University of New England

The Legacy of the
Librarian

When Rosemary Kelley joined UNECOM as its medical librarian in 1978, disco reigned supreme, Jimmy Carter was president and a gallon of gas cost approximately 60 cents. The UNECOM library for the fledgling medical school at the time was rudimentary at best, with only 200 old medical texts, and no journal subscriptions or reference materials.

Rosemary Kelley was one of the brave souls who helped start the UNE College of Osteopathic Medicine,” said Dean of Library Services Andrew Golub, who worked with Kelley in the early 1980’s. “She, like the founding faculty members and the first classes of medical students, took a substantial risk on an as-yet-unaccredited institution. She was the founding librarian of COM and built an excellent medical library literally from nothing,” Golub said.

Steller Background

"The fact that she left a generous gift to the UNECOM Scholarship Fund is perfectly in keeping with her dedication and devotion to these medical students." Andrew Golub Dean of Library Services

Kelley came to UNE with a stellar background, having graduated with her B.A. from Bates in 1955, and with professional office experience from Tufts University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School. Over the next six years, she single-handedly built a 5,000-volume and 300-journal medical library. She also developed an audiovisual collection with hardware and software and a reference collection, and hired, trained and managed five people as a part of the library staff — all on very tight budgets.

“With such a high percentage of library materials available electronically today, we think nothing of having thousands of full-text medical journals available to students and faculty 24/7," Golub noted. "But in the late 1970’s, to have created a viable, and an able-to-be-accredited, medical library, as Rosemary did at UNE, was a huge undertaking.” 

In 1984 the medical and undergraduate libraries merged to provide a more streamlined operation with an emphasis on medicine, health sciences and human services. As a result, Kelley decided to attend Simmons College, where she completed her master’s degree in library services in 1985 at age 53.

Accomplishments
Among her other accomplishments, she was published — Chapter 14 of Case Studies in Library Computer Systems by Richard Palmer Ph.D. (New York: RR Bowker Co. 1983) and she was a member of the Special Libraries Association, Medical Libraries Association, Health and Medical Information Cooperative of Southern Maine and Southern Maine Library District. For 20 years, she also cared for her ailing aunts in both Biddeford and Hiram, Maine.

Kelley’s hard work and dedication was instilled in her by her family. Her Irish grandfather immigrated to Hiram, Maine, where he built and worked a farm and created a timber business, involving the grandchildren in an environment where hard work was part of their lives from an early age. Kelley took that attitude to heart, achieving much in her career.

Her achievements were even more significant as she had cerebral palsy but never allowed the disease to hamper her and never used it as an excuse. She was also a cancer survivor and lived with diabetes.

Her nephew Jack Kelley said: “Despite these daunting medical ailments, Rosemary was always in good spirits.”  With her strong work ethic, a lifetime of saving and some solid estate planning, Rosemary Kelley was able to give back to something she believed could make a difference.

Endowed Scholarship
Sadly, she passed away in April 2007, but her planned gift of $200,000 has enabled the University to create an endowed scholarship for UNECOM students with financial needs who aspire to do better.

“Rosemary believed in helping those less fortunate, who also wished to improve themselves and their communities – something that comes naturally to UNE’s medical students,” said Jack Kelley.

Andrew Golub added, “The fact that she left a generous gift to the UNECOM Scholarship Fund is perfectly in keeping with her dedication and devotion to these medical students. We at UNE today are indebted to folks like Rosemary Kelley who saw the potential and took the risks necessary to begin this venture.”