Janet Mary Riley: The Library, the Law, and Loyola

Janet Mary Riley in her Army Library Service uniform the she wore when she was Camp Librarian at Camp Plauché (June 1943-June 1945), Harahan, LA, and when she was Camp Librarian at La Garde General Hospital, New Orleans (June-Dec. 1945).

This is a cover from "Bulletin of the Louisiana Library Association," published quarterly in New Orleans. This one is from the Spring of 1943.

1954 article written by Janet Mary Riley dealing with the Camp Harahan she worked at. This work appeared in the Louisiana Library Association's 1943 Spring Bulletin.

1951 Bulletin for the Louisiana Library Association. Cover.

Janet Mary Riley's peer review of "The Public Library in the Politcal Process" that appeared in the 1951 Bulletin of the Louisiana Library Association.

The Librarian

Janet Mary Riley worked in numerous librarian positions before being hired as Law Librarian at Loyola’s Law School, she worked as a public librarian at the New Orleans Public Library, as an Army or “Camp” Librarian at Camp Plauche in Harahan, Louisiana and at LaGarae General Hospital in New Orleans.

Janet Mary Riley as she appeared in the Wolf yearbook when she was the Law Librarian at Loyola University New Orleans.

“We take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but we don’t live like nuns. We don’t live in community; we don’t have a common apostolate. It’s an important part of my life.”

--Janet Mary Riley, “I Found it Very Difficult to Be Heard” from Generations: A Century of Women Speak About their Lives

Janet Mary Riley's personal class register for her Legal Bibliography course at Loyola University New Orleans.

Janet Mary Riley's personal Faculty Handbook for Loyola Unviersity New Orleans, 1956.

Janet Mary Riley was New Orleans first female law professor.

The Society of Our Lady of The Way is a secular institute, “… a form of consecrated life in which lay people, through taking vows… dedicate themselves totally to God, while remaining fully in the world.”

Janet Mary Riley took her first yearly vow in 1966, and then took her perpetual vows in 1973.

Invitation to the celebration of Janet Mary Riley’s donation of her papers to Loyola’s Special Collections and Archives. The festivities took place in a New Orleanian uptown home on an October Sunday at 5pm in 1999.

The Professor

Janet Mary Riley was the first female professor at Loyola’s Law School. She began by teaching Legal Bibliography while she was the school’s Law Librarian and working on her law degree. She joined Loyola's law faculty fulltime in 1956 and stayed for 30 years.

“The students were another question. When I was teaching nothing but legal bibliography, the students were a little surprised that a woman was teaching, but they would know that I was the librarian, so that was not so difficult. But when I started teaching substantive law courses, this predominantly male student body – at the beginning it was almost totally male – were really shocked. They did not come to law school expecting to be taught by a woman.”

-- Janet Mary Riley, “I Found it Very Difficult to Be Heard” from Generations: A Century of Women Speak About their Lives