Target Audience: Librarians interested in human rights and the role of librarians in society; librarians interested in organizing print and electronic archives, including judges' papers Learning Outcomes: 1. Participants will identify ways to organize archives of a particular collection in a case study of court records and judges' papers. 2. Participants will be able to apply technology and organizational skills, and thereby, contribute to the rule of law through their professional expertise.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was established for the prosecution of persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of Rwanda in 1994. The Tribunal is scheduled to close in 2010, and many questions have arisen as to the best way to preserve materials, which encompass different media, print, videos, CDs, and DVDs. Policy and technological issues abound, as well as special security concerns, such as safety issues for witnesses and judges. Using this case study, the speakers will discuss how law librarians can help organizations retain information for the future and the different technologies that can be used. The lessons learned can be extrapolated to other collections and judges' papers. Among the questions to be explored are the following: What is important to preserve for the future for civil actions and human rights investigations, and for scholars? What are the appropriate questions to be raised when dealing with collections, judges' papers, trial transcripts, briefs, and other trial documents that may be sensitive? What technological solutions currently exist? What does one do when there is no technological solution currently? How can law librarians use their expertise to assist in similar projects both domestically and internationally?
