vol. 15, no. 2
February 2001

The FCIL SIS received an extraordinary holiday gift from Section leader Ellen G. Schaffer and the AALL Executive Board – creation of the Ellen Schaffer Foreign Librarian’s Grant. The Schaffer Grant will provide financial assistance to ensure the presence and participation of foreign librarians at the AALL Annual Meeting. Ellen Schaffer has donated $10,000 to establish this new grant and AALL will match this amount in Fiscal Year 2001. Schaffer Grant recipients will enrich AALL events by sharing global perspectives to the benefit of all participants.

Ellen Schaffer is a lively, caring mentor to many librarians. Currently, Ellen is Librarian to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany. She was our dynamic FCIL SIS Chair in 1987-88. She also was a member of the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals Advisory Committee. Ellen taught us how to conduct GATT research at the 1993 AALL Institute Introduction to International Organizations and co-directed the 1996 AALL Institute Contemporary Practice of Public International Law. She is the editor of the Directory of Foreign Law Collections in Selected Law Libraries (co-editor, Thomas R. Bruce, 1991) and Contemporary Practice of Public International Law (co-editor, Randall J. Snyder, 1997). The FCIL SIS Executive Committee thanks Ellen Schaffer for a career of generosity to librarians, as most recently expressed through establishment of the Schaffer Grant.

The inaugural Schaffer Grant will cover one foreign librarian’s 1) AALL Annual Meeting registration costs and 2) a percentage of the foreign librarian’s AALL Annual Meeting travel and per diem expenses.¹  The Schaffer Grant application² appears in this Newsletter and on the FCIL SIS web site at http://www.lawsch.uga.edu/fcil/fcil.html.  Tracy Thompson (FCIL SIS Secretary-Treasurer) is Chair of the AALL FCIL SIS Grant Committee; she will be happy to answer foreign librarians’ questions about the grant application process. Tracy Thompson’s contact information appears on the Schaffer Grant application form.  Note: The Chair of the AALL FCIL SIS Grant Committee must receive all applications by April 16, 2001.  The AALL FCIL SIS Grant Committee also will publicize the Schaffer Grant in other print and electronic sources.
The FCIL SIS Executive Committee encourages supplemental contributions to the Schaffer Grant fund.

1  The amount available for travel and per diem expenses may vary, depending on the annual income generated by the Schaffer Grant fund.
2  The FCIL SIS Executive Board worked closely with Ellen Schaffer to develop the grant application.