School of Information Sciences

2016 Bernadette Callery Archives Lecture series focused on privacy issues

10/05/2016

On Monday, September 26, Katharina Hering (MLIS ’10), National Equal Justice Library project archivist at the Georgetown Law Library in Washington, D.C., discussed her research titled “Holocaust Reparation and Restitution Files in German State Archives: Institutional Approaches to Managing Ethical and Technical Challenges for Providing Access” as part of this year’s Bernadette Callery Archives Lecture Series. More than 150 guests attended the event in Alumni Hall, which was co-hosted by the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh Jewish Studies Program, and the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Senator John Heinz History Center. Dr. Hering’s lecture focused on her research about the vast number of reparation and restitution claims filed by victims of the Holocaust from the post-WWII period to the present.

Following the lecture was a Q&A panel, which was composed of Dr. Hering; Dr. Adam Shear, director of the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh; David Schlitt, director of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center; and Dr. Lauren Apter Bairnsfather, executive director of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. Questions were raised regarding the ethics of digitizing restitution claims and whether making such information public harms the dignity of Holocaust victims and their families.  

Dr. Hering graduated from our ALA-accredited MLIS program in 2010, specializing in archives, records management, and preservation. During her time at SIS, she worked for the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center as part of the Pitt Partners Program.  

The Bernadette Callery Archives Lecture Series honors the memory of Dr. Bernadette Callery, a member of the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Sciences. Dr. Callery taught in the Archives specialization of the Library and Information Science program. Dr. Callery worked at the Museum Librarian at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History before joining the iSchool faculty. Prior to her death, Dr. Callery thoughtfully established this lecture series, which was funded through a generous bequest.

To view photos of the event, visit our Facebook page.

To view a view recording of the lecture, please click here.

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