News release Public Information Office  SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061 publicinfo@selu.edu Spring 2004 news releases Public Information home News archive Contact: Rene Abadie Date: 9/28/04   GLIN TRAINING  -- Participating in a teleconference on the final day of GLIN training at Southeastern Louisiana University were, from left, Aristides Baraya, coordinator of Southeastern's Latin American Business Development Initiative; Southeastern President Randy Moffett; Guillermo Castillo, IDB information technology specialist; Gerald Guidroz, dean of Southeastern Continuing Education; Elencia W. Cole, Library of Congress information technology specialist; Sandra Sawicki, Law Library of Congress senior legal research analyst; and Michael Budden, dean of the College of Business and Technology. SOUTHEASTERN HOSTS TRAINING FOR LATIN AMERICAN PROFESSIONALS       HAMMOND – A group of 18 Latin American information technology specialists and legal anaylsts from seven countries completed a week-long, high-level training program at Southeastern Louisiana University last week focused on governments’ use of an international legal database.       The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) training program – one of two such international conferences held annually – was sponsored by the Law Library of Congress and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), one of the world’s largest and oldest multinational development institutions. Initiated in 1993, GLIN is a voluntary federation of governments that contribute official legal documents to its Internet database.        Currently, approximately 25 governing bodies originating from countries worldwide contribute legal documents to GLIN, explained Mike Budden, dean of Southeastern’s College of Business and Technology. The program was hosted by the college’s Latin American Business Development Initiative and Southeastern’s division of Continuing Education.       The training program provided participants with an introduction to GLIN as a research and reference tool; the network’s characteristics, standards, contents and architecture; hardware and software requirements; and specifications regarding system searches and adding documents. The conference utilized the university’s video conferencing system to allow presentations from the World Bank Institute.       Instructors included information technology specialists from the Library of Congress and IDB, David Wyld, Southeastern professor of management and director of the university’s e-Government Initiative; and Barbara Schuldt, assistant professor of management.       Budden said Southeastern’s growing expertise in e-government and e-policy initiatives plus on-campus, state-of-the art technology features were primary factors in attracting the conference to the university.       “This conference opened doors for us and helped unite us in our work,” said IDB information technology specialist Guillermo Castillo, a conference instructor. “GLIN is an important method of sharing and exchanging legislative and judicial information among nations. We hope this seminar will open up the participants’ minds on how they can legislate for the future.”