Introducing…Alex Burdett as the June 2023 FCIL-SIS Member of the Month

 

1. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Birtle, Manitoba, a small town on the Canadian prairies.

2. Why did you select law librarianship as a career? 

After undergrad, I knew I either wanted to become a librarian or a lawyer. After meeting the law school librarians, I realized I could do something related to both. I practiced for a few years then made the jump to law librarianship and haven’t looked back.

3. When did you develop an interest in foreign, comparative, and/or international law? 

I’ve always loved the challenge of working across legal traditions and learning how different societies address similar issues.

4. Who is your current employer? How long have you worked there? 

I work at the New York University School of Law. I’ve been here since 2022.

5. Do you speak or read any foreign languages? 

I studied French in university and speak and read enough to get by. I took a German class a few years ago – but can only recall the basics.

6. What is your most significant professional achievement? 

Overseeing the development of the Indigenous law collection at the University of Victoria Law Library to support the Law Faculty’s Indigenous law degree program and the National Centre for Indigenous Laws.

7. What is your biggest food weakness? 

Bread – too many good loaves to choose from.

8. What song makes you want to get up and sing/dance? 

Archie Bell & the Drells – Tighten Up

9. What ability or skill do you most wish you had (that you don’t have already)?

Like many other FCIL colleagues, I wish my language skills were stronger.

10. Aside from the basic necessities, what is one thing you can’t go a day without? 

Friends – both human and canine.

11. Anything else you would like to share with us?

I’m looking forward to collaborating with and learning from such amazing colleagues in the FCIL community!

Introducing…Amelia Landenberger as the May 2023 FCIL-SIS Member of the Month

 

1. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Suffield, Ohio, a few miles from my great-grandmother’s farm.

2. Why did you select law librarianship as a career? 

I knew that I wanted to be a librarian, and I had an idea that I’d like working in higher education, but I intended to get a JD/MLIS/MBA and then decide between working in business schools or law schools. I still don’t have the MBA, but never say never!

3. When did you develop an interest in foreign, comparative, and/or international law? 

I think my interest can be traced back to the books I read as a child. The dragons don’t live in your neighborhood, thank goodness, so if you want to find dragons you have to go on  adventures. I saw foreign, comparative, and international law as the most adventurous branch of law librarianship. 

4. Who is your current employer? How long have you worked there? 

I’ve worked at the Boston University Fineman and Pappas Law Libraries for almost five years now. 

5. Do you speak or read any foreign languages? 

I can muddle through in French, and I’ve studied Italian, German and Spanish. I also studied written Latin and I even took a course in reading Egyptian hieroglyphs (a perk of working in higher education).

6. What is your most significant professional achievement? 

My most significant professional achievement was when I advised a student that based on her interests and considerable research and writing talents, she’d be a great asset to a law journal. She wrote me an email a year or so later to say she’d become the editor-in-chief! I can’t always quantify my impact as a teacher so it was validating to hear that my suggestion was helpful.

7. What is your biggest food weakness? 

I love ice cream! I think I could eat it every day!

8. What song makes you want to get up and sing/dance? 

I don’t often sing around other people but I have been known to sing “I’ll make a man out of you” from Mulan. 

9. What ability or skill do you most wish you had (that you don’t have already)?

I wish I could speak many languages without having to work to learn them. In the film The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne has amnesia but as other people address him in non-English languages he finds that he can answer them without effort because he still remembers the languages, he just doesn’t know who he is. (Technically Jason still did all of the work to learn these languages, he just doesn’t remember it, but I still love the scenes where he discovers his linguistic talents as if by magic).

10. Aside from the basic necessities, what is one thing you can’t go a day without? 

Tea with milk; which is actually two things, but without the milk it’s just not the same. 

11. Anything else you would like to share with us?

I am grateful to be a part of such a generous profession. I deeply appreciate the librarians who have mentored me, listened to me, and led me towards growth as a librarian and a teacher.

Introducing…Heidi Frostestad as the April 2023 FCIL-SIS Member of the Month

 

1. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in small-town Iowa in Grant Wood country between Cedar Rapids and Dubuque. I enjoyed the setting for my youth and free roaming, but it made me want to explore the world.

2. Why did you select law librarianship as a career? 

I loved research, writing, and international law and business topics in law school.  After a year of practice in Chicago, I knew that it was time to pursue my real passions and go to library school.  My father had enrolled in library school at the University of Iowa as a second career after being a public-school teacher for over thirty years, so I followed his lead and advice and did the same.  I guess it goes to show you that you should always listen to your parents!  I have enjoyed every minute of law librarianship ever since—I’ve truly found my calling and am grateful every day.

3. When did you develop an interest in foreign, comparative, and/or international law? 

I started developing an interest in foreign, comparative, and international law in law school through my law review note topic, coursework, research for professors, study-abroad program in England, and participation in the Jessup Moot Court team.  I then expanded my interest in library school at Iowa through the wonderful collection there and then further delved into foreign and international law as a law librarian with a focus on that area of expertise at Marquette (my first law librarian position) and Northwestern (with a more formal role). 

4. Who is your current employer? How long have you worked there? 

I currently am the law library director and associate professor of law at the Northern Illinois University College of Law.  I have been working at NIU since 2014, so it’s been almost nine years now. 

5. Do you speak or read any foreign languages? 

I have basic reading knowledge of French, Spanish, and a little bit of Norwegian (from my grandparents).

6. What is your most significant professional achievement? 

I am very thankful for my FCIL-SIS awards, especially the Dan Wade service award and the Reynolds and Flores Publication Award, because it recognizes my hard work for this wonderful SIS and the awards are dedicated to my FCIL law librarian heroes. 

7. What is your biggest food weakness? 

Oh my—this is tough, but I would have to say blue cheese (with a nice glass of Bordeaux wine).  I spent one summer teaching for a summer law program in Bordeaux, France, and that just worsened my affinity for cheese and wine.

8. What song makes you want to get up and sing/dance? 

Dancing Queen, ABBA – every time.  I took my daughter to a Mamma Mia production pre-pandemic and now she’s indoctrinated, too.

9. What ability or skill do you most wish you had (that you don’t have already)?

I wish that I could skydive and see the world from that vantage point, but I am dreadfully afraid of open-air heights!  

10. Aside from the basic necessities, what is one thing you can’t go a day without? 

Definitely coffee.  I am drinking a cup of coffee right now, and I got hooked in college (and it keeps me alert/productive or so I tell myself).

11. Anything else you would like to share with us?

FCIL-SIS librarians are amazing—keep up the fantastic work in our SIS and please reach out to me if I can ever help you with a project or anything at all.  Carpe diem!

Introducing…Kate Britt as the March 2023 FCIL-SIS Member of the Month

 

Kate at improv school graduation

1. Where did you grow up?

I was born in Miami, Florida, and moved to Helena, Alabama at age 3. Despite growing up in Alabama, I insisted on never adopting the accent. I do, nevertheless, make liberal use of “y’all.”

2. Why did you select law librarianship as a career? 

Law school was an attractive opportunity to expand my skills in critical thinking and analysis, but the life of a lawyer never truly interested me. My favorite part of law school was the scavenger hunt of legal research. Soon after graduating, I learned that there’s an entire profession dedicated to the organization of information. I jumped at the chance to use my legal education and spend my workday thinking strategically (without the specter of billable hours).

3. When did you develop an interest in foreign, comparative, and/or international law? 

Early in my current position I was tasked with selecting for foreign law, and I’ve really enjoyed digging into this world. I was a history major in undergrad, and I am endlessly fascinated by the development and interconnectedness of nations and cultures throughout history. Every nation’s laws reflect where they’ve come from, what they value, and the future they are trying to build. FCIL work lets me see this often-overlooked side of foreign countries.

4. Who is your current employer? How long have you worked there? 

I have worked for the University of Michigan Law Library since October 2017. I’d never lived outside the South, and I had little concept of what I was getting into. I quickly fell in love with Ann Arbor–the people, the food, the nature, the culture. Even in the middle of an ice storm, I am happy to be here.

5. Do you speak or read any foreign languages? 

I studied Spanish all through school, and I am better at reading than speaking. My attempts to teach myself German were…ohne Erfolg.

6. What is your most significant professional achievement? 

I am proud of the articles I have written for the Michigan Bar Journal, particularly those on gun law. I enjoy gathering information and breaking it down into a user-friendly explanation. If my work helps other attorneys, scholars, and activists do their work better, I’ve done my job.

7. What is your biggest food weakness? 

Generally: cereal. Specifically: I’ve probably saved at least half a dozen pandas with my Panda Puffs purchases.

8. What song makes you want to get up and sing/dance? 

Something comes over me whenever “Heartbeats” by The Knife kicks in. My head and shoulders are swaying right now, just thinking of it. Do yourself a favor and throw on the whole album Deep Cuts.

9. What ability or skill do you most wish you had (that you don’t have already)?

I’d love to be able to play piano. I played clarinet in school, and I’m self-taught on the guitar and ukulele, but the piano feels too daunting. Two lines of music at once? In this economy?

10. Aside from the basic necessities, what is one thing you can’t go a day without? 

Standing in my living room, holding a cat, staring out the front window, imagining what I am going to plant in the yard. Last year I installed a rain garden using native plants in my front yard. This spring I’m planning an edible food forest using permaculture principles. Fruit tree guilds are firmly planted in my mind; I’m just waiting for winter to end so I can make them a reality.

11. Anything else you would like to share with us?

I am not the junior senator for the state of Alabama, but we did go to law school together. (No relation.)

Introducing…Trezlen Drake as the February 2023 FCIL-SIS Member of the Month

 

1. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Macon, a rural community in the piedmont region of North Carolina, across the border from Virginia.

2. Why did you select law librarianship as a career? 

I practiced law off and on for a few years and realized that, while I enjoyed helping others, I didn’t enjoy the work. Law librarianship seemed like a good way to combine my legal training with a place that I loved: the library.

3. When did you develop an interest in foreign, comparative, and/or international law? 

I honestly didn’t know it was a thing until one of my classmates mentioned it. I was fascinated since I enjoy learning language and culture, and am concerned about human rights. And it was a great way for me to continue that learning while getting paid to do it.

4. Who is your current employer? How long have you worked there? 

I am currently employed by Yale’s Lillian Goldman Law Library. I have worked here since March 2022.

5. Do you speak or read any foreign languages? 

I studied Russian in high school and college, and a little Spanish, and French in college and grad school. Russian is my strongest language, but I’m rusty since I don’t meet many who speak it. My brain does pull in the occasional Russian word that works in context; I then have to remember the English translation.

6. What is your most significant professional achievement? 

My most significant professional achievement is co-founding PEGA-SIS (from the Gen X/Y Caucus) with two phenomenal law librarians who took a mumbled one-off comment seriously and worked with me to create and run a real group that has grown beyond what we ever imagined.

7. What is your biggest food weakness? 

Dirty Chai. I am not a person who needs caffeine to function; a glass of water will do just fine, thank you very much! But I love a milky coffee (thanks to my Granny) and a spicy chai (the real stuff, not the syrupy mix!). A dirty chai is an obvious lovechild of the two. I am always tempted by it no matter the time of day. I use the resulting midnight wakefulness thinking about my poor choices and how I will never again have one so late in the day. Until the next time it happens.

8. What song makes you want to get up and sing/dance? 

This is hard because I have a jukebox in my head! Funk, soul, and R&B songs from the 70s. Just about anything for the 80s. Ninety’s alternative. Pop music! Prince. Amy Winehouse. It just depends on the day and the mood.

9. What ability or skill do you most wish you had (that you don’t have already)?

Sewing and clothing design. I see and try on clothes, dresses and pants, and have ideas of how to make it fit me or even look better, but I wasn’t taught to sew growing up. So, these are just dreams that dance in my head.

10. Aside from the basic necessities, what is one thing you can’t go a day without? 

Moisturizer. Gotta keep my skin young and supple.

11. Anything else you would like to share with us?

I have enjoyed my time as an FCIL librarian, meeting and spending time with FCIL colleagues around the country and world.

Trezlen Drake is the Head of Digital Resources and a Research Librarian at Yale’s Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Introducing…Stephanie Farne as the January 2023 FCIL-SIS Member of the Month

 

1. Where did you grow up?

Norwell, MA, a pretty small town south of Boston.

2. Why did you select law librarianship as a career? 

After a short time practicing litigation, I realized practicing law was not for me.  I talked with my sister who was in library school, and she connected me with her roommate, an attorney who was in library school.  I have never looked back!  

3. When did you develop an interest in foreign, comparative, and/or international law? 

I studied international relations in undergrad, and had minors in French and Spanish.  When I was studying library science at Simmons, I saw a job posting for a reference assistant at Harvard’s ILS library.  I had never thought I could tie my undergrad studies into my career, and I was really excited about the possibility. 

4. Who is your current employer? How long have you worked there? 

I work at BC Law Library, where I started in February 2021, remotely.

5. Do you speak or read any foreign languages? 

I have minors from undergrad in French and Spanish.

6. What is your most significant professional achievement? 

One of the highlights for me recently was returning to academic law librarianship.  I left Boston University Law Library in January 2005 to work at a law firm.  After 7 years at the firm library, I stepped away from law librarianship, working part time at public, school and college libraries.  Then, in February 2021, I returned, starting my current position at Boston College Law School Library.

7. What is your biggest food weakness? 

Dark chocolate.

8. What song makes you want to get up and sing/dance? 

Think I might date myself here.  Anything by New Order.

9. What ability or skill do you most wish you had (that you don’t have already)?

I wish I had more language skills. My undergrad French and Spanish is rusty.  I wish I also had a non Romance language.

10. Aside from the basic necessities, what is one thing you can’t go a day without? 

Coffee.  Though that might be a basic necessity in most people’s books!

11. Anything else you would like to share with us?

I am beyond excited to be back in the role of FCIL specialist.  After stepping away from law librarianship, I did not think I would return to the job I love so much.  I also want to thank the Dream Team at Harvard who trained me: Jeannette Yackle, Stephen Wiles and Silke Sahl.  They were the best teachers and co-workers I could have ever had.

Introducing…Marcelo Rodriguez as the May 2020 FCIL-SIS Member of the Month

1. Where did you grow up?

I was born and raised in Caguas, Puerto Rico.

2. Why did you select law librarianship as a career?

I’ve always been interested in the law and legal research without ever wanting to be a lawyer. Law librarianship seems like the perfect fit.

3. When did you develop an interest in foreign, comparative, and international law?

My upbringing and language skills have always seemed a natural fit for any FCIL research questions. I’d like to think that my open mindedness and keen observations also play a part.

4. Who is your current employer? How long have you worked there?

I currently work as a Research and Training Librarian at the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit located in New York, NY. I have been in this position for the last two years.

5. Do you speak any foreign languages?

Spanish is my mother tongue. Besides English, I also speak French very fluently. And I have some reading fluency in Hebrew and German.

6. What is your most significant professional achievement?

In the last two years, I have managed to coordinate 4 panels for the AALL Annual Meetings. This coming summer, I may be coordinating 4 more. Not only it has been a significant professional achievement, it has also been a transformative experience to network and exchange ideas with people equally passionate on the rule of law and legal information.

7. What is your biggest food weakness?

Pizza. I can eat pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner and even in between meals. Please do not share this questionnaire with my mother or my doctor.

8. What song makes you want to get up and sing/dance?

Si tú te vas by Juan Luis Guerra. It’s the best thing ever! It reminds me of Puerto Rico in the early 1990s, friends and family gatherings.

9. What ability or skill do you most wish you had (that you don’t have already)?

American Sign Language (ASL). I would love to one day begin classes and become somewhat fluent.

10. Aside from the basic necessities, what is one thing you can’t go a day without?

Coffee. No sugar, no milk, no nothing, just pitch black coffee. I can always drink coffee and for all kinds of reasons either because I have to stay awake or even after a meal to just soothe myself.

11. Anything else you would like to share with us?

If anyone is interested in Puerto Rican literature, I’m happy to recommend the following: Macho Camacho’s Beat by Luis Rafael Sánchez, Sirena Selena by Mayra Santos Febres and/or Eccentric Neighborhoods by Rosario Ferré and in Poetry: anything by Julia de Burgos.