Don’t throw the BAILII out with the bath water
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
UK Human Rights Blog
"The Guardian published an editorial today arguing that court judgments should be opened up to the public. The editorial challenges the fact that BAILII, the charity which currently publishes most judgments online, is not searchable on Google.
Broadly speaking, it is good to see The Guardian taking up this somewhat esoteric but important topic. As I have argued on a number of occasions (see e.g. Making Law Accessible to the Public) the Ministry of Justice needs to do more to make “raw” law, that is judgments and legislation, accessible online. But it is important to focus on the right issues."
There are also some comments of interest on this posting.
Polish your Marketing skills
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Gaining respect for your service: using marketing ideas to demonstrate and communicate value
Tuesday 29th November 2011 13:00 - 17:00
Cobbetts, One Colmore Square, Birmingham, B4 6AJ http://www.cobbetts.com/ContactUs/BirminghamOffice
Costs: ALLICE members £5; non members £25
Library and information services are currently under great pressure as organisations look to trim costs in difficult economic times. To survive and thrive it is important to have a clear understanding, shared with your funders, of the value your services provides to the organisation. In addition, library and information professionals need to market and communicate that value in a clear, consistent and sustained way. This need not require a large marketing budget to be successful. This course will give you immediate tools and techniques to identify and communicate value which will be influential within your organisation. The emphasis will be on the inexpensive and the effective.Law Librarians - The Next Generation
Monday, 26 September 2011
Each year BIALL and CLSIG run a joint annual Graduate Open Day. This years takes place on Tuesday 25 October in London (find the full details on the BIALL website). It's aimed at graduate trainees, first jobbers and student librarians.
Lots of useful stuff is covered. As a newcomer to the profession you maybe wondering what you actually do on a postgraduate information course (and your colleagues may be surprisingly hazy about it when asked). Well Lyn Robinson of City University will open the day with a talk about studying information.
Worried about job prospects? Well Sue Edgar an Executive from Sue Hill Recruitment will advise you on plotting your information career.
Plenty of other speakers and insights from all parts of the profession will also be on hand. These will include Jacky Berry who will give an insight into Health libraries, Sandra Smythe into Law libraries and Richard Nelsson from the possibly glamorous world of Media libraries.
All this plus a visit to either the BMA library, Wellcome library or the British Library too.
Reminder: submission deadline for BIALL Conference 2012
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Which Social Network Should I Use as a Librarian?
Sunday, 18 September 2011
It then moves onto using social media as a search resource making a series of points about how social media can be used to tap into the knowledge of others. Although as Phil points out this is not always understood;
"This is where 'social' and 'friends' becomes a hinderance, not a help. The easiest way to deal with a problem is to pretend that it doesn't exist - this is why 48% of Britain's businesses have banned Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites from the workplace, and it's why the other 52% will thrive."
BIALL Directory of British and Irish Law Libraries
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
The 8th edition of the Directory of British and Irish Law Libraries was published in paper and CD-rom format back in 2006, but is now out of print and no longer available. The Directory acted as a means of locating almost 500 law libraries or libraries with significant collections of legal, regulatory and compliance material.
The BIALL Publications Committee are currently investigating new methods of making available information previously contained in the Directory.We would therefore be most grateful if you were able to take the time to complete the following survey to assist with our investigations.
It takes less than 5 minutes! All responses will be anonymous and we are hoping that as many people as possible will complete this very short survey: BIALL Directory of British and Irish Law Libraries
If you have any further queries, please contact Sarah Spells (Chair) or Jon Beaumont (Vice-Chair).
Court TV
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
"Broadcasting will initially be allowed from the Court of Appeal, and Government will look to expand to the Crown Court later. All changes will be worked out in close consultation with the judiciary.
Filming will be of judges’ summary remarks only - victims, witnesses, offenders and jurors will not be filmed."
It is a success for Sky who started broadcasting from the Supreme Court a while back and have been lobbying for this change.
Talking on Sky, Ken Clarke made it clear that he is pretty cautious about the move and is not looking for this change to provide "legal theatre or public entertainment".
