The BIALL Blog

Your Greatest Skill is Mastery of Language

2012-01-30T09:54:00.000Z

The most common method of thinking in the Western world is verbal thinking. We have a range of intelligences including numerical, musical, spatial, emotional, verbal and kinaesthetic intelligences yet it is verbal intelligence that we depend on most. We tend to think and express ourselves in words. Mastering the use of words is the most important skill we develop because acquiring further skills depends on our comprehension of language. A tremendous proportion of the early learning for an infant is in developing verbal skills - learning to speak, to understand speech, to read and to write. Whether a baby is brought up in Beijing, Sydney or Moscow it will surely spend thousands of hours acquiring expertise in its native language. He or she will become proficient with the amazing range, power, complexity and sophisticated subtleties of language. However, once a certain competence has been acquired most people stop developing verbal skills.

Studies have shown that there is a strong correlation between people's abilities with words and range of vocabulary and with success in their chosen fields. People who can express themselves clearly are perceived as more intelligent and of higher status. They are accorded greater respect. So why do we not continue to enhance our verbal skills? Why do we stop doing what we spent most of our early years doing? The trouble is that we take our verbal abilities for granted. Once we have mastered reading, writing and speaking we move on to other things. We have acquired the most important tool in our mental toolbox. We depend on it for all sorts of tasks but we rarely take time to sharpen it. It makes better sense to maintain, enhance and extend the tool. Here are some ways we can do that.

1. Get a good dictionary and thesaurus

Two of the most loyal companions on your desk should be a dictionary and a thesaurus. Use the dictionary to learn the meanings and derivations of new words you encounter. Also use it to check the exact meanings and spellings of words that you are unsure of. The thesaurus is very helpful whenever you are writing and need an alternative to a word in order to avoid repetition or to achieve a variation in meaning.

2. Read

In the modern world we are so busy with work and we are bombarded with so much information by TV broadcast, telephone and the internet that reading books and articles can be squeezed out of our agenda. Reading the works of really good writers is one of the best ways to develop our abilities with words.

3. Capture new words

There is a regular feature in the Reader's Digest magazine entitled, 'It pays to expand your Word Power'. It is sound advice. Whenever we bump into new words we should turn to the dictionary and spend a moment learning the meaning and derivation of the word. It is easy to skip new words and race on through the text so we need discipline if we are not to lose this opportunity.

4. Write, rewrite and edit

We all write, whether it is a text message on a cell phone, an email message or a novel, and we can all improve our writing. A good way to improve your writing is to read over what you have written and ask yourself these questions:

a) Does what I have written express exactly what I mean?

b) Will it be clear and comprehensible to the reader?

c) Can I make it more concise or more accurate?

5. Play with Words

Children learn language by playing with words, testing, experimenting, making mistakes and being gently corrected. We should adopt a playful attitude towards words and treat them as friends. Word games will increase your verbal dexterity and intelligence rating. Many standard IQ tests use word puzzles. Anagrams, cryptic crosswords, code-breakers, word searches, dingbats (also known as rebuses) and other verbal conundrums are excellent mental exercise.

6. Listen to Yourself

In just the same way that you critically review your draft writing in order to sharpen it you should try to do the same with your speech. If it is possible try to view some video clips of yourself speaking. This is particularly useful it you are rehearsing for an important talk or presentation.

Rudyard Kipling wrote, 'Words are the most powerful drug used by mankind.' They can paint amazing images, inspire and intoxicate. If you continually work on developing your range of words and skills with words then you will reap the rewards.

Contributed by: Paul Sloane, the author of How to be a Brilliant Thinker

Web: http://www.destination-innovation.com

BIALL Conference - Maximising the Benefit [4 ]

2012-01-23T09:19:00.004Z

The View from Scotland

First time

I was asked why I attended my first BIALL conference and I am ashamed to say that the answer that sprung to mind was "I was made to go". This isn't entirely true and looking back I know it should really be "I was given the amazing opportunity to attend", although my flight phobia did not approve. I had just started a new job and was in their head office getting induction training when the head of department said she was booking me in for BIALL conference in Cork. I had heard of management level colleagues at my previous job going and knew they were always talking about the conferences so knew it was a great opportunity, and it turned out to be just that. I've been most years since then and it has helped with my professional development and just as importantly with networking. My career path has really shown that "its not what you know its who you know". So get there and get talking would be my advice! The first time is a little un-nerving but it soon becomes obvious that Law Librarians are lovely people (obviously!) and its worth making that first step and saying hello, soon you will be enveloped into the BIALL family. Listening at sessions is also important obviously and even if you only come back to the library with one or two action points that are applicable to your working environment it was worth the time it took to attend.

Keeping in touch

My current job is not a truly Law Librarian post, although there is a library I'm in charge of I do a lot more general administration tasks. So I thought maybe it wouldn't be so necessary to continue my attendance at the BIALL conference every year. However a few years on, I am now convinced that my attendance is even more crucial: to keep in touch with what's going on for other librarians; to get ideas of how to develop our very old fashioned library; to see what new tools our solicitor members may have access to; and, to meet and talk to new and old friends. Straying from the path of true librarianship is not as scary if you keep a foot on the original path and stay true to what you are. As with any role it is important to keep your finger on the pulse and know what's going on, not just for your own corner but across the profession - who knows where you could end up in the future, or what enquiry you may be given tomorrow.

Contributed by Maria Robertson

BIALL Conference - Maximising the Benefit [3.]

2012-01-19T15:24:00.001Z

New at Newcastle: A first-timer’s view

Above all, the opportunity to form links with fellow new professionals as well as meeting, face-to-face, people I’d previously only known from a distribution list or email conversation. These connections are proving vital, six months on, not only in my current role with Harvey Ingram LLP, but for laying the foundations of my own career progression.

There’s also the frisson of excitement in discovering new places. Simply walking to the Sage Centre Gateshead centre I crossed the Tyne, saw the bridges and was opposite the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

Having suppliers there as well meant I could speak to individuals more informally and learn about new products from the angle that was relevant to me. The seminar programme allowed me to choose sessions to suit my interests and the area of the legal market I’m working in – including personal development, social media, specific corporate legal information, new products and the progress of some personal projects.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Conference to first timers, not only for its content, but for the atmosphere, networking opportunities and, particularly the friendly and genuine interest of others to find out about you and your role and the opportunities this provides for peer learning in practice.

Oh and the sandwiches were pretty impressive too!

Contributed by: Helen Marshall

BIALL Conference - Maximising the Benefit [2.]

2012-01-18T12:16:00.000Z

BIALL Conference: I need to go!

Attending the BIALL Conference is all about opportunities.

There are so many it is difficult to know where to start but the main thing is that it contains something for everyone.

Probably the two most important reasons to attend are the opportunity to learn new things and the opportunity to meet people.

Put like that it sounds simple, but that one sentence covers so much.

The opportunity to learn may include:

learning more about what you are doing now and possible ways of improvement
learning how other people are approaching the same issues that you are facing
learning about future developments in legal information
learning about legal information sectors other than your own
learning about new products

The opportunity to meet people includes:

meeting people in a similar situation to yourself and exchanging experiences
meeting people from other sectors and other jurisdictions
meeting up with your existing suppliers and perhaps some new ones
meeting new friends and catching up with old

The conference is the one place where these strands are drawn together and all these opportunities are offered in the space of a few days.
I would urge anyone in the profession who hasn't made one yet, to either apply for a bursary or ask their manager about attending

So, if you can, please join us in Belfast.

Contributed by: Loyita Worley

BIALL Conference - Maximising the Benefit [1.]

2012-01-16T11:40:00.000Z

Every year the Awards & Bursaries Committee approve a number of bursary applications for members to attend the BIALL Annual Conference and we look forward to doing the same again this year for the Belfast Conference. If you’ve never considered applying for a bursary before, and have assumed that it’s going to be a long and complicated process, then let me disabuse you right now of that notion, because it isn’t! The only essential criteria for applying is that you are a personal member of BIALL. Once you have satisfied that point, you need to demonstrate how the conference programme will benefit you in your role and / or your employer – which sessions in particular are you looking forward to and why; are there any sessions that specifically relate to aspects of your job and whether you are going to feedback on the conference to other colleagues unable to attend. Evidence of professional involvement (either in BIALL or in the wider professional sphere) will help an application, but is not a “deal clincher”, so new professionals in particular shouldn’t be put off from applying on that score. Even if an application is initially considered to be weak, the Committee will contact the applicant with specific questions designed to draw out the kind of information mentioned here – so we really do all we can to help applicants succeed. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Contributed by: Angela Donaldson

Brain the Size of a Planet?

2012-01-12T08:37:00.005Z

All of us who work in law libraries are used to having colleagues who we suspect don't struggle as much as most when they settle down to watch University Challenge. But we also don't generally have library users who have been described on the BBC as having a "Brain the Size of a Planet".

Well that's the prospect that the staff at the Supreme Court library face now that Jonathan Sumption has been sworn in as a Supreme Court judge.

But they can rest easy. Because amidst all the coverage of his elevation to our highest court a crucial and in my mind pivotal piece of information has been missed. What information you say? Well as a Bencher at the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple the now Lord Sumption served as a valued and supportive member of the Library Committee for many years.

Lord Sumption hears his first case today sitting on a panel of five in a shipping dispute case.

19/1/2012 - Update - We now understand that Lord Sumption was not only a member of the Committee but was Master of the Library chairing the Committee for 12 years!

2012!

2012-01-04T12:41:00.001Z

Happy new year from The BIALL Bloggers!

This Years Calendar

2011-12-19T21:07:00.006Z

What do people want to see in the morning? According to Amazon UK at the moment the calendars selling most are boy bands One Direction and JLS, the ever popular Cliff Richard (he was at the top last year as well), the Top Gear Calendar and the Official Mark Wright Calendar. Mark Wright appears to be a "star" of The Only Way is Essex and is selling calendars largely on the basis of his admittedly impressive chest!

I know however that none of you BIALLers are worrying about what calendar to buy because you are waiting for the BIALL calendar which is on it's way this week!

When you get it turn straight to June and you will find the dates of this years Conference. Then why not take a moment to consider how great it would be to join your colleagues in Belfast this year!

Late Opening at IALS

2011-12-07T09:30:00.002Z

In the world of legal novels and movies in order to have any chance of a successful outcome in your case you must spend at least one very late night doing legal research. Ideally this should be done in a library and to maximise your chances you should probably fall asleep in a mildly alluring way surrounded by a pile of books.

Facilitating this is probably not the reason the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies is extending its opening hours.

Nevertheless from Monday 9th January they will be now opening later on weekdays and on Sundays.

Find the full details here.

7th Joint Study Institute (JSI) will be held at Melbourne Law School

2011-12-06T11:52:00.001Z

Wednesday February 13 - Saturday, February 16, 2013.

Joint Study Institutes are hosted by the:

· American Association of Law Libraries (AALL),

· Australian Law Librarians Association (ALLA),

· British & Irish Association of Law Libraries (BIALL),

· Canadian Association of Law Libraries/Association Canadienne des Bibliotheques de Droit (CALL/ACBD) and

· New Zealand Law Librarians' Association (NZLLA).

JSI programs provide unique opportunities to network and learn about the law, legal research and topical issues of the host jurisdiction that are of interest to law librarians and the legal profession. The last JSI held in Australia was held in Sydney in 2004. For information about past Joint Study Institute programs, see:

http://www.callacbd.ca/conferences/JSI/history/index.htm

Watch for announcements in 2012 about the next JSI program. We look forward to welcoming you to enjoy a stimulating educational program and Melbourne’s diverse cultural, culinary, historical and bibliographic attractions.

How full is your inbox?

2011-12-01T10:05:00.001Z

Too many emails? Struggling to keep on top of your spam? Trashing too often?
See how Atos a French information technology company is planning to ban emails!

Tech Firm Implements Employee ‘Zero Email’ - Yahoo News.

A cautionary tale about reserving books

2011-11-30T09:37:00.001Z

A must see video produced for The University of Huddersfield. We've all seen this happen at some point in our careers.

November BIALL Newsletter!

2011-11-22T21:01:00.003Z

The latest BIALL newsletter is now available to members at the BIALL website!

Highlights include;

Former BIALL Blogger and President Elect James Mullan give us an account of his time at the Annual Conference of the Australian Law Librarians Association (ALLA). I deduced from the article he had a good time at the conference but less so on the plane...

An account of A Day in the Life by Sarah Wheeler of the Supreme Court Library is a fascinating read. Find out what it is Sarah tries not to spill her tea on!

Stephen Wheeler from Pinsent Masons - editor of the BIALL newsletter - guides us through his career in his Library Routes.

Finally the Co-BIALL blogger Sally Peat answers questions in On The Spot. It gives us a revealing insight into what can go wrong when you go for a run...

So What Is It That You Do?

2011-11-17T08:55:00.002Z

Some issues regarding our profession it seems are transatlantic.

Follow the link below to the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog. You will read a familiar story...

So, What Do You Do? … What Is That??

My Umbrella - and other BIALL Freebies

2011-11-10T20:57:00.003Z

The BIALL conference has enriched my life in many ways.

Whenever I go on holiday I put my tickets, insurance documents and passport in my BIALL 2006 (Brighton - Face the Front) leather folder - it’s the perfect size.

I never found a use for the Lawtel Travel Mug I picked up possibly back as far as 2004 at the Edinburgh conference (Changing Times - New Challenges). When I married, however, my teacher wife found it perfect for carrying cups of tea whilst removing any danger of spilling on the children.

I’m not sure where I picked up the bespectacled Westlaw Bear that sits on my desk but if it didn’t come into my life through the conference it really could have.

I have pens from various legal publishers on which to jot thoughts down on notepads which they also thoughtfully provided.

When it rains I use my Wildy’s umbrella which I picked up free from this year’s Newcastle BIALL conference. Sadly it broke on Friday … but never mind I’ve got a Kluwer blue and white stripy one I picked up last year.

The next BIALL Conference is in Belfast in 2012. Who know what you might pick up.

Do lawyers need to be scholars?

2011-11-08T16:36:00.001Z

By: Natasha Choolhun

11 October 2011 - Sponsored by LexisNexis

This was an engaging debate touching on legal education, the legal market and the duty of the profession to support all parties, students, lawyers and consumers. Below are the key points made by the panel to illustrate how the debate evolved.

Speaker 1: Prof. Philippe Sands QC (UCL Faculty of Laws/ Matrix Chambers)

Philippe wished he hadn’t studied law as an undergraduate as law degrees “close the mind”. Lawyers need critical thinking skills which law degrees do not foster. He thinks current legal education is too employability driven, which is “a bad thing.”

The questions we should be asking are, “what is the social function of a lawyer?” and “how many lawyers do we need?”

Speaker 2: Rebecca Huxley-Binns (Law teacher of the year 2010, Nottingham Trent)

Rebecca proposed that law degrees should be “value driven” and suggested scrapping the 7 foundation subjects and introducing skills and ethics. However, students do want to know how to be employable.

Speaker 3: David Bickerton (managing partner, Clifford Chance)

CC are happy with the quality of trainees they receive, (it doesn’t appear there are problems with legal education to them).

Speaker 4: Prof. Richard Moorhead (Cardiff Law School)

Richard concluded that lawyers do not need to be scholars as much work is transactional/ routine, but lawyers do need scholars to write textbooks & teach.

Speaker 5: Prof. Stephen Mayson (Director of Legal Services Policy Institute, College of Law)

Stephen delivered the most controversial statement of the debate, that the current legal education on offer is “not fit for purpose”. He said the basic skills needed to underpin a new model are research, writing and reasoning. Market developments should also be taken into consideration e.g. how does legal process outsourcing & “Co-op” law affect job supply for law students?

Our Supplier of the Year

2011-10-31T20:22:00.008Z

Each year at the BIALL Conference dinner, the Association gives out a number of awards. The recipients are normally very pleased. They get given a bunch of flowers, give an emotional speech and sometimes shed a tear. We then all give them a big clap and depending on how much has been drunk by this point they may even get the odd woop.

Then is that it?

Not if you are Bloomsbury Professional. Having won Supplier of the Year they have gone home and realised that this is exactly the sort of endorsement that deserves to go in their Interim Results.

If you look here on London Stock Exchange website they are proudly telling shareholders and potential investors;

"The first six months have been exceptionally strong for Bloomsbury Professional, which is on course for its most successful year. In June, we were named "Supplier of the Year" by the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians."

Working on the Train...

2011-10-17T14:48:00.000+01:00

I wanted to share this article with you about the times when you are beavering away on your laptop on the way to and from work: It's criminal on the 07:43 from Woking. The posting mentions just how public your laptop screen maybe on a busy train and although the focus is on legal privilage, I think it's still worth a qucik read, perhaps on the train on your way home.

The Tweet Trademark

2011-10-11T08:40:00.006+01:00

Social Media website Mashable reports that Twitter has settled a lawsuit over the use of the word "Tweet".

"Twitter doesn’t currently own the trademark to the term. Instead, Des Moines-based Twittad controls the trademark. Twittad a provider of sponsored advertising on Twitter, has trademark its tagline, “Let your ad meet tweets.” It also has trademarked various variations of the word “tweet.”"

Until now that is, Mashable tells us they have come to a "resolution" that will transfer the trademark to Twitter and allow both sides to continue doing business.

The story is also covered in the Wall Street Journal who go into greater detail about the legal side of things.

Emerging Technologies

2011-10-06T10:42:00.004+01:00

In the past, James Mullan has introduced us to resources such as Wikis, Twitter and LinkedIn long before they went on to become household names. In this evening seminar, James will be discussing with us some of the latest technologies to emerge, and suggesting how they may become useful to us in the workplace.

James Mullan is the KM Systems Manager with Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP, and is a former winner of the Wildy’s Law Librarian of the Year award.

Thursday 20 October 2011 at 6:30pm - Finers Stephens Innocent, 180 Great Portland Street

This event costs £10 (+ VAT) for BIALL members or £15 (+ VAT) for non-members, and booking is advised. Booking details.

A Flare for Treaties?

2011-10-03T21:39:00.004+01:00

Two years ago the FLARE Index to Treaties was launched. A searchable database indexing and listing over 1,500 of the most significant multilateral treaties concluded from 1856 onwards it extends access to those without the original hard copy (and those who have it but would prefer not to take a stroll to the library shelves!).

When it launched two years ago it began with content from two key sources;

Multilateral Treaties: index and current status, compiled and annotated within the University of Nottingham Treaty Centre by M.J. Bowman and D.J. Harris (London: Butterworths, 1984, tenth supplement, 1994)
World Treaty Index, compiled by Peter H. Rohn (Santa Barbara, California, 1984)

Well now it has been extended! You can find all the information here in a detailed article by Steven Whittle and Peter Clinch. In summary the main (although not all) new sources that have been harvested are:

Index of British Treaties, 1101-1988, various compilers (London, HMSO, 1971-1992)
Index to Multilateral Treaties, edited by Vaclav Mostecky (Cambridge: Harvard Law School Library, 1965)
Catalogue of Treaties 1814-1918 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1919).

The Index may yet extend further and as Whittle and Clinch explain they have much they could add.

"The Index does not include any bilateral treaties concluded after 1815. Clearly it would be desirable to create a comprehensive database. However, the magnitude of the task may be illustrated by the fact that the World Treaty Index, compiled by Peter H. Rohn (Santa Barbara, California, 1984), which covers all types of treaty signed between only 1900 and 1980, comprises over 44,000 entries. The compilers estimate that during this period the number of bilateral treaties outnumbers multilaterals by a ratio of about 10 to 1.

As a starting point, the FLARE Group has considered creating a further extension to the Index to include bilateral treaties to which the UK is a party. The Group acknowledges that the task would be a considerable challenge requiring close cooperation and liaison with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This development remains only a proposal for the time being."

Don’t throw the BAILII out with the bath water

2011-09-28T10:02:00.000+01:00

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

2011-09-27T12:27:00.000+01:00

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.

Please contact Phil Uttley with any queries.

Law Librarians - The Next Generation

2011-09-26T21:37:00.007+01:00

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

2011-09-20T13:13:00.000+01:00

A reminder that the deadline for submission of proposals for papers is fast approaching. Abstracts should be submitted by email to Niamh Burns and Beverly Oliver and John Furlong, no later than Friday 7 October 2011.

For further information, please visit the BIALL website.

Our Programme roadmap "No Frontiers - Crossing the Borders of Legal Information" encourages us to look beyond borders and broaden our horizons...

Whether you are an accustomed speaker, or new to the Conference platform, we encourage you to submit your ideas to the Conference Committee Team. Your feedback and suggestions are essential in helping the Committee offer sessions that are relevant to you.

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Beverley Oliver & Niamh Burns, Programme Coordinators, BIALL Conference Committee

Which Social Network Should I Use as a Librarian?

2011-09-18T22:58:00.000+01:00

Library and technology guru Phil Bradley has a thoughtful and detailed piece on his website which is worth reading; "Which Social Network Should I Use as a Librarian?". It begins by giving a bit of a round up of the main networking sites Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and mentions some I'd not heard of (who knew about the social network Zombie Passions?) .

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."

Phil finishes up with some practical tips about navigating the sea of social media and does answer the question he poses in the title. My suspicion however when you get to the answer - is that you won't like it...

Still definitely worth a read.

BIALL Directory of British and Irish Law Libraries

2011-09-13T10:02:00.002+01:00

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

2011-09-07T00:21:00.005+01:00

Today the Ministry of Justice announced that the ban on filming in Court will be lifted to allow the broadcasting of judges' summary remarks.

"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".

One group of people who will be interested in this news will be BIALL members some of whom may be pondering whether a TV in the library will now be required! If this is you keep in mind that although the announcement was made today according to Joshua Rozenburg it requires new laws so it could be as much as a year away before it practically changes things.

Small Office?

2011-08-25T16:25:00.001+01:00

12 Tips For Maximizing A Small Office Space

I particularly like the idea of labelling cables!

11. Label your cables

"Label both ends of all your cables. Either use cable tags or a black Sharpie on white cords and a silver Sharpie on black cords. The last thing you want to do is get stuck under your desk, crammed in the small space, having no idea if you're unplugging the right cable," says Doland.

The BIALL Conference Committee Call for Papers is out now!

2011-08-22T15:12:00.002+01:00

Our Programme roadmap "No Frontiers - Crossing the Borders of Legal Information" encourages us to look beyond borders and broaden our horizons...

Whether you are an accustomed speaker, or new to the Conference platform, we encourage you to submit your ideas to the Conference Committee Team.

We look forward to receiving your submissions by Friday 7th October.

NO FRONTIERS: CROSSING THE BORDERS OF LEGAL INFORMATION
BIALL 43rd Annual Study Conference & Exhibition
Thursday 14 June 2012 to Saturday 16 June 2012, The Hastings Europa Hotel, Belfast

ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION
The British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) was formed in 1969. It is an independent and self-supporting body which was established to represent the interests of legal information professionals, and other suppliers of legal literature and reference materials, in the United Kingdom and Ireland. There are over 700 members of BIALL, both personal and institutional. Almost every legal information unit is represented - academic legal research libraries, units in commercial, technical and industrial concerns, the courts and government departments. The diversity of the membership is one of BIALL's strengths as the members form a close network and share specialist knowledge and concerns, learning from the experience of others.

BROAD THEMES FOR THE CONFERENCE
In 2012, BIALL plans to offer a programme encouraging us to look beyond borders and to broaden our horizons......

•Explore the idiosyncrasies of UK and Irish law; consider the complexities of researching in areas where previously centralised powers are now devolved
•Managing risk to manage reputation – investigating and researching both national and international clients
•International Law firms – providing a “firm wide” Library
•Meeting the challenges of conflicting office time and time zones when training an International Library team
•Freedom of Information – accessing information across jurisdictions
•Get to grips with the challenges that European Union law presents – What law does the EU make, how does it make it and where to find it…
•The status of Islamic, Sharia law, in the UK and its jurisdictional implications
•Look wider afield to other jurisdictions that UK and Irish legal information professionals are more frequently being asked to research – Australasia, Asia, USA, Canada
•Using the borderless social networking tools to communicate with and inform clientele

In addition to the Call for Papers reflecting our proposed broad theme, the BIALL Conference Committee is intent on providing supplementary sessions reflecting both specifically requested topics and topics that remain current to the legal information professional. These include

•“Competitive Intelligence” and the “Risk Management” processes – how can the Library/ Legal Information Department contribute to this process
•Standards and ethics in use of Cloud based technology for storing legal information
•Trends in the provision and delivery of legal information both in-house and outsourced
•Researching Business Information
•Outsourcing – an objective assessment
•Social media continued…..trends and uses for legal information professionals;
•Trends in the legal information publishing environment
•Marketing - Increasing the visibility of our information units
•“Hard Copy v Soft Copy (or both!)” - How to make effective decisions and negotiate constructively with publishers in relation to collection development
•Trends in Knowledge Management
•Preparing and presenting budgets to decision makers; managing an effective tendering process
•Management skills and personal development
•Enhancing our Presentation skills
•Delivering an effective training programme
•The implications of introducing Ebook technology

This list is by no means exhaustive and submissions for alternative presentations are most welcome.

BRIEF FOR SPEAKER PRESENTATIONS
We are inviting speakers from within the legal and information world to submit proposals for papers which fit within this brief. The conference programme is a blend of plenary sessions lasting 45 minutes and delivered to approximately 250 delegates, and parallel sessions lasting 60 minutes and delivered to between 30 and 80 delegates.

Actual presentations should last between 25 and 30 minutes in the plenary sessions, and between 35 and 40 minutes in the parallel sessions.

Although the emphasis of the Conference should be on the broad themes set out above, we encourage all submissions for sessions so long as they are on topics of current interest to the membership.

Parallel sessions are usually streamed and reflecting the positive feedback we will aim to continue to stream according to sector (eg academic, law firm, general interest) as well.

As already outlined, the Association's members and Conference delegates hail from many jurisdictions, principally England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. In addition the Conference will comprise delegates from the academic, corporate, professional societies and court/government sectors with a mix of senior and junior staff. Not all subjects lend themselves to a multi-jurisdictional multi-sector approach, but these aspects of the audience should be borne in mind, especially for plenary sessions.

Although a professional association not run for profit but for the benefit of its members, BIALL can offer speakers a package which normally includes a contribution to travel expenses, overnight accommodation, attendance at the conference on the day of the presentation, and a modest honorarium.

SPEAKERS' ABSTRACTS
The BIALL Conference Committee will consider proposals for papers on the basis of abstracts. An abstract should be between 250 and 500 words long, providing a clear idea of the content of the presentation, an indication of its target audience, and an opinion as to whether it is best suited to a plenary or parallel session.

The abstract should be accompanied by a short biography, ideally between 150 and 200 words long, outlining relevant professional experience, publications, and papers delivered at previous conferences, seminars or training events. Submissions for plenary sessions should specifically include details of previous speaking experience at similar conferences.

ENQUIRIES AND CONTACTS
Informal enquiries can be made to the Programme Co-Ordinators Niamh Burns at niamh.burns@barcouncil-ni.org.uk and Beverley Oliver at Beverley.Oliver@IrwinMitchell.com or the Chair of the Conference Committee, John Furlong at john.furlong@mop.ie

Examples of previous programmes, speaker biographies and session synopses can be viewed at http://www.biall.org.uk under “Conferences”.

Abstracts should be submitted by email to niamh.burns@barcouncil-ni.org.uk and Beverley.Oliver@IrwinMitchell.com and john.furlong@mop.ie, no later than Friday 7 October 2011.

E-Petition for Libraries

2011-08-12T14:06:00.004+01:00

E-Petitions are the hot topic at the moment. At number one is the petition arguing that convicted London rioters should be deprived of their benefits. The petition has more than 200,000 signatories making it the first petition that has hit the 100,00 threshold and will be put to the House of Commons Backbench Business Committee to be debated in Parliament. Other hot topics have 15,000 people arguing that capital punishment should be restored and a presumably different 22,000 people arguing that a ban on it should be retained. More than 100 petitions have been accepted and are live on the site.

Holding it's own within the top ten, with 5,104 signatures is a slightly less controversial petition and one you may wish to support, a "Petition In Support of Public Libraries". In full it reads;

"I, the undersigned, believe that libraries are an essential local educational and information resource yet with many libraries under threat, the future of the library service is at risk. I want to see the value of libraries recognised at both local and national levels and I am calling on the Government to honour both its commitment to act as a champion of the library service, and its duty of oversight to ensure that a comprehensive and efficient library service is provided."

If you choose to support it you can do so here.

Changes to Linkedin Privacy Policy

2011-08-10T14:29:00.004+01:00

Linkedin has recently changed its privacy policy. As it stands, if you do not change your personal privacy settings, Linkedin can use your name and photograph for advertising purposes.

If you would like to change the setting, follow the instructions below:

Login
Go to your name in the right upper corner
Click on "settings"
Click on "account" in the left lower corner
Click on "manage Social Advertising” (you will see the default is set to allow Linkedin to use your name and/or photo (if you have one) in advertising)

Thanks go to Sarah Froggatt for keeping us in the loop.

Library open evening at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies

2011-08-09T12:44:00.003+01:00

You are warmly invited to visit the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies on the evening of Monday 5 September 2011 for the Library open evening. Our speaker will be Dr Peter Webster, Manager of SAS-Space, the digital repository for the School of Advanced Study, and editorial controller of British History Online. The evening will include refreshments and an optional tour of the IALS Global Law Library. All legal information professionals are very welcome to attend, whether from universities and law schools, law firms, chambers, government agencies and departments, the commercial and voluntary sectors, or solo professionals. The event is free of charge, but please let us know if you would like to attend, for catering purposes.

Date: Monday 5 September 2011

Time: 6:00 – 7.45 pm

Venue: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, School of Advanced Study, 17 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DR.
The IALS building is on several floors at 17 Russell Square, with lift and stair access to all floors.

Map of location: http://ials.sas.ac.uk/about/GettingToIALS.htm

Programme:

5.30 pm Arrival and Welcome

6.00 pm “Making an online journal: Amicus Curiae and the SAS Open Journals” - Dr Peter Webster. Peter’s talk will be followed by questions and discussion. Amicus Curiae is the journal of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS)/Society for Advanced Legal Studies (SALS).

6.45 pm Refreshments. An optional tour of the IALS Library will also be available at this time, lasting approximately 15 minutes.

7.45 pm Close of evening

If you would like to attend please email:
Gerard Power
Access Librarian
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
University of London

Good News For Libraries!

2011-08-08T23:58:00.005+01:00

At a time when good news is in short supply the CILIP Information and Advice Blog has an interesting post praising the government response to the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property. It begins;

"It is perhaps rare to praise a Government response. But the Government's response to the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property (IP) and Growth in the UK is simply a good news story for library and information services, and above all their users..."

Read it here.

The Modern Legal Foundations Course

2011-07-31T22:03:00.011+01:00

Now is the time to sign up for the BIALL Legal Foundations Course (find the details here). These days it is delivered online as this extract from the BIALL website explains.

"It is an online course providing a grounding in legal concepts for librarians and information workers with at least one year's experience in a law environment. It is not a course in how to conduct legal research, but rather a way of getting to grips with the terminology used in the legal profession, providing you with a better understanding of the law in England and Wales, and of how it has been applied in various subject areas.

Each week a new lecture is made available to participants; these lectures may be in the format of audio recordings with slides or video files. A small activity such as a multiple choice quiz follows the lecture. Participants are recommended to set aside 3 hours per week to complete the activities. The students must pass the online activities in order to receive the end of course certificate."

This wasn't always the case. Indeed it was eight or nine years ago when my then employer offered me the opportunity to embark on the then Law for Librarians course.

In the dim and dark of a winter night I'd leave work, hop on the Bakerloo line and head over to the University of Westminster. I'd sign in - find the room we were in that week and prepare for the biggest challenge - staying awake.

This is not to criticise the lecturers who were generally of a high standard. Indeed the topics were good and very interesting (as they are now). However for me at least University lecture theatres have a soporific effect at the best of times. At the end of a working day, in the winter, with the heating turned up and the windows closed I would challenge anyone not to suffer from heavy eyelids and an occasional involuntary nod - as you fall asleep and are woken instantly by the feeling of gravity pulling your head downwards.

That won't happen now though! Lectures are viewed online and can be fitted into your working week whenever you feel appropriately alert. This is clearly a fantastic improvement.

The one downside I suppose must for the partners of the various law librarians on the course. I can imagine them now watching bemused as their loved one - lap top in place and propped up in bed intently watches a lecture about Tort, or Finance and Banking or Land Law ...

BIALL Bursaries for the IALL and the ALLA Conference

2011-07-28T00:17:00.005+01:00

Angela Donaldson the Chair of the Awards and Bursaries Committee has an exciting announcement for all BIALL members...

"BIALL's Awards & Bursaries Committee will be pleased to consider applications to attend the IALL Conference, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 4th-8th December 2011, and the ALLA Conference, Canberra, Australia, 28th-30th September

Applicants must be BIALL personal members and should complete the Overseas Bursary Application Form, available to download on the BIALL Awards & Bursaries webpage - Don’t forget to tell us why you are particularly interested in your chosen conference, and how the programme relates to your role.

IALL Conference – you can get full details about the IALL Conference, including the programme, via the IALL website

ALLA Conference – you can get full details about the ALLA Conference, including the programme, via the Conference website.

The deadline for applications for bursaries for both conferences is Wednesday 10th August 2011"

That's about two weeks away, so if you are interested probably best to have a look straight away.

BIALL Conference 2011 Tweet Archive

2011-07-27T10:45:00.004+01:00

#BIALL2011

Thanks go to James for creating this archive on our behalf. We can look back at our tweets pre, during & post conference.

"The Brent Six Are Innocent"

2011-07-24T21:55:00.006+01:00

The BIALL blog is interested in the law and interested in libraries. So the current judicial review into the decision by Brent Council to close six of it's libraries is sadly appropriate.

The Council decision is being challenged on the basis that it acted unlawfully in failing to assess the local needs of the community. The hearing took place last week at the Royal Courts of Justice over three days and Justice Ouseley has reserved judgment.

The BBC news site has a basic overview but the Bookseller.com has an entry for each day (day one, day two, day three) of the judicial review specifically.

But for a more colourful and detailed account try the blog from one of the campaigners "I Spy in Queens Park". It begins;

"Great to see so many people manning the barricades again on the Strand and handing out stickers to passers-by. Best slogan of the day "THE BRENT SIX ARE INNOCENT" A man who seemed to be breakfasting on a pint of vodka advised us to fight from the heart and not the head... We stuck to coffee, then headed back to Court 2"

With the end of the judicial term imminent judgment is unlikely to be handed down before October.

Fellowship of CILIP

2011-07-19T09:40:00.004+01:00

Fellowship citation for Jackie Fishleigh 2011

"Fellowship is the highest award CILIP can make to its members. It recognizes achievement within the profession and celebrates members’ contribution to the profession

CILIP President, Brian Hall, presents Jackie Fishleigh with her Fellowship certifcate at Umbrella conference, July 2011

When Board Members discussed Jackie’s Fellowship application, they praised her style and said she was ‘an excellent communicator’. To this we should add ‘ her supreme determination’".

Please follow the link above for the full details of Jackie's story. Congratulations Jackie!

Are You On Firmer Ground?

2011-07-18T21:31:00.001+01:00

BIALL is delighted to be part of an exciting new collaborative blog called "On Firmer Ground" http://www.firmerground.com/ The blog, which was launched last week is designed to be a celebration of who law firm librarians are and what they do and will publish posts from the Private Law Libraries Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries (PLL-SIS) the Private Law Libraries Special Interest Group of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (l’Association Canadienne des Bibliothèques de Droit) and the SLA Legal Division. Other Law Librarian Associations including the Australian Association of Law Librarians and the New Zealand Association of Law Librarians have also been invited to become part of this collaboration.

Whilst BIALL appreciates that this particular blog is focused on one sector and that Law Librarians and BIALL members come from many sectors, we considered it important that BIALL took an active role in supporting its aims and providing content from the outset.

The editors are very much looking for contributions from members within the sector, so if you'd like more information about "On Fimer Ground" http://www.firmerground.com/ would like to suggest a topic for discussion or would like to get more involved, please contact James Mullan BIALL President-Elect and BIALL representative on the On Firmer Ground editorial board.

Twitter users can also keep up to date with developments by following @firmerground

If you'd like more information about other special interest groups and mailing lists, do check the BIALL website www.biall.org.uk.

Tell Us What You Think!

2011-07-05T08:42:00.010+01:00

Were the sandwiches boring, and the speakers fascinating?

Alternatively maybe the sandwiches were fascinating but the speakers were boring?

Maybe you thought the organisation was excellent or perhaps you are still silently fuming and know how it could have been done better!

If you were at BIALL 2011 and you thought any of these things - or anything else about the conference then go and fill in the Conference Committee feedback survey and have your say.

I just did it, it took less than ten minutes.

Conference Reflections

2011-06-28T08:47:00.005+01:00

With BIALL Conference 2011 a couple of weeks behind us I thought I'd post a few reflections. It would be great to hear what anyone else thought in the comments!

Excellent Venue - Excellent Organisation

The contrast between the last year's slightly tired Brighton venue and The Sage was striking. It was really good to be at a venue which had modern conference facilities and a real bonus to be at one in such a striking setting on Tyneside.

The organisation was brilliant as well. Sessions began and ended on time and were in the places advertised. Generally all the technology worked and the sandwich lunches were superb.

Speakers

The quality of the speakers was generally high. Nick Davies (How to Make Your Training Engaging) was clearly a highlight. I look forward to seeing multiple speakers roaming up and down the stage next year, employing props and letting their natural humour shine through!

It was good to hear from Integreon again as well. Clearly outsourcing is never going to be a comfortable topic but I was pleased to get the opportunity to hear what they had to say.

The balance between academic and commercial speakers was also about right - the use of the parallel sessions being vital in this respect.

Fun Stuff

The Bowl Networking was fun although personally having secured a surface to balance my bowl on it limited the amount of actual networking I did. Still I would say this was better than the more formal dinner we would have had in previous years.

Finally I enjoyed the Annual Dinner but (and this is only a minor quibble) could the band have been a little less so very loud?

U.S. State legislation links

2011-06-24T14:07:00.004+01:00

A Harvard law librarian, Kate Follen is making blog posts about each state’s legislative info.

"Week by week, she posts links to sources of state legislative information on Monroe Infoblog. No surprise, she is tackling the states in alphabetical order. Last week was Week 4: Arkansas.

Each post also includes Fast Facts about the state’s legislative process and links to regulatory information and to the web sites of state newspapers. You can receive updates on her progress by following her on Twitter @katefollen or by subscribing to a feed from her blog." Source: The Harvard Law School Library Blog.

2011 Salary Survey

2011-06-23T09:02:00.003+01:00

Nicky Vignoli is organising this years Salary Survey and has a message for us;

"The 2011 Salary Survey is now open and waiting for your contribution. You can complete the survey online via the anonymous and secure SurveyMonkey website. The link is available via the BIALL website - you will need to log in and go to the publications page here.

The survey should only take a few minutes to complete, and the online collection will make the experience speedier and easier for everyone to complete. If you have any problems with this method please let me know. The survey will remain open until 22 July.

Please ensure you do include your salary information. This is very important, and without this information we will not be able to include your responses in the survey analysis."

As tempting as it is to put it off and do it later why not do it now!

My Conference - Day 1

2011-06-17T00:05:00.006+01:00

My alarm clock went off at 6am in order to get into London for an early train to Newcastle (work commitments having got in the way of a Thursday departure). I wasn’t alone though. Arriving in Newcastle it became clear at least half dozen or more BIALLers were also on the train. Indeed it turned out James Mullan had been sitting in a seat behind me for the whole journey!

A brisk walk from the station across the Tyne to the stunning Conference centre took about half an hour. Our merry band arrived in good time for the second session of the day.

In that session Professor Graham Virgo gave an insightful talk entitled “Why Study Law”. He ran through the why and what of what law students do but also posed some interesting questions. Everyone at the lecture will now be a little familiar with the legal minefield of intent and will certainly remember the lessons in the Voodoo example.

After a tasty lunch (a posh sandwich, vegetable crisps, an apple and a carton of juice) it was on to the parallel sessions.

I attended an interesting session on Sharepoint with Jackie Fishleigh. Sharepoint is it would seem the coming thing – in fact we learnt that apparently Bill Gates says that Sharepoint is to the nougties what Outlook , Excel and other MS products were to the eighties.

Three main points struck me from the talk. The first was one should not brand a Sharepoint product as Sharepoint. The second was that different versions of Sharepoint are very different. Finally that we as information professionals should make sure that we are at the heart of any implementation.

The second session I attended was “International Company Information: A World of Difference”. In this round the world tour of company information Barry Vickery from 7Side kept us all enrapt with details of company disclosure across the globe. Perhaps controversially Barry started by telling us how great UK Companies House is. However when he went on to illustrate how everywhere else is a bit poor in comparison it all made sense.

The Bowl Networking Event rounded off the day. Put simply the staff of the Sage brought round some bowls of food as we had a jolly time networking. With the evening light streaming through the windows it was a very pleasant way to round off day number one.

BIALL 2011 Starts Tomorrow!

2011-06-15T08:08:00.004+01:00

The 2011 BIALL Conference starts tomorrow (and the Pre-Conference Seminar does today...)!

Why not check out James Mullan's blog The Running Librarian ? His most recent post reminds us how much there is to look forward to at this year's conference - thanks James.

At the conference please be as generous as you can for the BIALL 2011 Charity raffle, the proceeds of which will go to support a local Newcastle based charity, Children North East, which works with deprived children in the North East of England. If you are not attending this year please ask a colleague to buy a raffle ticket for you to show your support. This year once again we have a great selection of prizes kindly donated by the Exhibitors. These include a luxury regency hamper (from 7Side) and a vintage bottle of champagne (from Hammicks).

The Exhibition Raffle has some great prizes too, so don't forget to bring lots of business cards to take part.

The Conference on Twitter

2011-06-13T11:25:00.003+01:00

Just a quick reminder that our hashtag on Twitter for The Conference is:

#BIALL2011

Please remember to use the hashtag while tweeting!

Please follow the conference, if you can't make it in person.

Malmaison Hotel for the conference

2011-06-13T11:16:00.001+01:00

Tip for anyone staying at the Malmaison Hotel for the conference: Google maps shows Cafe Mal in the right place where the hotel is but has confused the hotel itself with the Royal Station Hotel (which, as you would expect, is just outside the station!) For location and direction, best to go to: http://www.malmaison.com/hotels/newcastle/finding-the-mal.aspx

Want to be in on all the action?

2011-06-08T11:07:00.009+01:00

Are you dynamic, finger on the pulse, trending on Twitter, more followers than Stephen Fry? Well, in that case we would love to hear from you. The BIALL Web Committee would like to offer you a platform to shine! We are interested in attracting more Web Committee members to our team. Are you up for the challenge?

If you would like a chat and want to find out more, we will be out-and-about at 'The Conference' on Thursday night, look out for the spots!

Not yet registered for the BIALL conference at the Sage Centre Gateshead, Newcastle

2011-06-08T10:01:00.003+01:00

It’s not too late. Why not have a look at the programme and register.

Conference preparations:

2011-06-07T16:34:00.002+01:00

If you’re thinking of staying on in Newcastle and Gateshead for a few days have a look at What’s on

The Eat! Festival on till the 26 June promises lots of lovely treats – a must for foodies.

See you at the BIALL conference!

The Hippest Street in Britain!

2011-06-06T17:52:00.021+01:00

Let it never be said that BIALL isn't hip, happening and at the bleeding edge of what is fashionable. As we ready ourselves for hitting Gateshead we learn it is home to the Hippest Street in Britain! Whats more that street is home to The Sage the venue for this years BIALL conference.

According to the The Guardian ;

"South Shore Road – home to the Lord Foster-designed Sage music centre and the Baltic contemporary arts building – has won the title in a competition run by Google to name the best streets in Britain. The road, which overlooks the "Blinking Eye" millennium bridge and has a view across the water to Newcastle, inspired a recent travel guide to urge visitors to "think Budapest"

The competition ran by Google also had winners for Best Shopping and Most Romantic. You can read about all the winners here.

If you fancy seeing what all the fuss is about I link below to South Shore Road on Street View (You need to swivel left a bit to see The Sage).

Google Maps South Shore Road

To finish I'm going to steal a joke from the late Douglas Adams - BIALL so hip we have trouble seeing over our pelvis!

It’s not too late

2011-06-03T09:55:00.001+01:00

Not yet registered for the BIALL conference at the Sage Centre Gateshead, Newcastle. It’s not too late. Why not have a look at the programme and register.

Gateshead makes bid for city status

2011-06-01T10:53:00.002+01:00

A formal bid is underway to make Gateshead the UK’s next city. Competition from Middlesbrough, Croydon and Reading.

See you at the BIALL conference!

New Archives Advice to Solicitors and Law Firms

2011-05-27T09:11:00.007+01:00

In the current climate of archiving electronic material it may sound anachronistic to be concerned about documents that are hundreds of years old, but now is just the time to be aware of them so that they are not lost through ignorance.

A news item in the Spring 2011 Newsletter of the London Metropolitan Archives:

"A new practice note for solicitors has been published by The Law Society in
conjunction with the Selden Society. The Law Society sought advice from Richard Wiltshire, Senior Archivist (Business Archives) at LMA who advised on and ontributed to the note. The guidance provides advice on caring for and depositing client documents and solicitor firms' own records with the appropriate repositories, such as local authority-run record offices."

The guidance note

"The information is summarised succinctly under headings. Examples of records found in solicitors' business archives are listed to help those managing these records ensure that key categories are retained for long-term preservation. The distinction between client papers and firms' own records is made clear. The importance of manorial records and related legal requirements is emphasised. The requirements for semi current records are given. There is also advice on depositing archives and the likely expectations of archivists. Lastly, useful web links are given including the ARCHON directory of archive repositories, the British Records Association, the Managing Business Archives website, and the Selden Society (the learned society and publisher devoted to English legal history)."
Source: LMA website

Time to have your say

2011-05-25T14:16:00.004+01:00

Have Your Say is where you ask the questions about BIALL's activities, and it will once again be taking place at Conference in June.

This is your formal opportunity to raise issues about the whole range of committees, awards, conference, activities, publications and events that BIALL promotes or produces.

It's not just for those able to make the session in Gateshead. Membership Services Committee would really encourage you to add your query, comment, suggestion, praise or complaint to the agenda here on the BIALL blog or to send it by email to Olwyn Mitchell (MSC committee chair)-- or catch us at the conference before the session.

Comments posted here will be used as the basis for the discussions in the HYS slot. Committee chairs or other relevant people will be invited to respond to comments from here and the conference forum.

Whether you are attending Conference or not, we want to hear from you.

Become a Little Bit Famous in Canada

2011-05-23T10:39:00.007+01:00

Posted on Lis-Law last week is your opportunity to become a little bit famous in Canada. The Canadian Law Library Review is looking for a UK librarian to contribute a quarterly column on - well - it seems almost anything you fancy library related.

Nancy McCormack, editor of the Canadian Library Law Review writes;

"I'm hoping you can help me. I'm trying to find someone in the U.K. who would be willing to write a page or two (or more if that person has more to say) on developments in U.K. libraries. The subject range is broad--anything about what is happening in that person's library or libraries in general, teaching, new legislation, interesting cases, political news, updates on conferences etc. The column will be published in the Canadian Law Library Review four times a year along with a column from the U.S. and one from Australia.
I'd be most grateful if you could ask your fellow U.K. librarians if anyone is interested."

Interested? If so you can email Nancy McCormack directly at the email address below.

nm4@queensu.ca

BIALL Newsletter

2011-05-18T19:19:00.009+01:00

BIALL members will find the latest version of the BIALL Newsletter will be hitting their mailboxes any day now!

If you are attending the conference it is a must read. It features a detailed update from the Conference Committee Chair John Furlong - which having read it myself has left me particularly intrigued and looking forward to the opening reception at the Annual Dinner!

That's not all however as the Newsletter also features a walking tour of Newcastle Quayside and both the regular A Day in the Life and On the Spot features are authored by North East BIALLers.

As well as the conference material the Newsletter has a new feature highlighting updates on the BIALL How Do I? wiki. This time Welsh Circulars and Employment Tribunal decisions have seen some updating action! You will also have your eye opened when you read just how much Internet traffic the wiki receives.

So when you receive your copy make sure you give the Newsletter the attention it deserves!

Wanted: Competent, enthusiastic photographer...

2011-05-18T11:29:00.008+01:00

who can apply professional skills to BIALL Conference Event, 16-18 June 2011

Must have:

· an eye to capture both the formal and informal moments of Conference

· friendly approach and flair to engage people

· ability to timetable formal duties required e.g. opening of the Conference, programme sessions

Reward: Free conference registration (not $1000)!

Apply ASAP!

To apply please provide some examples of your work to John Furlong, Chair of Conference Committee. John can arrange a follow up chat about your availability.

Image credits: Poster | photographer

The Supreme Court - Live!

2011-05-16T22:30:00.005+01:00

The UK Supreme Court, in a bold move can now be watched live on the Internet. The press release from the Court tells us;

"Sky News has today launched a live stream of the court’s hearings and judgments, as they happen, via their website at www.skynews.com/supremecourt.
The Supreme Court is exempt from the prohibition on filming court proceedings in England, Wales and Northern Ireland*, and has four cameras installed in each of its three court rooms, but until now use of footage has generally been limited to news coverage and occasional documentaries.

The move means that legal professionals, students and members of the public interested in the work of the Supreme Court do not have to travel to London to see proceedings. The website contains direct links to the Supreme Court’s own summaries of each case, to enable viewers to read some background material."

For some interesting perspectives on the development try Max Atkinson's Blog , and the UK Human Rights Blog.

This is a good moment to mention that generally for coverage of the UK Supreme Court the best place to go is the UKSC blog who have terrific coverage of all the upcoming cases.

Representing CILIP and BIALL at a recent 6th Form Careers Fair at John Roan’s School

2011-05-11T10:49:00.006+01:00

Author: Clare Brown- Library & Information Manager, Collyer Bristow LLP solicitors

A few weeks ago I volunteered to attend The John Roan’s School 6th Form Careers Fair to represent CILIP and BIALL. As far as visitors to my stand – when I was competing with a lot of cool stands and careers, I think it was a resounding success.

4 points to takeaway:

1. 6th formers love technology; the stand with the electronic beeping noises and swish Apple notebook was immediately pounced upon
2. Freebies go down well; the stands with pens, bags, stuff to takeaway were also mobbed
3. Fire fighting and the police are cool careers; my stand managed a respectable number of visitors but information is a hard sell to cool kids
4. Money talks; kids want to know what they will earn!

Undeterred, when groups of 2 or 3 (safety in numbers, clearly!) came across to ask what I did, I explained that every career/university/business stand in the hall relied on information to function. Whether police, nursing, law, banking, every professional would at some point rely on someone like me to provide them with information on a particular topic. This underlined not only the importance of information professionals but also the incredible diversity of what we do. The breadth of what we do is part of the problem in getting our message across - the waters can become very confusingly muddied. However the students were quick to catch on and it was heartening to hear them explaining and discussing what sort of people needed information.

The second way I was able to impress was to point out that much of what goes on in the news is directly applicable to what my users (lawyers) were interested in. About half of the students were familiar with the Twitter super injunction furore and as that was something I'd researched the day before I was able to directly relate it back to celebrities and how the weathy were being protected. Making a connection like was brilliant at illustrating how I went about my work.

Thirdly the next big topic was salary and longevity of the job, with one enterprising chap asking, 'what is the point of being a librarian when they're all shutting'. Again I explained that many companies/industries were actively recruiting skilled information people simply because they were at an economic disadvantage if they didn't have access to the right level of organised information. Not all library jobs are government or public - industry/business/legal were happy to take on excellent researchers. Some may scoff but I pointed out that managers of legal information services were well paid and (according to the salary survey) can earn upwards of £60k pa.

Naturally I was happy to say that my job as a legal information professional was amazing; varied, interesting, well rewarded and provided scope for an excellent work/life balance!
It was a joy to talk to such interesting students and go round to enjoy the other stands - in my next career, I may be a very cool fire fighter.

Clare

Halsbury's Awards - call for nominations

2011-05-04T14:05:00.005+01:00

Nominations are now being accepted for the Halsbury's Awards 2011, to be presented at the BIALL Annual Conference in June.

The Categories

· Best Legal Information Service (Commercial Sector) - London Only

· Best Legal Information Service (Commercial Sector)

· Best Legal Information Service (Non-Commercial Sector)

To make a nomination, please visit the Halsbury's Awards website.

We would like to encourage you to inform colleagues of The Awards and the link for nominations. The deadline for all nominations is Friday May 20th 2011.

BIALL Early Bird Discount - 1 Day Left!

2011-05-04T09:13:00.005+01:00

A quick note to point out that the Early Bird discount for the BIALL Conference 2011 in Newcastle expires soon. The discount applies to bookings made before Friday 6th May 2011.

So don't delay! Also why not let people know you will be there by adding yourself as attending the event on LinkedIn?

The Story of Your Librarian Journey - In Only 5 Words

2011-04-25T12:37:00.010+01:00

Andy Woodworth a librarian in New Jersey (who describes himself in some detail here) has asked his followers on Twitter to describe their "librarian journey" in only five words.

These are my favourites.

Roogly "Museums wouldn't have me"

Joeenglish "Knowledge is Power - No Brainer"

Cransell "I'd love to help you"

DeaneeBoyer "People and books -best combination"

KingConstance "Walk, bus, walk some more"

LibraryWillie "Loves helping people find stuff"

Phil Bradley "I just wanted the power!"

Personally I haven't come up with one I'm totally happy with (looseleafing hasn't been a big part of my "journey" but it's what keeps popping into my head when I try and write one).

When I do have one I'll post it on Twitter. Search on the hashtag #andypoll to find all the contributions so far. Why not add one yourself.

The photograph was taken by Steve Garfield and is used under the Creative Commons agreement.

Charo QC Interviews Lawbore Editor

2011-04-17T21:16:00.009+01:00

The world of social media loves to evolve jargon. We started off with web logs which became blogs and in the legal world it was legal web logs which became blawgs. Charon QC, (the alter ego of Mike Semple Piggot) a leading UK blawg, interviewed Emily Allbon in a recent entry.

Emily works at City University where she is the editor of Lawbore - its legal portal. Why not have a listen to the interview at his website

The interview discusses the legal research skills a modern law student needs, and the resources available to them. They also get on to the value of legal blogging and social media.

Do you use WordPress?

2011-04-14T11:40:00.002+01:00

If so, try this: 5 Essential Plugins For Your WordPress CMS

Want to save precious time...

2011-04-11T15:50:00.004+01:00

5 Simple Web Apps For Saving Time At Work

"Much has been made of some excellent mobile apps and tablet apps that let users stay productive on the go. But let's face it—the majority of your work is still done at your desk, and much of it, perhaps, in a Web browser".

~ I particularly liked Zamzar and will make use of CopyPasteCharacter, hope this article is useful to you.

Make your own Lighting for Home, Art & Craft Groups

2011-04-08T14:39:00.002+01:00

Among the usual targetted marketing that regularly comes into the BIALL web inbox, this one really stretched the boundaries - "Make your own lampshade"! If anyone can see the connection with law librarianship, would be glad to hear it...

Make your own Lighting with our easy to use DIY Kits Lampshades, Wall Lights or Table Lights can all be made.
Create your own Lighting to match your Interior Design your own and resell to friends or online Great for Art & Craft Groups and School Projects
For more Information visit our website www.needcraft.co.uk

Visiting Newcastle / Gateshead

2011-04-04T22:07:00.022+01:00

While your main reason for being in Newcastle / Gateshead will be the fantastic programme of talks and brilliant networking at BIALL 2011 - you will also want to find some time to see the city.

NewcastleGateshead tourist information website has a fairly nifty feature which allows you to build your own itinerary and as an example provides a sample history itinerary and also one suggested by Newcastle United and England legend Peter Beardsly.

The BIALL blog might be tempted to pop into the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art which seems to be Gatehead's answer to Tate Modern and would certainly admire the view from the Castle Keep a grade 1 listed Norman Keep which boasts some outstanding views across the city.

So make sure you are at BIALL 2011 and don't leave your application to the last minute. If you need some help in getting the nod from the powers that be the AALL website has some useful tips for "Getting the Boss to Say yes". It even includes a sample memo for your employer! (The picture of Tyne Bridge was taken by Bob Castle.)

BIALL Cheese & Wine Evening 2011 Success!

2011-04-04T10:47:00.004+01:00

Just over 50 people attended the above event which was held in the Old Hall, Lincoln's Inn on Friday 25 February. £116.50 was raised for the Wallace Breem Memorial Award Fund.

Photographs from the event can be viewed at the BIALL flickr account - http://www.flickr.com/groups/biall.

LIS Research Coalition - Have Your Say

2011-04-03T20:38:00.004+01:00

The Library and Information Science Research Coalition have instituted a review to measure the impact of its work. As part of this review they have a questionnaire that they would like you to fill in. It promises to take up no more than fifteen minutes of your time and asks you to comment on your familiarity with the work of the LIS Research Coalition, it's relevance your work and the plans they have for the next 12 months. To have your say just follow this link. The deadline is Friday 8th April.

This year's hash tag - #BIALL2011

2011-03-28T12:58:00.009+01:00

In preparation for the 42nd BIALL annual study conference and exhibition we are promoting #BIALL2011 as the official hash tag for the event.

We are encouraging attendees at the conference to use the #BIALL2011 tag when tweeting about the conference, offical and the not so official. Anyone who unfortunately can't attend in person can keep up with what's going on by using the hash tag in twitter to see the latest news, gossip & critical information, for example, how good the chocolate biscuits are this year!

Lets see if we can get it 'trending', whatever that means!!!

AALL 2011 - Why Not Apply for A Bursary?

2011-03-27T22:22:00.022+01:00

Philadelphia - home of the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Philadelphia Cheese Steak and in July 2011 - AALL. Yes - the American Association of Law Librarians Annual Meeting and Conference is taking place in "The City of Brotherly Love" between the 23rd - 26th July 2011. AALL as it seems to be known (in much the same way as people refer to the annual BIALL Study Conference as simply BIALL) is absolutely massive with as many as 2,500 attendees in recent years. As a huge conference a huge number of things are happening at anyone time. The mind boggles when looking across the sheer number of different sessions. If the BIALL blog found itself in Philadelphia it would certainly attend the keynote address by Dalia Lithwick a Senior Editor at Slate , would feel duty bound to hear the talk entitled "Delaware: the First State for Corporation Law", and would be fascinated by the transatlantic point of view on offer at "Legal Eduction for Law Practice: Teaching Legal Research in a Practice Environment." If you are interested in attending why not apply for a bursary? You will find the full details on the BIALL website here. If you are successful you would be a little over 3 months away from a professional experience of a lifetime and maybe even a culinary one too.

Are you LinkedIn?

2011-03-23T10:06:00.005Z

3 Geeks and a Law Blog:
Really Want Those LinkedIn Connections To Work? Connect With Your Librarian!

This post explains the potential of being connected on LinkedIn and the access to profile information when you are "no further than 3 connections away". The key, it seems, is not only to be on there (or be square) but to be well connected.

A quick reminder:

2011-03-16T11:33:00.004Z

If you are free next Tuesday and in or around the Manchester area, this may be of interest to you:

Where: Kro Bar, 325 Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PG
When: 22nd March 2011
Time: 6:30 to 8:30pm

Is your information service ‘Future Ready’?
Allan Foster will be leading an evening session to explore issues of the future readiness of corporate libraries and information services. He will be using the results of his 2011 Business Information Survey, to be published concurrently in late March in Business Information Review, to identify current practice and future priorities for SLA members. In the light of the Survey findings, the audience will be asked to focus on the question “what will be the key skills required of information professionals in the next five years?”

Allan Foster is an information industry consultant and writer, previously Director of Information Services at Keele University and a senior information manager at Manchester Business School, Lancashire Polytechnic, Sheffield Polytechnic and the British Institute of Management. E-mail: allan.foster@gmail.com

If you are interested then please complete the online registration form.

A Wiki for Vendor Relations?

2011-03-15T09:07:00.005Z

Sarah Glassmeyer has had a radical idea. An idea that she herself volunteers "will cause me much more trouble and drama than it will ever be worth".

Her idea is to set up a "up a wiki where librarians and other interested parties can share information about all aspects of the library/vendor relationship".

Putting it this way makes LISVendor.info sound fairly unexciting. However Sarah - a self styled "law librarian -LibPunk - Information liberator" explains on her blog how the idea germinated from a notion of a need for a "wikileaks for library contracts". Which makes it sound much more alarming!

Glassmeyer is a US Law Librarian and LISVendor.info looks like it will be focused on vendor relations in the USA - but it is an interesting development nevertheless.

BIALL 2011 - Newcastle

2011-03-10T21:25:00.007Z

Details of the BIALL 42nd Study Conference in Newcastle are now available to view on the BIALL website.

This includes the full programme which you can find here . Glancing down the programme you will find plenty to interest you. From the sequel to arguably last years most talked about session"The Integeron Model - A Year on", to the Keynote Address "Going off the Road with KM" or just the provocatively titled "Sharepoint and the Naked Law Librarian" something will grab your attention.

If like me you love a bargain or just want to make your budget stretch that bit further make sure you book before May 6th and qualify for the Early Bird Discount.

Long live legal blogging - in all of its many forms

2011-02-28T15:31:00.006Z

Newsflash: Legal Bloggers are real people! Reflections on the #LawBlogs seminar: By Ashley Connick (GDL student at The College of Law)

Ashley considers the #LawBlogs seminar he has just attended and at how strong the blawgosphere is: "One of the questions that was discussed was “who do you blog for?”. One of the things I took away from the evening about blogging is that whoever your intended audience may be and whatever effect you hope your writing will have, you are ultimately blogging for yourself. Blogging is unpaid and, as was agreed in the form of much nodding and murmuring when it was mentioned at #LawBlogs, can be very time consuming. It’s not something that any of the legal bloggers would do if they didn’t enjoy it."

Introducing ...

2011-02-21T11:26:00.015Z

The eagle eyed may have spotted that the BIALL Blog has new authors.

We introduce ourselves below...

Philip Cable

I didn't grow up wanting to be a law librarian. However having studied Literature and Computing and worked in my University library as an undergraduate I found I had inadvertently created a perfect CV to apply for library work when I graduated.

So that's what I did. I applied all over the place but was fortunate that Norton Rose offered me a job and drew me into the Legal Library world. A year as a Library Assistant at NR convinced me that legal libraries were for me. I went back to University and studied for a postgraduate degree at the Department of Information Studies at Sheffield University (the most academically rigorous thing I have ever done!).

Having completed my degree I came back to London and was again fortunate to find a job with the Inner Temple Library. I loved my time there in a genuinely unique atmosphere. After a few years I eventually decided I better move on. I applied to Lovells now Hogan Lovells where I have been for about six years!

I've been a member of BIALL for most of this time and when I saw the Blog needed some new blood I knew that now was the time to get more involved.

Sally Peat

I haven't grown up yet and still don't know what I want to be when I do! In the meantime I'm employed by The College of Law as an active member of the Knowledge team and for the most part I work on design and information management for the College Intranet. I'm also responsible for customising our library OPAC, building our interactive user guides and supporting database access. Generally anything where I can offer my skills, I try to get involved. I very much enjoy working at The College and feel happy to be invited to participate in BIALL web based activities.

Hopefully the blog will continue to be sucessful with Philip and I contributing regularly, we both encourage members to forward any articles or news items they would like to hightlight to the rest of the BIALL community.

New Public Reading Stage

2011-02-16T19:02:00.005Z

Going on right now is the "Public Reading Stage" for the Protection of Freedoms Bill. In effect the Coalition Government are experimenting with crowd sourcing for laws. The Prime Minister saying that;

“Our new Public Reading Stage will improve the level of debate and scrutiny of Bills by giving everyone the opportunity to go online and offer their views on any new legislation. That will mean better laws - and more trust in our politics."

I will be interesting to see if this becomes a permanent addition to the process of scrutiny.

BIALL Cheese & Wine Evening: A quick reminder...

2011-02-15T14:38:00.004Z

Friday 18 February is the last date for anyone interested in attending the Cheese & Wine Evening. The event will be held on Friday 25 February in the Old Hall at Lincoln's Inn and costs £20 for members and £25 for non-members.

Any profit will be given to the Wallace Breem Memorial Fund.

Booking forms are available on the BIALL website

Help Obtaining Transcripts

2011-02-13T22:41:00.009Z

Some things are memorable. For instance when trying to manage lawyers expectations of turnaround time - I never forget that I can only obtain an Employment Tribunal transcript by sending a cheque to the Tribunals Service in Bury St Edmunds.

However for many of the other multitude of courts and tribunals my recollection is less clear. So it's pleasing to learn that the Inner Temple Library have just completed a revised version of their guide to sources for transcripts of judicial proceedings.

Compiled by Sally McLaren, it comes as a 165 page PDF document. Find all the details here.

Tweeting in Court

2011-02-10T13:15:00.004Z

"Twitter has become a form of public broadcasting - as the PCC has acknowledged - and there is nothing the courts can do to stop it".

So argues Joshua Rozenberg in a piece yesterday for The Guardian. His article discusses the recently launched consultation by the Judicial Office of England and Wales "A Consultation on the Use of Live, Text‐Based Forms of Communications from Court for the Purposes of Fair and Accurate Reporting".

Is the foundation of the ICLT (Incorporated Council of Law Tweeting) the next logical step?

Integreon Appoint "The End of Lawyers" Author

2011-02-06T20:38:00.009Z

In a week with difficult and troubling news for the future of law libraries in the big firms the legal outsourcer Integreon has made a noteworthy appointment.

Richard Susskind a Legal Technology strategist is to head a new "client advisory board".

Susskind is the author of the book "The End of Lawyers" and argues that technology will reshape the law as we know it eroding and destroying the roles of many lawyers.

Challenging and provocative stuff.

What "The End of Lawyers" means for the future of law librarians seems equally thought provoking

BIALL Quiz 2011

2011-02-03T13:01:00.016Z

Yesterday evening the basement in the Penderal's Oak in central London was packed full of BIALL members for the 2011 quiz night.

The evening began with the opening of the impressive buffet that was almost entirely devoured by the assembled in less than twenty minutes.

Suitably fueled the quiz began with seven rounds of tough quizzing ahead covering general knowledge, music, pictures, TV and film, flags, notable women (and one other round which has slipped the BIALL blogs mind ...).

Top of the pile at the end sat the Inner Temple who told this blog that "they had the perfect mix of knowledge about nonsense" and also in reference to one of the questions that "the West Indies isn't a country".

The evening was superbly organised and ran like clockwork. A particular mention should be given to quiz master John Evans who delivered the quiz brilliantly and with great authority.

The evening was sponsored by Prenax Legal Library Service and Wildys & Sons Ltd.

Find the results below.

Are e-books taking over?

2011-02-02T11:37:00.014Z

Amazon Kindle e-book downloads outsell paperbacks

"Amazon announced that in the US since the start of the year it had sold 115 e-book downloads for every 100 paperback books, even excluding its downloads of free books.
But it stressed that sales of paperback books were also growing."

Amazon are not disclosing how many of their Kindle devices they have sold but the number is greater than the copies sold for 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows', which, one would guess, isn't an insignificant number!

City University London Scholarship and Prizes Evening - 2010 Alex McVitty Award

2011-01-31T18:15:00.004Z

Clare Brown was pleased and excited to be representing BIALL on 18th January at City University London Scholarship and Prizes Evening. During the reception she met up with the recipient of the 2010 Alex McVitty Award, Sian Downes, who expressed her thanks both to BIALL and to the Awards and Bursaries Committee, for awarding her this bursary.

This award is important in two ways; the first is to remember the talented young law librarian who was tragically killed in a road accident; and secondly in this time of economic uncertainty in higher education, it is increasingly becoming important for individuals, charities and other organisations to recognise and encourage excellent students in a practical way. On behalf of BIALL and the ABC, she would like to take this opportunity to wish Sian all the best in her career.

Preaching to the converted

2011-01-31T10:19:00.008Z

Saturday the 5th February is 'Save Our Libraries Day' .

Do you have a little time to spare at the weekend? If so, why not pop down to your local library and take out a book! In support of our local public library services, please spare a little time this Saturday. Anything from downloading an e-book to taking out a membership, it all makes a difference. There are many suggestions on the Cilip site for you to show your support.

Use Twitter or Facebook to spread the word: "Got less than 2 minutes?
Tweet why you love libraries using the hashtag #savelibraries or post this page to your Facebook profile and spread the word".

"The CCBE has dipped its toe into the world of Twitter..."

2011-01-28T15:55:00.008Z

The Law Society Gazette looks at the initial impact of setting up a Twitter account at The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe and the problems they encountered when trying to provide a twitter account with multilingual options for their English and French speaking followers:

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/blogs/euro-blog/twitter-beginners

Can you picture them waiting for the latest tweet:
"So, you can imagine us all now gathered around the Twitter computer waiting for it to ring. Well, not quite – but we feel our lives beginning to change with a new, networked technology".

Radio 2, BIALL, and the Cheese and Wine

2011-01-28T09:07:00.016Z

BIALL blog readers maybe interested that the BBC Radio 2 Radcliffe and Maconie Show recently helped promote the forthcoming BIALL Cheese and Wine Evening.

BIALL member Libby Whitethread emailed the show taking part in a feature asking whether people still have Cheese and Wine parties.

The mention took place on Wednesday 26th January and it's eleven minutes into the show. You can follow the link below until it expires on Wednesday 2nd February:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xh728

As well as Libby two other BIALL members get a mention!

The details of the Cheese and Wine evening can be found here.

New editor sought for Legal Information Management

2011-01-07T16:55:00.004Z

Christine Miskin, the Editor of the Associations respected official journal, Legal Information Management is retiring and therefore BIALL is looking to recruit another Editor. Please see the attached PDF for details (please ignore application deadline as this has now been extended).

BIALL Dissertation award

2010-12-15T12:14:00.009Z

The PR and Promotions Committee are delighted to announce the winner of the 2010 Dissertation Award. The Dissertation Award was first awarded in 2009 and is offered to any library school student who submits the best dissertation on a corporate or legal topic.

The winner of the award this year is Caroline Goulding (née Williams) . Caroline, who is Head of Knowledge and Information Strategy (jobshare) at the Ministry of Justice, completed her MSc Econ LIS in the Department of Information Studies, Aberystwyth University.

She submitted a paper that looked at the role of an information professional in a legal environment, entitled "A Comparison of The Role of the Information Professional in the Legal Environment in the Private and Public Sectors". Ms Williams presented a small-scale, illustrative, qualitative study of the landscape for, and roles available to information professionals within the private and public sectors, focusing specifically on organisations that provide a legal service.

Ms Williams wins £250.00 plus one year's personal membership to BIALL.

For those wishing to submit in 2011 the criterion for submission is:

Open to all undergraduate and postgraduate library school students on a CILIP accredited course
The topic must be of a corporate or legal matter
The dissertation must be submitted electronically and include an executive summary
It must be submitted (to vivian.grainge@freethcartwright.co.uk) by 1 Oct each year
Only one dissertation from each course per library school may be submitted
Submission at the discretion of the university not by individual students

Our congratulations to Ms Williams, and a reminder that the closing date for next year's award will be Saturday 1st October 2011.

So you want to be a Law Librarian

2010-12-14T09:30:00.001Z

Ted Tjaden has written an excellent post on SLAW asking "So you want to be a Law Librarian"

In the post Ted articulates the role/skills that Law Librarians working in a modern law firm will need to have. These are listed as:

Specialized knowledge/skills
Dealing with Information Overload
Adding value
Creating strategic partnerships
Training
Adapt to change

For me perhaps the most important skill is being able to adapt to change. Change is inevitable, it's happening within the legal sector, within law firms, within the library sector and within libraries themselves. Being able to adapt and to embrace change is hugely important and is something that is often taken for granted. Unfortunately if we don't learn to change we risk being left behind.

BIALL at Online 2010

2010-12-06T19:05:00.005Z

Many thanks to everyone who stopped by the BIALL stand at Online Information in London last week. If you couldn't make it there, there are a few photos of the stand on our Flickr account.

BIALL Membership Services Survey 2010

2010-12-02T11:42:00.004Z

Please complete this short survey and you could win £25 in book tokens!

This survey aims to:

collect BIALL members' opinions on services currently offered by the Membership Services Committee
collect BIALL members' opinions and suggestions on possible new services which could be offered by BIALL

You can find the survey form at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/872PJTH

The survey will only take you 10 minutes or less to complete. All personal and institutional members of BIALL are invited to complete the survey before 17 December 2010. The findings of the survey will be published in early 2011.

All responses will be treated in the strictest of confidence and the anonymity of respondents will be preserved in the final report. You can complete the survey anonymously if you wish, but please give your name and contact details at the end, if you would like your name included in the prize draw.

The Membership Services Committee (MSC) of BIALL encourage members to make a response even if they have never used any of the services currently offered by the MSC, because we value your views on potential new services for BIALL members.

The BIALL Membership Services Committee aims to provide and promote services to the membership of the Association in conformity with the strategic and financial objectives of the Council.

The services currently offered by MSC are:

A members' forum at the annual conference, "Have Your Say"
A mentoring scheme for first-time delegates at the annual study conference
A regularly updated Members Information Pack
An annual salary survey
A duplicates exchange scheme, to share resources
The BIALL Conference Stand at the annual conference

Survey closing date: 17 December 2010
Survey form at : http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/872PJTH

Join a BIALL Committee – Your Association Needs You!

2010-11-26T17:17:00.002Z

Maybe you've thought about it a dozen times … but never quite took the plunge! You know how good it would be for networking, learning new skills and also to have some fun but you never really knew what it involved, whether it would be far too much work and also how to join.

Well – if that sounds like you – check out our new page on the BIALL website:
http://www.biall.org.uk/pages/nominations-committee.html

The Nominations and Volunteer's Committee has just been revamped and relaunched – offering a central place to find out whether there are any vacancies on an any of the committees. Why not have a look today!

Does it pay to hire a law firm Librarian?

2010-11-22T09:54:00.004Z

"If you were designing a law firm today, would you even have a library? I think many, including me, would answer, “Probably not.” As long as the Internet exists, information that was in a law library will be available online. So why bother, right?" Is the attention grabbing first paragraph of the rather interestingly named "Does it pay to hire a law firm Librarian?"

There are plenty of comments as you can imagine in response to this article and several follow up blog posts including the following;

If you read any of these blog posts you'll see that the original post by Patrick Lamb has created quite a hoo ha in the US and even though the blog posts all have a US focus the discussion can easily be applied to Law Firm Librarians in the UK.

New resources for government, legal, health and corporate libraries

2010-11-05T16:44:00.003Z

BIALL members might be interested in this announcement from CILIP yesterday.

"CILIP has launched a selection of tools for those working in special library and information services. These tools will help demonstrate the value and impact of library and information services, assess whether they deliver good value for money and provide early identification if the service is at risk of reduction"

The tools include:

Resources lists that bring together selected reports and articles that demonstrate the value and impact of special library and information services
Risk checklist to help identify whether your library and information service is a possible candidate for resource reduction
Ten point guide to the key aspects of current good practice help to reflect on the key question 'Are we delivering value for money to our organisation?'

This looks like a very useful list of tools/resources for anyone working in a special library.

BIALL Salary Survey results published

2010-11-04T17:19:00.001Z

The 2010 Salary Survey is now available for download from the members' area of the BIALL website.

Follow the links from the Publications section to the members-only archive for this year's survey and for past years too, back to 2003.

Olwyn Mitchell
Membership Services Committee

Google Instant

2010-10-06T17:08:00.007+01:00

A while ago Google unveiled a enhancement for web search which means you can now return results "instantly" wow fantastic you're possibly thinking...you're probably also thinking, what is this Google Instant you're talking about?

Sadly even though Google Instant is available in the UK if you're not using Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Internet Explorer 8 you're not going to see any changes to Google so no instant results for you!

Don't worry though you can read all about Google Instant on the Google Instant help pages and hope that maybe one day you'll have access to a "modern browser"

If you're lucky enough to be using one of these Internet Browsers then why not have a read of the following blog posts which take a look at Google Instant in more detail.