interested in art? Why not try searching ARTSTOR one of the many art related databases provided to you from the UNT Dallas Library.

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New Book: Inside the American Couple

Inside The American Couple

Edited by Marilyn Yalom and Laura L. Carstensen

Book Description:

One of the most fundamental human urges is to form a pair. Despite many tendencies that threaten traditional marriage and even make committed cohabitation problematic, very few people live through adulthood without at least one lengthy relationship, and up to ninety percent of Americans marry at least once in their lives. This pioneering volume draws attention to issues that question the unspoken traditional practices underlying coupling in America. In it, some of today's most innovative feminist scholars consider the dramatic changes couples have experienced over the past fifty years, such as the proliferation of divorce, the increase in ethnically-mixed relationships, the preponderance of older couples, and the new visibility of same-sex unions.

Approaching their subject from a range of disciplines, the authors explore the couple as an enduring paradigm for human relationships, despite the changes in ideology and practice that couples have experienced over time. The essays delve into such subjects as the historical roots of modern marriage, the recent phenomenon of lesbian and gay commitment ceremonies, the home as a workplace and a place of refuge, and the stresses that turn a happy marriage into an unhappy one. One chapter explodes the myth that feminists are responsible for the high incidence of divorce, while another focuses on the financial worth of the wife after the demise of a long-standing marriage.

Taken together, these essays impart a deep and complex picture of the challenges facing couples in our time. The vital and engaging narratives show that however anxious our society may be in the face of dissolving marriages and dysfunctional families, couples will continue to form the bedrock of American society in the twenty-first century.

  

UNT Dallas students can request this book here:  

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New Book: Practicing Theory and Reading Literature

Practicing Theory and Reading Literature

By: Raman Selden

Book Description: 

A clear and accessible demonstration of how contemporary literary theories can be applied to a wide range of texts, from Shakespeare, Bunyan, Sterne, Keats, to James, Stevens, Joyce, Pinter, Updike, and Arthur Miller.

UNT Dallas students can request this book here:  

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