The days are getting longer, the weather warmer, and the trees greener. As we move into spring, our law librarian thoughts begin to turn toward the AALL Annual Meeting in July, a mere few months away. As you make your plans and set your schedules for St. Louis, there are many wonderful opportunities to learn from, and be a part of, the FCIL-SIS.

Come to FCIL programs: For the first time, FCIL-SIS will present two topical meetings at the AALL Annual Meeting. At the FCIL-SIS Roundtable - Hot Topic in International Law on Sunday July 9 from 2:45 PM - 4 PM, Mark Engsberg and Teresa Miguel will present Confronting Atrocities: Issues and Resources. This presentation will focus on the institutions and mechanisms that have been developed and implemented around the world for revealing and confronting atrocities and human rights abuses. Mark and Teresa will discuss issues related to the availability of documents, images, records, and other materials for truth and reconciliation commissions, international courts, tribunals, treaties, news, non-governmental organizations and other sources and where they can be found. Jurisdictions covered will include the United States, Canada, the European Union, Rwanda, East Timor, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the former Yugoslavia, and others.

On Tuesday, July 11 from 10:15 AM until 11:30 AM, Lucy Cox will coordinate an FCIL-SIS Forum: Post-Soviet Law: Sources and Access. Learn about how Russian Federation law can be accessed and researched in a wide variety of publications and formats. This session will cover sources of Russian law emanating from various branches of government. Coverage includes official and unofficial sources, print and electronic formats, Russian and English language material. Librarians who attend will become familiar with this material and be better prepared to deal with reference and research queries dealing with this area of law. Although the session will focus on the legal system of the Russian Federation, some information about other countries in the former territory of the Soviet Union will be provided. Speakers include Lucy Cox, Kevin Gray, Mary Strouse and Jane Williams.

And of course, take advantage of the terrific line up of FCIL-SIS sponsored educational programs this July in St. Louis!

More information, including locations for these programs as well as the complete list of FCIL sponsored programs, meetings and events, will be available at the FCIL-SIS website (http://www.aallnet.org/sis/fcilsis/).

Attend an FCIL committee or interest group meeting: Interested in a particular area of FCIL librarianship? Have a terrific idea for a program proposal for 2007? Want to learn about how other members of the SIS teach? Come to a committee or interest group meeting. All are welcome to attend these meetings. You can see a complete schedule of meetings at http://www.aallnet.org/database/meeting_annual_events.asp. If you have questions about a meeting, or are interested in working as part of a committee or interest group and cannot make scheduled time, please feel free to contact the interest group and committee chairs. Their names and contact information are available at: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/fcilsis/committees.html.

Meet a foreign law librarian: The Schaffer Grant Committee Chair Anne Burnett, along with committee members Barbara Bean and David Gay, are proud to announce the recipient of this year's grant. Hind Al-Helaly has been the Law Library Cataloger and Technical Services Specialist at the Law Library of the Department of Law, American University in Cairo since February 2005.

Before that she worked as a librarian at the Al-Ahram newspaper Information Center and the Social Research Center at the American University in Cairo. She has a B.A. in Library Science from Cairo University, a Pre-Master Degree from the Information Technology Section of Cairo University, and is working on her Masters in Library Science at Cairo University where her thesis is on "The Automated Cataloging System in American University in Cairo Libraries." Ms. Al-Helaly brings with her a unique perspective on the tension between the library's goal of providing access to information, and regional traditions of withholding information as a means of holding on to power. Watch the FCIL-SIS website for opportunities to meet Ms. Al-Helaly in St. Louis, including at the "Executive Committee Presents."

Call for Volunteers: Looking for a way to make a small time commitment but help out the FCIL-SIS? Please consider volunteering - for as little as one hour - to staff the FCIL-SIS table in the activities area to answer questions about the FCIL-SIS, keep the table stocked with literature and looking neat, and share some of your enthusiasm for FCIL librarianship! If you are interested in learning more, please email me at stephanie.farne@wilmerhale.com.

Time does fly by so quickly - I cannot believe that this is my final From the Chair column. It has been a busy, but fun, year serving FCIL. In the next Newsletter, you will hear from Mary Rumsey, incoming Chair. As I look back, I realize that this year would not have been possible for me without Mary's encouragement, assistance and enthusiasm. I know the SIS will be in great hands when Mary takes over as Chair in July. I also want to thank Dennis Sears for all of his assistance, particularly with taking the FCIL election online for the first time. My thanks to Heidi Kuehl for her work on the FCIL-SIS website, Amy Burchfield, our enthusiastic newsletter editor, Anne Burnett, Ellen Schaffer, Mary Strouse, David Gay and Barbara Bean who ensured that all of us would get the opportunity to meet a law librarian from another country through the Schaffer Grant, and also to the many others (too numerous to list here!) who work as part of the committees and interest groups to keep the FCIL-SIS the wonderful resource it is for all of us. And thanks to you all for your continued commitment to, and enthusiasm for, the FCIL-SIS and FCIL librarianship. What a wonderful year this has been!

TO HIND AL-HELALY!!
2006 SCHAFFER GRANT RECIPIENT