O'Byrne honored at 102nd AALL Annual Meeting

The Foreign, Comparative and International Law Special Interest Section (FCIL-SIS) of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) honored Chris O’Byrne with the 2009 “Spirit of the FCIL-SIS Award” at the 102nd AALL Annual Meeting in Washington, DC (July 25-28, 2009) in recognition of his work as Chair of the 2009 FCIL Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarians Search Committee.

The FCIL Schaffer Grant for Foreign Librarians provides financial assistance to ensure the presence and participation of foreign librarians at the AALL Annual Meeting. Since 2001, the FCIL Schaffer Grant for Foreign Law Librarians has enabled eight librarians from outside the United States to participate in collaborative learning and professional development opportunities with American law librarians and other legal information professionals.

This year’s recipient, Mr. Ahmadullah Masoud, is a reference librarian and director of the Independent National Legal Training Center (INLTC) Law Library, funded by the USAID Afghanistan Rule of Law Project (ARoLP), in Kabul, Afghanistan. At AALL, Mr. Masoud was joined by Andrea Muto (USAID), Blair Kaufmann (Director, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School; Advisor, Afghanistan Rule of Law Project), and Lucie Olejnikova (Pace Law Library) for the FCIL-SIS Executive Committee Presents panel 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.”

If you are interested in learning more about this topic, the October 2009 issue of the FCIL Newsletter will include additional information about the legal system of Afghanistan, the INLTC’s role in increasing access to justice in Afghanistan, and the practical and technical challenges which the INLTC has faced.