Melanie Knapp
Director of the Pence Law Library and Law Librarian
WCL | WCL Faculty
Degrees
MSIS, University of Texas at Austin, 2007 JD, University of Texas at Austin, 2002 BS (Botany), University of Texas at Austin, 1998
Bio
Melanie Knapp is the Director of the Pence Law Library. She is responsible for the administration of library services, including budgeting, personnel, collection management, physical facilities, and long-range planning. She teaches legal research, and she provides research assistance to faculty, students, alumni, and members of the bar.
While studying for her master’s degree, Knapp was a Fellow at the Tarlton Law Library, under Professor Roy Mersky. Then, she worked at the Ohio State University Moritz Law Library as reference librarian, research instructor, and writing instructor. She held numerous positions in the George Mason University Law Library, including as Director.
Before becoming a librarian, she worked as an environmental litigation associate in Austin, Texas, practicing in state, administrative, and federal courts, focusing on Texas civil procedure, open meetings laws, local government law, and ground water law, and federal statutes including the ESA, CWA, NEPA, FOIA, and EAJA. She is a member of the Texas Bar.
Professor Knapp’s scholarly interests touch on the subjects of her practice experience, legal research tools and pedagogy, citation metrics, and the status of law librarians in academe.
Professor Knapp teaches legal research embedded throughout the curriculum and in library workshops, and she teaches a section of Advanced Legal Research.
