The American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman hosted an intensive six-day training workshop on library cataloging standards and technology during May 8-15, 2005 as part of Raising the Bar: Legal Education Reform in Iraq, a collaborative project oriented towards the broad-based reform of the Iraqi legal education system. Through this project, the International Human Rights Law Institute of DePaul University College of Law, presided by Distinguished Research Professor of Law M. Cherif Bassiouni, provides guidance and support for the curricular, clinical, and structural development of three Iraqi law schools: the University of Baghdad, the University of Basra, and the University of Sulaimaniya. The project is funded by a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Facilitated by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), the workshop brought 11 Iraqi law librarians together with instructors from the University of Pennsylvania (United States), the American University in Cairo (Egypt), Zayed University (United Arab Emirates), al-Minya University (Egypt) and Arabian Advanced Systems (United Arab Emirates). This workshop covered the basics of modern cataloging standards under AACR2, MARC21, Dewey Decimal Classification, and Arabic subject headings, along with training on state-of-the-art library information technology via OCLC's Connexion cataloging software and WebDewey, Library of Congress' ClassWeb, and Dynix's Horizon integrated library system.