The Role of Information Specialists in the Aftermath of Military Conflict

This week, the New York Times reported the death of Ernesto Sábato, renowned novelist and head of the commission that investigated the crimes committed by Argentina's military dictatorship during the "Dirty War" from 1976 to 1983. Ernesto Sábato, Argentina's Conscience, Is Dead at 99, N.Y. Times, May 1, 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/americas/02sabato.html (in the print edition May 2, 2011, at A25).

Two programs at the AALL Annual Meeting this July will address the role of librarians, archivists and other information specialists in the restoration of civil society institutions and rights, evidence of war crimes and cultural property damaged or destroyed during military conflict.


Program H5: Libricide as a War Crime: From the Lieber Code to Personal Liability, on Tuesday, July 26, 9:00 AM-10:30 AM, will cover the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and the efforts of UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme and of the U.S. Department of Defense, IFLA, and librarians to rebuild libraries, archives and other cultural institutions and restore their collections. M. Kathleen Price, Levin College of Law, University of Florida, will be the Coordinator/Moderator/Speaker, and the other speakers will be Mary-Jane Deeb, Library of Congress, and Harry "Terry" S. Martin, III, University of Texas School of Law.


Ms. Gloria Orrego Hoyos, the 2011 Recipient of the FCIL Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarians, will make a presentation at the FCIL-SIS Program, The Executive Committee Presents... entitled Never Again, Never Forget: The Role of Libraries and Archives in Reconstructing Memory of Argentina's Dirty War. The program is scheduled for Monday, July 25, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM. Ms. Orrego Hoyos is a native of Colombia, where she obtained her law degree, and is now living and working in Argentina, where she obtained her library degree and a master’s degree in law. She is the Legal Reference Librarian and a Professor of Law and Legal Research at the Universidad de San Andrés in Buenos Aires.


The attendance of Ms. Orrego Hoyos at the Annual Meeting is made possible by the FCIL Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Libraries. The Grant was established in 2000 by initial contributions from AALL and FCIL-SIS member Ellen Schaffer, who continues to support the grant. Ms. Orrego Hoyos is the tenth recipient and the first from Latin America. The FCIL-SIS is committed to making the Grant self-sustaining, and we encourage you to join us for the talk by Ms. Orrego Hoyos and to consider a donation to the FCIL Schaffer Grant. Information about donating is available on the AALL Giving Opportunities page at http://aallnet.org/top-menu/givingopportunities. (Please note that the page currently has only the donation by mail form; the online donation form is temporarily unavailable but will appear on the new AALLnet.org later.) Information about the FCIL Schaffer Grant and past recipients is at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/fcilsis/index.html.


Mr. Ahmadullah Masoud, the 2009 FCIL Schaffer Grant Recipient, will be attending his second AALL Annual Meeting this year thanks to his current employer Tetra Tech DPK. He is currently Law Library and Legal Research Advisor at the USAID-funded Afghanistan Rule of Law Stabilization Program-Formal (RLS-Formal). His 2009 presentation was entitled The Past, Present, and Future of the Law Library and Librarianship in Afghanistan: The Challenges and Rewards of Building a Library After 30 Years of War, and it is available as a podcast via the Pace Law School Library at http://pace_law_library_podcasts.classcaster.org/blog/podcast/2009/11/04/
ahmadullah_masoud_on_law_librarianship_in_afghanistan. We also expect to post a podcast of the presentation by Ms. Orrego Hoyos.