The BIALL Blog

Looking for some hints and tips when negotiating with suppliers? You need look no further then David Percik's excellent presentation from Online Information 2009, "Let us never fear to negotiate"

David, who is currently chair of the BIALL Legal Information Group (LIG) looks at all aspects of interaction with suppliers. From the introduction to the presentation "David's direct experience of managing subscriptions are supplemented by his detailed knowledge of the problems that occur in vendor-customer relations. He has experienced the latter from the perspective of both sides, without being beholden to either, as he has stood between law librarians and legal publishers on numerous occasions, trying to build working relationships beneficial to both parties"

Every year BIALL offers a number of Bursaries and Awards, which members can apply for and nominate individuals for. Please do support our partners and colleagues by nominating them for an award, alternatively you could reward yourself, by applying for one of our overseas or annual conference bursaries.

Awards to recognise achievement and good practice:

• BIALL Supplier of the Year *NEW* this year
• Legal Journals Award
• Wallace Breem Memorial Award
• Wildy BIALL Law Librarian of the Year

Bursaries to attend an overseas conference, such as:

• Association of American Law Libraries
• Canadian Association of Law Libraries
• Joint Study Institute
• Australian Law Libraries Association
• International Association of Law Libraries

Or any other appropriate overseas conference or event

Bursaries to attend our annual conference in Brighton in June:

• General bursaries open to all members
• Student bursaries
• Kluwer Law International sponsored award (by invite) for an European law librarian
• Legal Library Services sponsored award for to assist a law librarian from outside Europe and North America
• President’s bursaries for retired and life members
• Sweet & Maxwell bursary

All members are welcome to apply, and if you're currently looking for a new post, this might be a great opportunity to get a bursary and network at the conference.

Other awards and bursaries

• Alex McVitty Memorial Award to support a City University student who wishes to develop a career in law librarianship
• Betty Moys Fund to enable members to make professional visits overseas

Check the BIALL website for further information and dates when awards are opened for this year, or email the Chair of the Awards and Bursaries committee.

The financial times recently announced that it is planning to extent its direct licence to include PDF's of newspaper articles through the Financial Times website.

From the Financial Times corporate website "The Financial Times plans to extend its direct licence to include digital images of FT newspaper articles, which are currently licensed by the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA). The FT is beginning a period of consultation with customers and stakeholders before the change takes effect on 1 July 2010"

So what does it mean if you're an existing FT Corporate Customer, well thankfully they have a set of FAQ's, which I recommend anyone who is currently a Corporate customer reviews.

If you're really interested the FT and the NLA are holding a free webinar on the 16th of February to discuss the changes.

The big talk in the U.S at the moment is about the developments ThomsonReuters and LexisNexis are making to their databases. According to the New York Times, this is in response to "to lower-priced — sometimes free — rivals and arrive at a time when law firms are working to cut overheads"

So what is happening? Well LexisNexis have kept their developments under wraps but ThomsonReuters have announced the development of Westlaw.com with a fanfare launching a website SeeWestlaw.com and inviting groups of legal bloggers and law librarians to experience/test the product at their head offices.

All very exciting, but what changes are they making? Well if you want to see a screenshot look no further then Robert Ambrogi's post A first look at WestlawNext Robert's post also includes links to other posts on this subject, which include reviews and more information on the developments ThomsonReuters are making;

• WestlawNext and the future of legal research instruction


• WestlawNext: It’s About Time


• Westlaw and Lexis To Launch New Search Interfaces

Have you have had anything published over the past few months? Whether it's a full-length article, a book review, or you have been quoted in some capacity, we'd like to hear from you.
To continue to publicise the hard work of BIALL members, the PR & Promotions Committee produces a regular list of 'BIALLers in the News' to be published both in the Newsletter and on the website.
If you would like to be included in the list, or if you would like support or advice from the Committee in being published in non-BIALL publications please contact Anne Coles of the PR & Promotions Committee.

As announced on the BIALL mailing list and LIS-LAW the BIALL PR & Promotions Committee have created a group on LinkedIn for BIALL members.

The group currently has 47 members, so if you use LinkedIn why not sign up and see who you could connect with! The BIALL solos group also have their own group on LinkedIn, so if you work alone or in relative professional isolation why not sign up for this as well.

Looking for a quick way to search the "legal web" you need look no further then a joint development between Cornell and Google, the result of which is the Cornell Legal Research Engine

Described in more detail by the "Out of the Jungle" blog the site provides three search options:

"* Legal Research Guides (prepared, usually by law libraries, to help explain how to do legal research in a particular area)

* The Legal Internet (this is a broad area that can include anything from law firms' websites that can be information rich or poor,depending on how focused they are on marketing; non-profit organization and government sites, and non-governmental organizations websites all of which tend to be quite information-rich; education institutions which again can be rich sources of information; corporations and private entities, private individuals and miscellaneous sponsors of websites. The question you must ALWAYS ask is WHY have they bothered to put up and maintain the website?

* Academic Blawgs Many law professors now have blogs on legal topics, or blawgs. Some write on narrow topics, others are all over the map. Some voice their personal opinions, others are writing simply about what the law seems to be. Again, as the consumer, think for yourself.

* or all 3 at once"

So there you go, what more could you wish for!