Stanford Law School students studying international law will get some extra help from the library this year with the addition of a specialist librarian, Sergio Stone, who joined the library staff in fall 2008. The first-ever foreign, comparative, and international law (FCIL) librarian at the Robert Crown Law Library, Stone aims to help students test the waters of international legal studies without fearing complex foreign legal systems.

Stone, a native of Chile with a bachelor’s degree from Carleton College, a library science degree from the University of Denver, and a law degree from New York University, says that his main goal is to “lower the barriers of entry for faculty and students to engage in FCIL research.” He explains that this involves “disseminating information tailored to specific courses, locating opportunities to study or work overseas, creating strategic alliances with foreign law libraries, and building collections to meet the new curricular and clinical needs.” These new collections include specialized online databases, such as China Law Express. Prior to joining Stanford, Stone served as an FCIL librarian at the University of Denver.