Chicago, for all of its local flare and idiosyncrasies, is really a city of the world, chock full of foreign influences and international customs.  Since nothing exists in a vacuum, Chicago’s international personality impacts the makeup and quality of materials and resources within the city’s law libraries.

In this special section, Chicago International,  guest editors Sharon Nelson and Matthew Timko have received and compiled many great articles demonstrating the rich international institutions and resources that the city has to offer law librarians and interested residents alike.

Karl Pettitt has created a city map with the locations of many ethnic heritage museums, and Jill Meyer has included a review of one such museum, the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture.  Delving into the unique international collections within the city, Jean Wenger goes through Cook County’s foreign and international collections and services while Anne Abramson describes John Marshall’s Chinese Intellectual Property materials.

Stacia Stein has contributed two pieces, detailing the essentials of any Middle East legal collection and writing a book review of Justice Breyer’s The Court and the World.  Highlighting a complicated and important area of law librarianship in an international city, Donna Tuke walks readers through the techniques and resources vital for international taxation law research.  Tom Gaylord’s interview with new CALL member Trez Drake introduces us to her as a person, and to her work as Foreign and International Law Librarian at Northwestern.

While there are plenty of internationally-themed spots within the city, nothing beats the real thing and CALL members share their international travel experiences in Trez Drake’s “Where in the World?” map.  More specifically, Scott Burgh tells a powerful story of his trip to Madagascar while Ruth Bridges shares the experiences of international travel with her wonderful organization, “The Literary Sisters.”  Traveling for “business,” Sally Holterhoff and Marisol Florén detail the 2015 IFLA conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

While all of these resources and experiences are helpful to CALL members and AALL members attending the 2016 annual conference in Chicago this coming July, nothing may be as important as where to find food!  Chicago’s food is world renowned, and luckily, Annie Mentkowski has created a map of many great restaurants serving international cuisine and Lindsey Carpino describes some of Chicago’s best donut spots.  Bon appétit and enjoy Chicago International!