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30 FCIL Newsl. 1 (2015-2016)

handle is hein.lbr/aafcnlt0030 and id is 1 raw text is: Volume 30, Issue 1 October 2015 FOREIGN, COMPARATIVE, AND INTERNATIONAL IAW SPECIAL INTEREST SECTION Insd th Dg amarkjId Library of the UN..JjI Heidi Frostestad Kuehi & Megan A. O'Brien Note: This article was orninaly pubshed in the September 2015 issue ofMAALL Markings. Thank you to the editorsforpermision to rpint it here! The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines mecca as a ... place regarded as supremely sacred or valuable, or where a faith, policy, truth, etc., originates. Also, more generally: a place which attracts peo- ple of a particular group or with a particular interest;....1 It can be said that Paris, France, is the mecca of fashion, or that Na- ples, Italy, is the mecca of pizza. We would add that the United Nation's (UN) Dag Hammarskjold Library is the mecca for in- ternational legal research. With 193 member states and two observ- ers,2 the UN is the largest intergovernmen- tal organization. One of a number of poli- cies associated with the UN is its promo- tion of the rule of law at the national and international levels....3 This necessarily includes access to these rules of law. One manner of access is through the Dag Ham- marskjold Library and the librarians who are dedicated to serving the information needs of UN member states' delegates. While the world community and many in- ternational law librarians use the UN web- site, which is available in the six official lan- guages of the UN, few of us have reason to visit the Dag Hammarskjold Library, be- cause most documents are available through the Official Document System or through a UN depository library or information cen- ter. In connection with a book that we are writing, we were welcomed to tour the Dag Hammarskjold Library and to attend a cou- ple of the research training courses offered through the library. The UN Headquarters, built in 1952, is a complex of buildings located on the east side of Manhattan covering roughly 17 acres. However, because the UN enjoys extraterritorial status, it is not technically a part of Manhattan. In late 1959, the UN accepted a gift from the Ford Foundation to build a UN library. Approaching the UN on foot, as we did via 42nd Street, one first notices the colorful flags of the UN mem- ber states flying in front of the 39-story Sec- retariat building. Arranged alphabetically from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, these flags have become an icon of the UN Headquar- ters. Entering through the Visitor's Center, we cleared security and crossed an outdoor plaza that faces the East River. We paused to view the newly-installed, permanent Me- morial to the Victims of Slavery and Trans- atlantic Slave Trade. This memorial com- continued on page 4

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