vol. 15, no. 1
October 2000

Jean Davis reported in the last FCIL Newsletter on a breakfast held for information professionals who were attending the ASIL Annual Meeting to talk about developments on the electronic front. At that gathering, international law librarians outlined the works in progress at their libraries and universities. One of the areas discussed was ASIL’s efforts to begin developing an “Electronic Information System for International Law” (EISIL) that could draw on the effort and expertise of members and other international law specialists.

The very good news is that ASIL has received financial support for EISIL through the Scholarly Communications Program of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  Since the Society was founded for the purposes of encouraging and facilitating scholarly communication -- a goal it has pursued for almost a century -- Mellon feels it is well suited to this project.

EISIL will be designed initially for scholarly and professional audiences.  It will feature topic-based indices (an overarching classification scheme with connections to primary source documents) and best sites evaluations (links to evaluated sites).  EISIL’s management structure will engage the full range of scholars and researchers needed to ensure the site’s genuine contribution to international law.

“As an electronic library, the Web presently leaves much to be desired,” ASIL Executive Director Charlotte Ku, who is spearheading the project, points out.  “The beauty of the Internet is immediate desktop access to what has been posted. The challenge, however, is not only finding what you are looking for, but also being confident that what you have found is credible and comprehensive.  This is where the Web has gaps, and why EISIL could play an important role helping to fill them.”

Jonathan Charney, Professor of International Law at Vanderbilt and co-editor in chief of the American Journal of International Law believes EISIL also represents a possible response to the transitional challenges all scholarly organizations are facing in the electronic environment of the 21st century.  “The professionally refereed journal is by no means dead or necessarily even threatened. By the same token, it would be naïve to suggest that learned societies can retain their leadership in print without taking a leadership role in the electronic environment.”

Recognizing the essential role that information specialists play in this process, we are already planning another gathering of those librarians from around the country who will be attending the 2001 ASIL Annual Meeting, which will be held in Washington, DC April 4-7, 2001.