We are deeply saddened by the passing of our friend and former colleague, Rob Britt, who died in June from an illness. He is greatly missed. Robert was an alum (MAIS Japan 1987) and had a long career in the East Asian Law Department of the Gallagher Law Library, where he worked from 1987 to 2019. He was a mentor to librarians and devoted to helping students, faculty, and visiting scholars with their research. He worked tirelessly and in innovative ways to catalogue and organize the UW collections on Japanese, Korean, and Chinese law and to make them accessible to researchers who might or might not understand the original language of these materials.
Rob was active in the Council on East Asian Libraries (an organization with members throughout North America). Among other things, he worked to improve the way U.S. library catalogs (including the UW’s) displayed Japanese characters. His publications included Japanese Laws in English: An Index to the EHS Law Bulletin Series (2d ed. 2000), an index that facilitates improved access to Japanese laws in English translation. See our article at the time of his retirement in 2019 in the link below.