Dee J. Kelly Law Library > About the Law Library > History

History

When the law school was founded in 1989, it was known as the Dallas/Fort Worth School of Law. The law school was located on the University of Dallas campus in Irving, Texas in the "Mother House of the School Sisters of Notre Dame." The entire library was housed in the dining room and chapel of the "Mother House." The Westlaw and Lexis room was in the Sanctorum area of the chapel.

In the summer of 1991, the school moved to a new building on Grauwyler Road in Irving. The library was located in the southwest corner of the building on the top floor. Space was limited with only 12,500 linear feet of shelving. At that time, the library staff consisted of two professional librarians and two staff members. In 1992, the law school was purchased by Texas Wesleyan University and renamed Texas Wesleyan University School of Law.

The law school moved to its current location in Fort Worth during the summer of 1997. The library was located in the lower level of the new building. With this move the library space grew to 16,000 linear feet of shelving.

In early 2005, the law school began a major renovation project. The law library was to take over the entire lower level of the law school. By the end of construction the law library had grown to over 40,000 linear feet of shelving and offered nine study rooms, a computer lab, a computer classroom, a quiet room, and an impressive reading room.

In October 2005, the library was formally named the Dee J. Kelly Law Library in honor of Dee J. Kelly, a prominent Fort Worth attorney, through generous gifts made by the Burnett Foundation and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation.