Recently, I attended the Annual Meeting of the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) in Georgetown, Guyana, May 12 - 16. This year’s theme was Metadata and Big Data: Trends and Hidden Treasures in Libraries, Museum and Archives in the Caribbean. As the largest library conference in the Caribbean, the purpose of the event was to bring together a wide range of professionals to share ideas and best practices in issues such as big data and AI as well as ethics and privacy concerns in the future of data in research. ACURIL is a unique organization gathering librarians, archivists, records managers, museum curators and more aiming to connect information and heritage professionals from diverse areas and topic.
As the incomin
g chair of ACURIL’s Law and Social Science group, I moderated and spoke in a panel discussion with our members on ethics and privacy issues of AI in the law. Besides the conference, I had two external meetings. On Monday, May 14, I met with Radha Permanand, Assistant General Counsel of CARICOM and her entire legal team. Secondly, on May 15, I met with the Honorable Kenneth Benjamin, former Chief Judge of Belize. He’s now the current Dean of the University of Guyana’s Department of Law.
In my work as librarian and professor on comparative and international legal research, I can see firsthand the impact of these connections in terms of supporting faculty scholarship, substantive notes on comparative law from students as well as enriching my courses with trustworthy sources from a region which is relevant and challenging in areas such as environmental law, international trade, and immigration law. As the only Foreign, Comparative and International Law (FCIL) Librarian in the state of Arizona, I believe my participation in this conference as well as external meetings with local partners helped increase the visibility of our College of Law in the region as well as our reputation nationally. Similarly, my course, Foreign, Comparative and International Legal Research as well as the courses I teach/moderate through our collaboration with the National Autonomous University of Mexico through the Mexican Public Law Diplomado are both unique in the state and my visit to Guyana will greatly impact the improvement and progress of these courses as I expand and modify them in the coming months. Being part of these meetings and conversations has already allowed me to secure access t
o information and sources specific to these and other important organizations in the Caribbean region which you can’t find online and make important connections and think of potential collaborations we could have in the future (i.e. scholarships, collection management, internships, etc.).
As a law school in a border town connected and engaged with local and international issues, I was particularly interested in visiting Guyana as well as ACURIL for the very first time. The connections I made in the conference gave me incredible access to resources and experts which will only increase COL’s reputation in international environmental law, international indigenous peoples, international trade and immigration law. As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, Guyana has suddenly found itself at the forefront of many regional and international trends after years of relatively calm and oblivion. In 2015, ExxonMobil discovered significant offshore oil reserves catapulting the country into the top 20 petroleum-producing countries in the world and with a massive potential to increase its economy in one of the region’s poorest countries. The recent discoveries and future potential has also sounded the alarm in terms of its environmental and climate change impact and how it will play out with the international community trying to stay away from fossil fuels. With the world’s largest known oil reserves, neighboring Venezuela is increasingly worried about Guyana's newly found spotlight, especially considering the disastrous state of its economy. As recently as December 2023, Venezuela’s Maduro conducted a referendum on the future of the country’s claim on 60% of Guyana’s territory, which Venezuela calls Guayana Essequibo. Despite a low turnout, over 95% of the population sided with Maduro in supporting the incorporation of such territory into Venezuela and not recognizing the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to resolve the historical dispute.
All in all, ACURIL was a fantastic gathering of information and heritage professionals from different disciplines eager to share best practices and learn together. The panels and discussions highlighted their expertise as well as the linguistic diversity of the Caribbean. I can't wait to attend next year's conference in Curacao in 2025.
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