Core Skills & “Cool Tools” from the Third Generation of FCIL Librarians

Abstract There have been three generations of foreign, comparative, and international law (FCIL) librarians in the United States (US) in the postwar era. FCIL librarians of the first generation were foreign lawyers who emigrated to the US after World War II. Those of the second generation were American lawyer-librarians who built the infrastructure of FCIL librarianship into what it is today. The third generation of FCIL librarians includes the authors of this article. We perform many of the same research tasks as our predecessors, but we do so primarily online through an ever-evolving array of new and emerging technologies. This article discusses some core skills of FCIL librarianship that have remained constant over three generations and highlights some select “cool tools” that FCIL librarians of each generation have utilized to perform their work.