Legal Research
The BIALL Blog 
By the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians
Post Frequency: 5.2/day Last Entry: November 18, 2009 at 06:36:00 Recent Entries: 248
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Google makes free US caselaw available
Posted on November 18, 2009Google announced yesterday that it will be making free US caselaw available on Google Scholar.All text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts will be included.It will also have value-added features such as links to related journal articles and other cited cases...
Should Westlaw and Lexis be like Google?
Posted on November 16, 2009The Out of the Jungle blog has written an interesting post called "Why Westlaw and Lexis should not be like Google" in it they discuss why LexisNexis and Westlaw should not try to be more like Google.The post identifies a number of reasons why Google type searching would not be appropriate for tools like LexisNexis or Westlaw...
Online Information 2009 Conference on a Shoestring
Posted on November 12, 2009If you don't have an extra £793 in your training budget, the free seminars at the Online Information Conference are still nothing to be sniffed at.From our own David Percik's negotiating tips to the Victoria & Albert Museum's open source CMS and SaaS success stories ...
Purchasing Power: A Legal Resources Purchasing Consortium?
Posted on October 29, 2009As Ruth Bird posted on the Academic Law Librarian mail list:'Yesterday a focus group of academic law librarians met with representatives of Eduserv, a body that evolved from CHEST, which now undertakes Licence Negotiation Services in the Higher Education sector...
The ICLR & Youtube
Posted on October 26, 2009Sara Batts of Uncooked Data has discovered a bit of a gem in "Always cited in preference" in her post she describes how the ICLR have launched a Youtube channel, which promotes and provides guidance on using the Law Reports they produce.There are five videos in total, of which our favourite has to be "A tale of two citations" we're wondering if this really does happen?
Justis goes ALL local!
Posted on October 26, 2009As reported on the BIALL Solos/One Man Band blog in their post "Local Acts from Justis" Justis have entered into a joint venture with OPSI to increase the accessibility of local acts.This should significantly improve the availability of local acts, although they are already available on Westlaw, OPSI and the Statute Law Database (SLD)Interestingly Justis are asking for advice on how they should present these acts within Justis in their press release "Local acts from your local electronic publisher" so what do BIALL members think?
What should we be calling ourselves?
Posted on October 23, 2009Changing the name of any organisation can be contentious so a recent blot post on the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog caught our eye. Called "Am I A Librarian Or A Strategic Knowledge Professional?" the post looks at the annoucement by the Special Libraries Association (SLA) to their change their name to the "Association of Strategic Knowledge Professionals"The author also includes some comments from SLA members within the blog post...
All EU Publications Now Available Online, Free
Posted on October 20, 2009The EU Bookshop has launched their digital library where '12 million scanned pages in more than 110,000 EU publications are available free of charge for download', eGov Monitor reports.The new digital library was launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair on the 16th of October and offers all publications edited by the Publications Office on behalf of the EU institutions, agencies and other bodies since 1952...
Speed Dating ? with a difference!
Posted on October 13, 2009Once a year, CILIP hosts a Graduate Day providing help, support and advice to those who are considering a career in the library and information sector. As a part of this day, BIALL?s President Daniella King was joined by Tracey Dennis of the Inner Temple Library to be a part of a Speed Networking Panel...
What does your organisation block?
Posted on October 12, 2009The 3 Geeks and a Law Blog have published the results of a survey underaken by Elaine Dockens, Library Director for Tressler LLP in Chicago in their blog post "Computer use in your organization"Elaine surveyed a small group of Law Librarians about their firms policies on computer usage...
New Supreme Court justices sworn in by... themselves
Posted on October 05, 2009On 1 October, the new Supreme Court was opened for business and the justices were sworn in, the Times reports:In the ceremony that took place in the Middlesex Guildhall in Parliament Square, "the deputy president of the court swore the President in, the President swore in the deputy and then the President ? Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers ? swore in everyone else...
Rate your legal information suppliers
Posted on October 01, 2009Joe Hodnicki of the Law Librarian Blog has created a short survey, which BIALL members might be interested in completing. The survey looks at relationships between Librarians and their legal information suppliers.The focus of the survey is of course on US legal suppliers, but it will be interesting to see what the results are...
Evaluating Law Library services
Posted on September 21, 2009Ron Friedman at Prism Legal reports in his post "Slashing BigLaw Libraries" on the results of the AM Law 200 survey of Law Libraries.Some highlights from his blog post:About 1/2 of the 86 responding librarians reported cutting budgets and almost 60% cutting staff...
What a wonderful world we live in: the future of Legal Research
Posted on September 21, 2009According to this article from the Huffington Post "The Reinvention of Legal Research" these are wondorous times in the world of online publishing. The author of the article Peter Schwarz makes five points which are well considered in a blog post from the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, they are;Data Trumps documentsInformation is liquidInformation is a commodity Customers will not pay for research Large legal publishers are in troubleThe original article and the the post from the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog are well worth a quick read.
What does the Google book settlement really mean?
Posted on September 18, 2009Early this summer Google and representatives of rights owners and publishers in the US came to an agreement on how to settle the copyright and other legal issues in relation to the Book Search Project but what is Google Books and what will the agreement Google have made with publishers in the US mean?In the YouTube video below "Nathan" an engineer from the Google Books team talks about how Google books can be used and the agreement they've reached with publishers...
BIALL's 40th Birthday Party
Posted on September 18, 2009BIALL's 40th Birthday party took place on Friday the 11th of September at Delfina, sponsored by Justis the night was a colourful celebration of 40 years of work by BIALL.You can view all the photos taken on the night on BIALL's flickr page.
Supreme Court Website
Posted on September 07, 2009The launch of the new Supreme Court website should be of interest to all BIALL members. From the new website "The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in the UK for civil cases. It hears appeals in criminal cases from England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
Salary Survey 2009
Posted on September 07, 2009The Salary Survey 2009 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.Sara BattsMembership Services Committee
Looking for some inspiration?
Posted on September 04, 2009With only a week to go until BIALL's 40th Birthday Party, the question everyone is asking is what to wear? Well if you're looking for some inspiration then we recommend the following sites;Fashion-era.comSixties CityRetrowowSixties Fashion at the V&AFrom the look of some of the pictures available on the Web it could be a colourful night in more than one way!
Moys Classification
Posted on August 27, 2009The Publications Committee is looking at producing a new edition of Moys which was lastpublished in 2001.Diana Morris will be editing the 5th edition with the assistance of other volunteers. Diana was Librarian / Research Services Manager at Slaughter and May before retiring in December 2007...
BIALL Conference 2010 - Call for papers?
Posted on August 19, 2009CALL FOR PAPERSRisks and Opportunities ? Managing Resources in Difficult TimesBIALL 41st Annual Study Conference & ExhibitionThursday 10 June 2010 to Saturday 12 June 2010, BrightonABOUT THE ASSOCIATIONThe British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) was formed in 1969...
From the House of Lords to the Supreme Court
Posted on August 13, 2009If you didn't know already on the 30th of July the House of Lords handed down its last judgment. From October its judicial function will be taken on by the new Supreme Court.In this five minute video Lord Mance, one of the 12 Law Lords in the House of Lords, outlines the key changes to the judicial role of Parliament...
TFPL and Intelligent Resources merge
Posted on August 05, 2009Information World Review noted in yesterday's article that TFPL and Intelligent Resources have merged.'TFPL, the recruitment, training and consulting division of specialist information and knowledge management company IDOX has merged its recruitment division with Intelligent Resources, a specialist permanent recruitment business'...
Apollo completes BPP takeover
Posted on August 04, 2009Today's article in THE announced that Apollo, an American for-profit higher education company has just completed its acquisition of BPP for £368 million.BPP Law School and the College of Law are Britain's two biggest professional legal education providers...
Make sure you receive your BIALL Newsletter
Posted on July 30, 2009It is usual for bulk mail outs to be blocked by certain mail servers, even legitimate ones. If you haven't yet received your July newletter, this could be why.We advise members to check spam/junk folders and to "whitelist" the email address (list@biall...
West salutes law librarians
Posted on July 30, 2009Feeling a bit down, then have a look at this video which was shown at the recent AALL Conference. The video, produced by West is part of a campaign in the US which aims to "salute law librarians" and the critical role they play in managing knowledge and information on behalf of the organizations they represent.
Green Book is being renamed...."The Green Book"
Posted on July 28, 2009Lexis Nexis (LN) has officially acknowledged that the Civil Court Practice is indeed called the 'Green Book'. This is after Law Librarians have been doing so for some years, but it's good to know we're all on the same page...In an update sent out by LN, it announced "the online name for the Civil Court Practice 2009 is changing to The Civil Court Practice 2009 (The Green Book)...
Thinking about joining BIALL?
Posted on July 26, 2009If you're not currently a member of the British & Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) it's great that you're reading our blog but have you ever thought about becoming a member?You might not have realised that there are many many benefits associated with doing so, which If I could remember them I would list here, but instead I'll point everyone in the direction of "Why being a member of a professional association can be important"This document, which has been produced by Daniella King (BIALL President) explains why memberships to organisations like BIALL are important...
JISC - Libraries of the future
Posted on July 24, 2009JISC the organisation that ?inspires UK colleges and universities in the innovative use of digital technologies?, has published a 10-minute documentary on Libraries of the Future.Enjoy - [Hat tip - The iLibrarian]
Cuts at King's College London and beyond
Posted on July 21, 2009"Thousands of university jobs are at risk across the sector, according to a report published this week by the University and College Union," the THES reported last week.In a press release from KCL's Kevin Shelley:King's College London is proposing to make all 30 current roles of the Information Resources team part of ISS (Information Services & Systems) redundant and make staff re-apply for their own jobs...
The 'Edgeless University' and new technologies
Posted on July 20, 2009'Edgeless University: why higher education must embrace technology', the report commissioned by JISC, warns that UK universities may lose their edge in education unless they adopt new learning models and technologies.At the moment four of the top ten universityies in the world are British and the UK is a popular choice for international students...
BIALL appoint its first VP!
Posted on July 15, 2009Since October 2008, BIALL has been able to appointment someone to the honorary position of Vice President (VP) of BIALL. This position, which is a term of 3 years is for someone whose involvement on Council would be advantageous to the association.BIALL is therefore pleased to announce that Chris Holland (Librarian at the Law Society) has been appointed as our first VP...
Bloomsbury Publishing acquires Tottel Publishing
Posted on July 08, 2009In an interesting move Bloomsbury Publishing have has entered into an agreement to acquire Tottel Publishing Limited. Once completed Tottel Publishing Ltd will be renamed Bloomsbury Professional.Bloomsbury Publishing which is most famous for publishing the Harry Potter series has according to the press release on their website...
How do I exactly?
Posted on July 01, 2009The BIALL How Do I? wki was launched during the Manchester conference during "Have your say" The site which uses free software from PBWorks began life as a space for the PR committee to share information and organise their committee meetings and then became a platform for members of the committee to save useful answers posted to the LIS-LAW email distribution list...
THES on Arnold and ebooks
Posted on July 01, 2009Last month the Guardian reported that the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has a budget deficit of over $24 billion, thinks he can make savings by getting rid of ?expensive textbooks? in schools by replacing them with ebooks.Tara Brabazon's article from the Times Higher Education Supplement, questions whether in this case, educational technology has been 'introduced to cut costs in resources, not to enhance existing standards'...
City Information Group ceases trading
Posted on July 01, 2009It was with great sadness that BIALL today learnt that the City Information Group has ceased trading.According to the press release which was issued earlier today, the group has been seriously affected by the downturn that has affected many individuals, organisations and firms within the City...
Review of the BIALL Code of Good Practice
Posted on June 25, 2009As part of the Legal Information Group's (LIG) work the committee is reviewing the BIALL Code of Good Practice for Law Publishers. The code was launched at the Harrogate conference in June 2005. It has therefore been running long enough for the Legal Information Group to have formed an opinion of its effectiveness...
Halsbury's Awards 2009
Posted on June 25, 2009The winners of the Halsbury?s Awards 2009 were announced on Thursday 18 June at the 40th British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) Annual Conference held in Manchester.The winners, in each category, were announced as follows;Best Legal Information Services (Non-Commercial Sector):The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies LibraryBest Legal Information Services (Commercial Sector):Clarke Willmott LLP Information Services, BirminghamBest Legal Information Services (Commercial Sector) - London Only:CMS Cameron KcKenna LLP Knowledge & Information ServicesThe BIALL Website has more information and pictures from the award ceremony.
How to lose a million dollar contract!
Posted on June 25, 2009Elaine Billingslea Dockens has written an interesting article for LLRX.com which many BIALL members will be interested in. The article "Vendor Pitfalls in Negotiating Large Multi-Year Contracts - or How to Lose a Million Dollar Contract" looks at some of the mistakes Vendors of legal products make when the visit customers to negotiate contracts...
The new BIALL website is launched!
Posted on June 23, 2009Visit the the redeveloped and redesigned website of the British & Irish Association of Law LibrariansThe BIALL web committee have been working hard over the last year to bring you a site with an updated look and feel, a more intuitive site architecture, a better search function and more ways to get new content to you...
BIALL Conference Day Three
Posted on June 23, 2009Day three of the conference started (somewhat blearily for certain members of the audience) with a very interesting and informative talk by Vanessa Gamet of Kings College discussing the Terrorism Act and Patriot Acts in the UK and US, and their impact on and responses from the librarian community...
The Black and White Ball - BIALL Conference 2009
Posted on June 20, 2009Friday night at the BIALL Conference saw attendeess get all glammed up for a Black and White ball...with a hint of Ruby Red! The ball took place at the iconic Midland Hotel in Manchester. Dinner was followed by the presentation of two awards, the first the Legal Journals Award was won by the journal Estates Gazette...
BIALL Conference Day 2
Posted on June 20, 2009Day two of the BIALL Conference started with two excellent Plenary Sessions. The first"The digital information supply chain: Impacts, effects, opportunities and challenges of the rapidly changing landscape in e-content delivery" looked at the move by publishers from print to electronic publishing formats...
BIALL Conference - Day 1
Posted on June 19, 2009Yesterday was the first official day of the 2009 BIALL Conference. Unforutnately I didn't arrive in Manchester until mid-morning so missed the first two sessions of the dya but the remaining Day 1 sessions didn't dissapoint.The first session I attended was Tony Simmonds talk entitled "KS and Tell - Web 2...
Halsbury's Awards 2009
Posted on June 19, 2009Last night three organisations received Halsbury's Awards for excellence in law library provision. The Halsbury's Awards "recognise, celebrate and reward the dedicated performance and outstanding service given by legal information services, law libraries and those teams managing legal collections and resources...
BIALL is all a-Twitter
Posted on June 17, 2009As reported on LIS-LAW earlier today the BIALL Web Committee (BWEB) has set-up a Twitter account for BWEB and Official BIALL representatives to keep members informed of interesting BIALL news.The official BIALL account is available at http://twitter.com/biall_uk do follow the account if you want to get up to the minute updates from the BIALL Conference...
Academic librarians - a chance for discussion
Posted on June 16, 2009This year the academic librarians are arranging an Academic group meeting at the BIALL Conference. Details are as follows:The place - University Place Conference Manchester Room 1.218 Manchester (of course!!)The date and time - Friday 19 June 11.30 -12...
A light grilling!
Posted on June 15, 2009With only three days until the official start of the BIALL Conference 2009. The BIALL Blogger asked current President Jackie Fishleigh a few probing questions about the Conference and her stint as President.BB - There are only three days until the the start of the Conference, what reasons would you give for attending?The programme which has been described as "excellent" by the editor of CILIP Update,Elspeth Hyams...
University Libraries book cuts!
Posted on June 12, 2009This is a rather worrying but not unexpected news story from the Times Higher Education Supplement which reports on how "40% of university libraries plan cuts to book and journal purchases next year"According to the report the drop in the pound's value has had a "crippling effect" on the budgets of UK University Libraries, which are unfortunately experiencing huge increases in subscription costs for research journals from the US and Europe.
Don't fancy Pizzahut?
Posted on June 10, 2009In a weeks time the Pre-conference seminar at the BIALL Conference will take place and Membership Services Committee are very kindly organising a meal on the Wednesday night for anyone who is in Manchester for the pre-Conference seminar.If you don't fancy heading out as part of a large group what are your other food options whilst in Manchester? well I asked our resident "mancunian" what some of the best places are to eat in Manchester;Croma is a Pizza restaurant which is very central and apparently isn't too priceyYang Sing restaurant is apparently the most famous chinese restaurant in Manchester, this might mean it's a bit expensive though...
The *new* Lawtel
Posted on June 08, 2009In a surprise move Lawtel have announced in their Lawtel What's New May 2009 newsletter that they are rolling out a new version of Lawtel.The existing Lawtel interface is certainly looking a bit tired and crowded so improving it can only be a good thing...
Thinking and Acting new
Posted on June 05, 2009The Keynote speaker at this year's BIALL Conference is David Snowden from Cognitive Edge. I asked David about his Keynote session and some of the challenges facing Librarians.BB - David the theme for this years conference is "Locks and Keys", do you see safeguarding information but also making information more widely available including via Social sites the biggest challenge for information professionals? DS -No, its important, but basically the world has shifted and current attempts to manage security are based on compliance and enforcement rather than "habits and rituals"...
BIALL Conference: Wednesday night in Manchester
Posted on June 05, 2009If anyone attending the BIALL Conference this year is arriving on Wednesday 17th and would like to meet up that evening for a meal, please let Hazel Eccleston know by next Wednesday (10th) lunchtime.Hazel can be contacted on 0191 201 2048. Any suggestions for places to eat are also welcome via this blog or direct to Hazel.
Proposed merger of Middle and Inner Temple Libraries
Posted on June 04, 2009Following a previous post on the proposed merger of the Middle and Inner Temple Libraries. BIALL President Elect Daniella King has prepared a document outlining some of BIALL's concerns about the proposed mergers. The full document is available on the BIALL Website, the key points from the document follow:If all the facilities were under one roof, would there be enough space to cater for the hundreds of visitors who come every yearMiddle Temple has 14 professional members of staff, while 9 are employed by Inner Temple...
14 days and counting...
Posted on June 04, 2009...until the official start of the BIALL Conference and the rollout of the new BIALL Website.I've been heavily involved in the development of the new website so I'm very excited about seeing it finally go live. The website will be demonstrated during "Have your say" and will be officially launched after the Conference...
Marketing Your Skills - Getting that promotion: the role of Web 2.0
Posted on June 03, 2009With only 17 days to go until the start of the BIALL Conference. The BIALL Blogger got the lowdown from Nicola Franklin of Sue Hill Recruitment about her Conference Session and some of the weirdest things people have put on their CV's.BB - Nicola your session is called Marketing Your Skills - Getting That Promotion : the Role of Web 2...
Free v paid online legal research tools
Posted on June 01, 2009The Lawyers Weekly a weekly magazine which is published in Canada, has an interesting piece on Free v Paid online legal research tools. The piece asks "Can we (Lawyers) get by using only freely available research tools?"The answer is pretty much no but the good news it that free online legal research tools continue to develop...
Sharepoint and Social Software for Knowledge Management
Posted on May 29, 2009Knowledge Management and Sharepoint do they go together like chalk and cheese? In his session at the BIALL Conference Neil Richards from Knowledge Thoughts will look at how Sharepoint could be used for Knowledge Management. The BIALL Blogger got the low down on his session...
KS and Tell : Harnessing Web 2.0 at the College ofLaw
Posted on May 27, 2009In the next post in a series of posts which look at some of the session taking place at the BIALL Conference. The BIALL Blog asked Tony Simmonds from the College of Law about his experiences with Web 2.0 and his session at the BIALL Conference.BB - Tony your session is called KS and Tell : Harnessing Web 2...
Removing the ?Hard? from Hansard
Posted on May 22, 2009This headline from the House of Butter blog certainly grabbed my attention! The post describes a new service Justis is rolling out called Justis Parliament, from the Justis Press Release:"The accessibility of material from Hansard and other data from the Houses of Parliament is set to improve immeasurably on 1st June when the notoriously difficult-to-navigate website is indexed by a new service, Justis Parliament"Sounds great and the site is free to use until the official launch on the 1st of June.
What do you call yourself?
Posted on May 21, 2009There was an interesting discussion earlier today on LIS-LAW where someone asked the question "What is the Library called in your organisation?" Some interesting reponses from the list included:Information CentreInformation UnitInformation ServicesKnowledge & Information ServicesThe question is, what do you call yourself?
Behind the scenes at Manchester
Posted on May 19, 2009In four weeks time the BIALL Conference in Manchester officially starts, so what better time to ask the Chair of the Conference Committee John Furlong a few questions about the work that goes on behind the scenes. Many thanks to John for answering the questions!BB - The theme for this years Conference is "Locks and Keys" who thinks up the name of the Conferences and is there much discussion about what they should be called?JF - Over the past number of years we have tried to come up with a witty title which reflects what the Conference is about and also where it is taking place...
Four to Manchester
Posted on May 18, 2009Before anyone gets worried I'm not talking about Manchester United scoring four goals. With only four weeks until the BIALL Conference in Manchester, it's time to look at some of the things you could do whilst there...an oh boy are there some treats in store for anyone who decides to go to Manchester early...
Inner Temple and Middle Temple Libraries to merge?
Posted on May 08, 2009The Executive Committees of Inner Temple and Middle Temple have agreed to commission a feasibility study to investigate the potential benefits of merging their Libraries and creating a Joint Education and Advocacy Centre.The study will be overseen by a working group chaired jointly by Master Jonathan Hirst for Inner Temple and Master Stanley Burnton, Deputy Treasurer, for Middle Temple...
LexisNexis marks 10 years of the CPR
Posted on May 04, 2009The 26th April 2009 marked the ten year anniversary of the implementation of the Civil Procedure Rules. To "celebrate" Lexis Nexis organisedhosted a debate exploring those issues and assessing the impact of the CPR, chaired by Lord Neuberger.You can watch excerpts from the debate or the whole thing (60 minutes) but you will need to register first if you want to watch the entire debate...
LIM goes West!
Posted on April 30, 2009If you're a BIALL Personal member you will automatically start receiving the hardcopy of LIM as one of the benefits of membership, but what if you want to access it online though...well now you can...via Westlaw.This is great news not only because I have a Westlaw Alert which lets me know when any articles on Web 2...
Being creative with Web 2.0...in academic liaison
Posted on April 27, 2009The latest edition of CILIP Update has a really interesting article in it on how Academic Librarians can use Web 2.0 tools like Ning, Delicious and Nevibes to support academics and students.The author describes how they initially "played" with the tools but then began to think about how they could be used to "enhance their role"initially using Ning to create a network for Staff and Students to use...
Does Lexis Library spell the end of Butterworths?
Posted on April 22, 2009In an interesting move Lexis Nexis(LN) have renamed the Lexis Nexis Butterworth's Global Platform Lexis Library. The rebranding hasn't gone un-noticed by the legal community, but what does it really mean?Many people will say it's simply a case of LN rebranding their premier product so that the title actually means something...
The BIALL Web Board needs YOU!
Posted on April 20, 2009Are you interested in what the web can do for law librarians? Do you want to see BIALL using the best of web 2.0 applications and technologies to support law librarians? Are you interested in blogs, tagging, Twitter, LinkedIn and other web 2.0 apps? Do you want to help make the BIALL website all that it can be? Then the BIALL web board is looking for you!The BIALL web board is always looking for new members who are interested in progressing the use of the web in law librarianship and supporting BIALL's web needs...
BIALL: The perfect membership organisation?
Posted on April 20, 2009Is it? Or are there things you'd like to know more about, decisions that have been made, issues that have or haven't been addressed? Is there something that you just plain dislike?All these - and compliments - can be aired at the Have Your Say session at BIALL's conference...
BIALL Website...sneak previews
Posted on April 15, 2009The BIALL Web Committee (BWEB) is pleased to offer BIALL members a sneak preview of the *new*all singing, all dancing BIALL Website. This is due to be launched at the Conference in Manchester and the project is proceeding on schedule.For a sneak preview of the website have a look at the following links...
Manchester Conference Bursaries
Posted on April 08, 2009With only 70 days left until the start of the BIALL Conference many people will be thinking about the cost. Never fear BIALL is here! This year the Awards and Bursaries Committee are offering a number of bursaries which BIALL members can take advantage of, they include:Betty Moys international bursaryLegal Library Services Conference BursarySweet & Maxwell BursaryBIALL conference, student and international bursariesIf you're interested in applying for a bursary do get in touch with the Awards and Bursaries Commitee Chair Susan Scorey.
Is the 20th century law publishing model broken?
Posted on April 06, 2009An interesting and potentially worrying story here from the Life of Books Blog on how Reed Elsevier and Thomson Reuters are losing yes losing money. From the introduction to the Blog post " just looked up Reed Elsevier?s and Thomson Reuters? stock quotes for the recent past...
Will £50m outsourcing deal end in-house LIS?
Posted on April 01, 2009This is the attention grabbing news headline from the April 2009 edition of the Library & Information Update. The deal in question is the one between Osborne Clarke and Integreon which has seen 80 Business Services staff including Library Staff "transferred to work at a...
Want to get involved?
Posted on March 30, 2009The BIALL Membership Services Committee is currently looking for new members. This is an ideal opportunity to get involved in BIALL, to network, to learn and help your colleagues in Law Librarianship. Membership of a BIALL Committee is open to all members of BIALL...
BIALL Conference Manchester 2009
Posted on March 20, 2009The latest news from the BIALL Conference Committee is that the basic delegate rate for BIALL Members wishing to attend the Conference will be £340.00. From the BIALL Website;"As promised in our last report, we have kept the basic delegate rate as low as possible and are pleased to announce that it will be lower than in previous years...
What will the recession bring?
Posted on March 18, 2009I know we should try to avoid thinking about the "recession too much but sometimes you can't avoid it, especially when so many people are talking about it. If you do want to read more about "What the recession will bring" then I can thoroughly recommend the follwoing blog posts:What will the recession bring? - From the Law21 BlogStaff cuts and short term thinking - Also from the Law21 Blog
You shouldn't judge a book by its cover!
Posted on March 16, 2009The latest in a long run of articles from the Guardian looks at the role of a Librarian. Some highlights from the article (which made us chuckle);"It is a proper profession, you know, like law or accounting""...librarians, by reputation, are meant to be easy to forget about...
PLC Key Client Forum 2009
Posted on March 09, 2009For anyone who attended the PLC Key Client Forum and even if you didn't PLC have published the presentations from this event.You can access the presentations and other documentation from the event in full here.
Who, what, when, why and how?
Posted on March 09, 2009Have Your Say - where you ask the questions about BIALL's activities - 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...
AALL launches Twitter Feeds
Posted on February 26, 2009If you use Twitter (if you don't why not!?!) then you might want to start following Tweets from the American Association of Law Librarians (AALL)They have two Twitter feeds one here and another one exclusively for the 2009 Annual Meeting.[Hat Tip - The Law Librarian Blog]
Excited Utterances - Legal Publishing Poll
Posted on February 24, 2009Sean Hocking of Law Librarians News and Excited Utterances has created a short poll on increases in publishers prices. From the Excited Utterances Website where the poll is hosted:"We?re just trying to get a sense of which legal publisher - Law librarians and Knowledge Manager's think will raise their prices most over the next 12 months"If you don't want to vote you can look at the results so far by choosing "View results" so what are you waiting for!
UK Government reviews copyright policy
Posted on February 23, 2009The UK's Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is leading an initiative to review the current copyright policy, with a view to amending it for the21st century.The initiative is one of the outcomes of the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property , which was published in November 2006...
Friday Fun - Google Fight!
Posted on February 20, 2009The House of Butter blog has pointed me in the direction of Google Fight which is great fun!Basically the site lets you enter two keywords say Lexis Nexis and Westlaw it then searches Google for individual mentions of these keywords, the winnner is the Key Word with the most hits!Why not give it a go!
The big freeze
Posted on February 19, 2009Not I'm afraid to say a post about the rather inclement weather the UK suffered recently but some information from the US about Lexis Nexis freezing pay for their employees at 2008 levels.The reports from the Above the Law Blog and the JD Journal both mention that Lexis Nexis also made 300 employees redundant last April...
Library Management Systems and the Legal Sector
Posted on February 16, 2009The Library & Information Gazette has published two articles in its February 13 edition, which will be of interest to anyone working in the Legal Sector who has an interest in Library Management Systems (LMS)In the first "We need all the answers" Alan Lewis of Moore Stephens LLP says that "...
Copyright in the age of Youtube
Posted on February 09, 2009There has been a lot of discussion recently on LIS-LAW around copyright so anyone who was interested in that dialogue will definitely be interested in this article in the most recent edition of the ABA Journal entitled originally Copyright in the age of Youtube...
FT Sues for Unauthorized Password Sharing
Posted on February 06, 2009This is an interesting story to come out of the US. According to the Law Librarian Blog the Financial Times is suing Blackstone (a private equity firm in the US) for copyright infringement and violations of federal computer law.The news was broken by the DealBook blog who provide some information on how the FT detected the "breach"
Government Information in the Google Age
Posted on February 04, 2009The CILIP Gazette recently reported on a seminar hosted by the Government Libraries & Information Group Special Interest Group. The broad aim of the seminar was to look at the management of Government Information in the fast moving information age we all live in...
PLC Podcasts
Posted on February 02, 2009PLC have launched a series of PodCasts which look like they will be of interest to anybody working in the field of Intellectual Property Law or Employment Law. The Podcasts are available below:Intellectual Property - Looking back - looking forward seriesPractical Law Company and CPDcast ? podcast pilot (Employment Law)
These times...they are uncertain
Posted on January 30, 2009Unless you've been out of circulation for a while you cant help but have noticed that were in the middle of a Credit Crisis, or as the Government has finally admitted a recession. So what does this mean for Legal Information Professionals?Firstly it means it's hard to plan ahead especially when stories like this and this seem to be appearing on a daily basis...
The Academic Library of the future
Posted on January 29, 2009If you work in an Academic Library you might want to check out the work being undertaken by JISC and a number of other organisations, which was reported on the Peter Scott Library Blog late last year.From the JISC Website:"JISC, SCONUL, RLUK, the British Library and the Research Information Network (RIN) are to work together on a major strategic initiative which will explore the substantial challenges facing academic libraries as they respond to a period of unparalleled change in the external environment...
Justis gets a makeover
Posted on January 23, 2009The new year means many things and for Justis that means a new look. From the Justis website:"On Thursday 29th January we will be launching the new versions of the Justis and JustCite websites. The changes will take place on the pre-sign-in side of the Justis service...
All the worlds a stage...
Posted on January 16, 2009...and so it would seem are Libraries. At least if plans by Edinburgh Council go ahead to change the titles of Librarians working in their public libraries from "Librarians" to "Audience Engagement Officers" suddenly I have an image of a Librarian...sorry Audience Engagement Officer holding up a card saying clap, or maybe shsshh would be more appropriate?Unsurprisingly this hasn't been received well by the Librarians who work for Edinburgh Council with the threat of a strike on the horizon...
BIALL wants to hear from you!!
Posted on January 12, 2009If you're a BIALL Member then the BIALL PR & Promotions Committee would love to hear from you!They are looking for members who feel they could write on any of the following topics:The future roles of the commercial information professional, or information management, in the 21st century The use of Web 2...
BI-ALLSIG
Posted on January 07, 2009Earlier this month BIALL announced the launch of a new mailing list specifically for Academic Law Librarians. From the email sent to the BIALL Mailing List:"At the BIALL Conference in June 2008 there was a particularly successfulsession conducted by Peter Clinch involving issues relating to standardsfor academic law libraries...
Merry Christmas!!
Posted on December 26, 2008Merry Christmas to everyone who currently reads the BIALL Blog and of course to all BIALL members. The BIALL Blog team will be back posting updates in January 2009...<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheBiallBlog/~4/494103616" height="1" width="1"/>
Merry Christmas!!
Posted on December 24, 2008Merry Christmas to everyone who currently reads the BIALL Blog and of course to all BIALL members. The BIALL Blog team will be back posting updates in January 2009...
Westlaw highlights 2008
Posted on December 18, 2008Westlaw have very considerately consolidated all the new content and new features they have added to Westlaw during 2008 into a single email or if you didn't receive the email, online a href="http://info.westlaw.co.uk/rp//43/process.clsp?EmailId=30875amp;Token=2607801306C5878A98E2AF1AA02CF75D7"here/a...
Best careers 2009...
Posted on December 16, 2008...you guessed it Librarian...At least according to the US News.com website from the site;"Forget about that image of librarians as a mousy bookworms. More and more of today's librarians must be clever interrogators, helping the patron to reframe their question more usefully...
PLC RSS Feeds
Posted on December 11, 2008Practical Law Company (PLC) have recently started rolling out RSS feeds for some of their modules:The feeds currently available are:PLC Corporate: - http://corporate.practicallaw.com/rss.doPLC Employment: - http://employment.practicallaw.com/rss.doPLC Finance: - http://finance...
AustLII and CommonLII case law crackers!
Posted on December 05, 2008We couldn't resist a Christmas themed post title and they really are crackers! Both Binary Law and SLAW have both recently posted about two websites which AustLII and CommonLII have been developing. The first, LawCite is an international case citator, what this means when you use the site is that you can search for a citation or a case name and the site will return cases that match your search terms with the details of where the case has been cited or referenced including overseas cases...
Lawtel RSS Feeds
Posted on December 03, 2008If you have a subscription to Lawtel then you'll be pleased to know that the RSS Feeds described in a recent update are now available. From withing Lawtel click on RSS Feeds to start subscribing to the available feeds.
From Court to Westlaw
Posted on December 01, 2008Ever wondered how a case goes from Court to Westlaw? Well wonder no more...the short video available from this post on the WestBlog explains the process in full.Note - this is the US version of Westlaw.
Go Go Google
Posted on November 28, 2008I use Google on a daily basis, I'm sure most people do but how far should Google be used when it comes to Legal Research?This was the subject of much discussion on LIS-LAW recently after the following were posted on LIS-LAW:Using Google to research case law Googling your legal research If Google is a big part of your life, you might be interested in fnding out what happens after you enter your search terms in "Anatomy of a search"
Sweet & Maxwell new website
Posted on November 26, 2008Sweet & Maxwell have recently launched a new Corporate website, which looks pretty good. If you're keen to look at the sites new features, there is a site overview.One thing the site doesn't have is RSS feeds for new content (books, journals, loosleafs etc) Hopefully this is something Sweet & Maxwell will incorporate next year.
BIALL OMB/Solos Blog
Posted on November 24, 2008If you haven't read the news in the BIALL Newsletter yet the BIALL One Man Bands (OMB)/Solos group has launched a blog.The blog already has some interesting posts on it, including:LinkedIn and the solo workerInformation Literacy, Web 2.0 and the New LibrarianThe Blog is already part of my RSS Feeds subscriptions and I would encourage everyone to have a look and subscribe to the feed.
How will you cope in the crisis?
Posted on November 10, 2008Planning and running away or hiding and hoping that the Global Credit Crisis goes away? Forget it! As this article from Information World Review (IWR) blog reports "Never before has it been more important to prove the worth of the information professional"So what are you waiting for...
Will old law reports ever die?
Posted on November 05, 2008An interesting post here from SLAW bearing in mind it is from a Canadian perspective, in it the author discusses how for decades publishers have been threatening (or promising) that Law Reports will eventually become obsolete. Yet in 2008 they still have as many Law Reports being published as they did in the 1970's...
Copyright licence extended for digital use
Posted on October 31, 2008The BIALL Blog is a bit late reporting on this, but it's good news and we like reporting good news!Finally after were sure many months on negotiations with publishers the Copyright Licensing Agency has completed the development of a "Digital Licence" for Law Firms...
Happy Halloween!
Posted on October 31, 2008It's Friday it's Halloween could there be a better reason to post the following:Don't be afraid of ghosts...The most haunting - do you agree?Have a great Halloween!
Law Librarians? Role in Developing Associates
Posted on October 31, 2008Do Law Librarian's have a role in the development of Associates (Fee-earners)? This is the subject of this article in Professional Legal Management Week Magazine.[Hat Tip - Strategic Librarian Blog]
Death of Blogging?
Posted on October 23, 2008In the Wired article, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004, blogging is pronounced dead.Having to compete with professional journalist teams that can produce 30 posts a day and the simplicity of one line updates Facebook and Twitter provide are a couple of the reasons for the blog's so-called demise...
Digitising Hansard
Posted on October 14, 2008As reported in the latest CILIP Update the digitisation of Hansard, the official report of debates in Parliament is nearing completution and the team responsible for its development are looking for feedback on how they can improve the site.Contemporary versions of Hansard (from 2005 onwards) will continue to be available on the UK Parliament Website...
Update on the BIALL Website
Posted on October 10, 2008Earlier this year the BIALL Web Committee (BWEB) asked BIALL Members for their feedback on the BIALL Website. Encouragingly, there was a great response rate, with 136 BIALL members taking the time to respond. Of the 136 responses received the majority agreed that the BIALL Website needs a refresh and a new look (75% of respondents), should be better structured and there should be a better search...
Court in the crunch
Posted on October 10, 2008An interesting article here from the Information World Review blog, which will strike a chord with anyone who uses Reed Elsevier (Lexis Nexis Butterworths) or Thomson Reuters.The article discusses how LNB and TR continue to dominate the legal market but "the two big hitters acknowledge they face stiff competition from more specialised providers, and some users are anxious not to tie themselves in too closely to one provider"The article also asks, how in the face of economic downturn not just in the UK but around the World customers are reacting?Well good and bad news...
UK Parliament Labs
Posted on October 07, 2008A new blog here dedicated not to the science of producing an MP but to the work of the Web team at the Houses of Parliament. From the Blog:"This is a blog from the Web Centre team working in the Houses of Parliament.Aside from keeping the site up and running and doing daily updates, our team spends its time working on developing the website...
The Update Blog
Posted on October 06, 2008Earlier this month CILIP Launched the Update Blog, as well as a new look look for CILIP Update and a digitial edition of the magazine. From the introduction to the blog:"For the first time Update?s regular contributors will share thoughts and concerns not just with CILIP members, but a global community of people who care ? about quality information, access to, and the accessibility of, knowledge and information resources, information literacy, economic competitiveness through knowledge-based excellence, and all the business, social and public policy issues that come as part of an information professional?s intellectual and cultural baggage"If you see something that interests you on the Blog, why not comment, your comment might well be published in the next print edition of Update.
Ready to argue your cause?
Posted on October 02, 2008Then you might be right at home at LexisNexis according to their careers page, which features this video of Andy Prozes (CEO of LexisNexis) talking about what LexisNexis look for in successful applicants.They are looking for leaders who are innovative, intelligent and, apparently, quarrelsome, or at least people who can argue their point ?forcefully? but importantly not for too long...
US Courts Website now does RSS
Posted on September 29, 2008Just recently every other article or post we read on a blog seems to be about RSS so it was no surprise that we read this post about the US Courts Service Website.The use of RSS by Government Departments, Associations and Commmercial Organisations can only be a good thing and the addition of RSS Feeds to the US Courts Website might make a few Law Librarians working in UK based US Law Firms very happy...
Justis does RSS
Posted on September 26, 2008Justis have unveiled a new addition to their flagship product RSS Feeds. There is a detailed FAQ with all the information you need on how to subscribe to and start reading RSS Feeds and more information on what RSS Feeds are.There are even some example feeds on the support page including:Latest cases in The Weekly Law ReportsJustis news JustCite newsGood work Justis!!
Law Firm Libraries and Information Services in the 21st Century
Posted on September 25, 2008If you haven't already you may be interested in completing this survey, which has been compiled by Rachel Brett at Lovells. Rachel is currently undertaking a Master?s dissertation at City University and is conducting an online survey of law firm libraries and information services in the UK and Ireland...
City Business Library...still in business
Posted on September 19, 2008Following a consultation period which included a response from BIALL a decision has been reached about the future of the City Business Library. The full decision is available here and a summary follows:"City Business Library: service as normal in Brewers? Hall Garden premises until late 2009; Library moves to refurbished Guildhall Library in January 2010...
BIALL re-structures
Posted on September 17, 2008Earlier this year BIALL council undertook a new structure, with the President of BIALL (this year Jackie Fishleigh) leading BIALL Council for a tenure of one year, supported by the President Elect (Daniella King) and the Past President (Jennefer Aston)...
Is free research catching up with the big two?
Posted on September 17, 2008The 2008 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report has just been published by the American Bar Association, this report discusses in detail the use of technology within the legal profession and would be an interesting read for anyone involved in this area, unfortunately the report isn't available for free, but there is an interesting summary available on the ABA Journal website entitled "Web 2...
LexisWeb
Posted on September 17, 2008LexisNexis have released a new website called LexisWeb, this is a federated search tool that searches across a wide range of websites.There is a short user guide which contains more information on the site, including the following:"The LexisWeb product includes important, legal-oriented Web content, selected and validated by the LexisNexis editorial staff...
The Free Legal Web
Posted on September 05, 2008Nick Holmes of Binary Law and Internet Newsletter for Lawyers has started a new initiative called "The Free Legal Web", from the website of the The Free Legal Web:"The Free Legal Web is an initiative designed to deliver a web service that joins up the law and legal commentary and analysis on the web and provides a useful service to both lawyers and the community at large" "We already have a substantial free legal web, but it is not joined up...
The bottom line from LNB
Posted on August 22, 2008The August 2008 issue of VIP contains an interview of LNB's UK & Ireland Managing Director Josh Bottomley by Tim Buckley-Owen.Some highlights from the article, which might be of interest to Law Librarians include...On content and LNB Interfaces.....
Going beyond Google
Posted on August 19, 2008Martin De Saulles, who spoke at the last BIALL Conference about the "Future of Information Work" has jointly produced a video, which discusses some of the issues around students using the internet as a research tool. The video includes interviews with academics, students and librarians...
LNB loses out to Westlaw
Posted on August 19, 2008The Strategic Legal Technology Blog has just published a short post on the results of the 2007 Large Law Firm Library survey.The survey called "Competitive Advantage" contains some interesting results, including what is described in the post as "a significant change in market share between LexisNexis and Westlaw"...
Are Hein the webbiest Legal publisher?
Posted on August 13, 2008You have to hand it to Hein, they really know how to show other publishers how to do Web 2.0. Not only do they have their own Blog and a Youtube Channel now they have thrown caution to the wind and created a fan page on Facebook.Keep up the great work Hein, hopefully other Legal Publishers will follow in your footsteps!Hat Tip - Out of the Jungle Blog
So long law firm support staff!
Posted on August 08, 2008Nothing works better then an attention grabbing post title on a Friday afternoon to really wake up Blog readers. In this post Jason the Content Librarian discusses the development by Virtual Law Partners of...you've guessed the creation of a Virtual Law Office...
Blue sky predictions...
Posted on August 06, 2008Jordan Furlong over at the Law21 blog has been thinking about the future of Law and has posted the first ever Legal Profession Blue-Sky Challenge!At the end of the blog post Jordan asks readers to make their own predictions for the future of Law...which made me think what predictions would BIALL members make about the future...
BAILLI's continued expansion
Posted on August 05, 2008The Society of Computers and Law (SCL) website has an article on the continuing development of the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) Website - BAILII?s Continuing Expansion the article is by Clive Freedman and Joe Ury.New projects and improvements made to the site are discussed in some detail as is the future of the site and BAILLI's role within the global network of Legal Information Institutes.
Where Daniella dares!
Posted on July 31, 2008Not, I'm pleased to say, a post about Truth and Dare but another opportunity to lightly interrogate a new member of the BIALL Council. This time around the victim..volunteer is Daniella King past Chair of the Publications Committee and current BIALL President Elect...
Lexis Nexis v Westlaw Part 2
Posted on July 31, 2008No sooner have you finished reading one article comparing the merits of Lexis Nexis Butterworths and Westlaw then along comes another one, rather like buses and hot sunny days. Anyway the latest comparison of Lexis Nexis Butterworths and Westlaw is in VIP Issue 56 , in it the author compares the North American products and provides some background information on the two companies...
The View from the Hill
Posted on July 28, 2008Sue Hill fresh from the BIALL Conference has put Web 2.0 principles into practice by rolling out a Blog for Sue Hill Recruitment.Called "The View from the Hill" the blog is a forum for discussing issues that affect Librarians across all sectors as well other more general issues that may be of interests to both Sue Hill clients and the wider information community...
The future for legal publishers?
Posted on July 25, 2008The Law21 Blog has written a thought provoking post on the Future for Legal Publishers, which is well worth reading. In it they describe how changes to technology and the profits Legal Publishers make from selling traditional products will change the products they develop and who they sell them to...
Survey on the use of Web 2.0 in Higher Education
Posted on July 17, 2008Do you work in Higher Education and are currently using Web 2.0 tools for teaching, learning, support or administration purposes? Yes, well head on over to Survey Monkey to complete this survey.From the introduction to the Survey:"This survey is being undertaken on behalf of the Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience for all the UK funding agencies...
Lexis Nexis v Westlaw the results are in!
Posted on July 17, 2008Stanford Law School have published a research paper which outlines the results of a survey of American Law Librarians, from the introduction to the survey:"As costs for research tools, both online and paper, continue to increase, librarians areoften faced with the difficult decision of what materials can and should be canceled, andwhat new acquisitions can be made...
Libraries of the future
Posted on July 09, 2008JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) has launched a new site which looks at the future of Libraries in the academic sector. From the site:"In an information world in which Google apparently offers us everything, what place is there for the traditional, and even the digital, library? In a library environment which is increasingly moving to the delivery of online rather than print resources, what of the academic library?s traditional place at the heart of campus life?"If you want to get involved with the discussion about how Libraries will look in the future, there are any number of ways for you to do so from joining the Social Networking Group to attending the JISC Annual Conference.
Your starter for 10
Posted on July 04, 2008Jackie Fishleigh new BIALL President faces 10 questions from the BIALL Blogger, do post a response or question directly to Jackie by adding a comment. A nice and easy question first off...(1) What is your background and how did you get into Law Librarianship?JF - As a teenager I had a a passion for languages and went on to major in German with Italian and Russian subsidiaries at Birmingham University...
BIALL President in "Race for Life"
Posted on June 25, 2008This Sunday will see Jackie Fishleigh the current BIALL President run 5k in memory of Zosia Carson a friend and colleague of many BIALL members.The event which takes place on Epsom Downs Racecourse will raise funds for Cancer Research to continue the great work they do...
CLA Open Meeting - 17 June 2008
Posted on June 23, 2008The CLA annual bash at City Hall was the place to be seen for a wide range of information professionals last week......City Hall is best know as home to the Mayor of London, the London Assembly and the GLA, who in 2002 became tenants of this striking rounded glass building on the south bank of the Thames near Tower Bridge...
BIALL Conference - The finale
Posted on June 18, 2008The 2008 BIALL Conference finished with a bang on Friday as BIALL members enjoyed a champagne reception in the Long Room at Trinity College followed by the Presidents dinner at the Mansion House. This was an evening to celebrate the success of both individuals and organisations as the BIALL President presented the Customer Relations Initiative Award, the Legal Journals Award, The Wallace Breem Award and the Wildys Law Librarian of the Year...
BIALL Conference - Day 2
Posted on June 13, 2008Day 2 of the BIALL Conference started bright and bleary eyed with Plenary sessions delivered by Martin De Saulles, Margaret Flood, Peter Clinch, Sue Hill, Heather Semple and Marguerite Most. Topics covered ranged from The future of Information Work to Researching the Law in Northern Ireland and Teaching Law Practice in Technology...
BIALL Conference Day 1
Posted on June 13, 2008Day 1 of the BIALL Conference saw the day kick off with Jennefer Aston welcome delegates to Dublin and all that the city had to offer. Unfortunately the BIALL Members couldn't bring sunshine with them as the Conference started with black clouds overhead, thankfully the rain didn't affect the sessions that were held during the day...
BIALL Conference Dublin 2008
Posted on June 11, 2008The 2008 BIALL Conference starts officially tommorow with the pre-conference seminar today. For last minute news on the Conference have a look at this page on the BIALL Website. The BIALL Blogger is hoping for good weather, but isn't staking his home on it being sunny during the Conference...
Final (blog) reminder - Have Your Say
Posted on June 09, 2008http://biall.blogspot.com/2008/04/have-your-say.htmlIf you've got things you'd like to see raised at Conference and you're not attending, have a look at the original post and make your comments now!If you are coming to Dublin you can submit topics for consideration by dropping by the BIALL members' stand...
Big discounts at the BIALL Conference!
Posted on June 06, 2008If you're a BIALL Member and are attending the Conference the wait is almost over! The BIALL Blogger is certainly looking forward to all that Dublin has to offer and hearing about the future of the legal information profession.If you want to do some reading when you get back home, then the good news is that many of the publications produced by BIALL are available with some big discounts if you order them at Conference! Order forms will be available on the BIALL Stand as well as sample copies of the publications...
Using LinkedIn?
Posted on June 05, 2008If you use LinkedIn, a Social Networking site for professionals, which is similar to Facebook but involves less Vampires and Walls, then you might be interested in joining a new group on the site.The new group called Law Librarians is a group of well...
Wikipedia or bust...
Posted on June 04, 2008Recently there has been a lot of discussion on LIS-LAW around the use of Wikipedia by students, trainees and fee-earners. The discussions initial focus was on an article about Intestacy which contained incorrect information, this became a much wider discussion about how Wikipedia and other free resources are currently being used...
A light grilling...
Posted on June 02, 2008Jennefer Aston current BIALL Chair and native Dubliner has very kindly agreed to answer some questions for the BIALL Blog about her tenure, Dublin and the Conference that takes place next week.The ConferenceThere are only 10 days to the start of the Conference, what reasons would you give for attending?With only 10 days to go until the start of the conference I am delighted that we will have over 400 delegates this year so a great opportunity for networking & professional development, a bigger exhibition with more suppliers, and of course location - you absolutely should come to Dublin...
Last...but certainly not least
Posted on June 02, 2008In a minor change to the Conference Programme the very last session of the Conference will see Samantha Steer from Sweet & Maxwell talk about Information Managers in the 21st Century.Samantha will cover key findings from the Sweet & Maxwell Survey "Information Managers in the 21st Century" which was previously mentioned on the BIALL Blog The Survey was conducted in September 2007, prompted by the changes in the legal market, including the changes that will follow from the Legal Services Act, and the wider availability of new technology, allowing the faster delivery of legal information...
Second Life use in UK HE/FE establishments
Posted on May 30, 2008This report which was originally reported on the Tame the Web Blog may be of interest to any BIALL members working in Higher Education or Further Education establishments.
Has the FT Licence Strategy come good?
Posted on May 30, 2008There have been a lot of reports recently, including a report on the Information World Review Blog of the FT Licence Strategy being a "success"According to the reports So far"280 organisations have entered into direct customer agreements. The FT has also made separate agreements with 12 news aggregators, which are licensed to provide unlimited access to FT content for organisations with a direct agreement"Caspar De Bono B2B managing director of the FT is quoted as saying " he was pleased with the takeup of the licences: ?Sales that come as a result of these new licences are equal to what we used to get under the direct model; from a financial point of view the transition is working...
Are you following a yellow brick road?
Posted on May 28, 2008In a slight change to the BIALL Conference programme Parallel Session 3/4 is now called "Web 2.0: the Yellow Brick Road or Fool's Gold? An Interactive Panel Discussion" ever the opportunist the BIALL Blogger contacted the speakers (Sue Hill (SH) and Martin de Saulles (MS) for their thoughts on Web 2...
New Blogs on the Block
Posted on May 23, 2008Two new Blogs have recently found their way into our RSS Reader, which BIALL Members might be interested in, they are:The Scottish Libraries Blog From the About section "The blog is intended to complement our existing electronic content and services on the SLAINTE website and our Pagecast...
Super speedy Bailii search
Posted on May 21, 2008Bailii is a wonderful resource, but sometimes searching it can be a little time-consuming. One enterprising individual has created a super fast simplified search page for Bailii, for those times that the normal Bailii just isn't fast enough. Great example of someone making the most of free resources to help them get their job done more efficiently!
Interested in Scottish Legislation...
Posted on May 19, 2008...then you'll definitely want to take a look at the newly created archive of the proceedings of the Scottish Parliament. The site contains Acts from 1235 to 1707.[Thanks to Jennie Law for spotting this]
Outsourcing your information?
Posted on May 19, 2008Nobody likes to think about let alone talk about Outsourcing information services or roles, but this was one of the issues discussed at the recent Perfect Information Conference. The IWR Blog has report from the session.
Bills before Parliament
Posted on May 16, 2008The web team responsible for the Bills before Parliament site have started the next stage of development work on these pages. If you use these pages regularly then they would love to hear from you, particularly around: What tasks you are trying to carry out when using these pages? Where do you currently have to go to find additional information not easily presented through these pages? Is there anything you would like to find but can't? Following earlier user feedback they are already looking to develop: Email alerts & RSS feeds at the individual Bill level and alerts for multiple bills...
Four events in four weeks
Posted on May 15, 2008With only fours weeks to go until the start of the BIALL Conference some of you may be thinking what else is happening in Dublin, well the BIALL Blog has done some research and is pleased to say there are some notable events happening which BIALL members might be interested in...
LACA wants more!
Posted on May 12, 2008The first round of consultation on recommendations in Andrew Gowers ? December 2006 report on intellectual property law (including copyright) has concluded with the Libraries and Copyright Alliance (LACA) arguing that there should be wider exceptions...
Still time to Have Your Say...!
Posted on May 06, 2008http://biall.blogspot.com/2008/04/have-your-say.htmlHave a look at the original post (link above) about Have Your Say at Dublin. Does anything else spring to mind? What's that question you have always wanted to ask about BIALL, its committees, publications, services, membership...
Dublin Buddies
Posted on May 06, 2008Don't forget that if you are a new delegate at this year's Conference, you can sign up to the Buddy scheme.This will pair you up with another new delegate to help you find your feet quickly at the event.If you didn't opt for this at the time of booking, it's not too late - contact Helen Williams hewilliams@lincoln...
Dublin a Brief Guide
Posted on April 28, 2008With only six weeks to go until the BIALL Conference the countdown begins with a series of posts on what you could do whilst in Dublin, apart from attend the conference of course! First up is a link to a guide written by Joe Donnelly (a member of the Legal Information Group) and a native Dubliner!In the next post...
The Old Bailey Online
Posted on April 28, 2008The Old Bailey has just launched a comprehensive archive of the 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court between 1674-1913.This looks like an interesting site where much time could be spent!
Reuters and Thomson now ThomsonReuters
Posted on April 23, 2008On April the 17th, Thomson announced that it had completed its acquisition of Reuters Group, PLC, forming no prizes for guessing... Thomson Reuters, but what household names are actually now part of ThomsonReuters, well here is a selection:FindLawWestWestlawRoundHallSweet & MaxwellW Green...
Thomson Reuters
Posted on April 17, 2008Annoucements have been sent to subscribers this morning about the formation today from Thomson Corporation and Reuters Group PLC of Thomson Reuters. Their new logo is shown above. If you have representatives with the e-mail address @thomson.com - this will be changing to @thomsonreuters...
Should we Spring into a Wiki?
Posted on April 17, 2008One of the suggestions from the latest Butterworths Electronic User Group (BEUG) was that Lexis Nexis Butterworths (LNB) use a Wiki or Blog to let their customers know about the Spring release of the Global Platform and to keep them updated about any changes, including the removal and addition of content and updates to the system itself...
Do YOU Hein?
Posted on April 17, 2008Another update from HeinOnline, this week they have announced that they have released their own channel on YOUTube. The channel has videos on how-to find information on the HeinOnline collections, general searching and navigation and ther useful tips and tricks for using the HeinOnline interface.
LN Update
Posted on April 16, 2008I (Fiona Durrant) attended the LNB Legal Product Advisory Board (PAB) at Halsbury house last week and on Monday attended the Butterworths Electronic User Group (BEUG).The PAB was just about LNB and is more an opportunity for Librarians to feed in what they think about just LNB so they can decide what to prioritize with regard to development...
Has the Internet Failed to Provide Public Access to Law?
Posted on April 11, 2008That is the question asked by Outlaw in an interview with BAILII Executive Director Joe Ury. BAILII has been working on the Open Law Project, which will see them publish the 3000 most important decisions in English common law to the BAILII Website.As part of this project BAILLI approached academics at leading institutions and asked them what they considered to be imporant decisions in their areas of expertise...
LexisNexis become FT Channel Partner
Posted on April 07, 2008Further to recent posts on this topic, the FT have announced that LexisNexis have agreed to be a channel partner and will carry FT content after 1 April 2008.
Have Your Say!
Posted on April 03, 2008A reminder that 'Have Your Say' at the BIALL Conference will consider issues raised via this blog as well as those from the conference floor.So if you're not able to attend this year, but have a burning issue to raise, this is the place to do it via the comments...
21st Century Bills
Posted on March 28, 2008In a bid for best campaign name ever, They Work For You have started a campaign to 'Gently Encourage Parliament to Publish Bills in a 21st Century Way'.They Work For You are encouraging parliament to release all bills in XML - not just legislation but actions of agencies, court rulings, budgets, etc...
HeinOnline has been scholared
Posted on March 28, 2008Peter Scott's Library Blog is reporting that Google Scholar is now indexing the Law Journals in HeinOnline to make the more than 1,100 titles searchable in the Google Scholar interface.Full instructions on how to search Google Scholar for HeinOnline journals are available here.
The FT go West
Posted on March 25, 2008Following on from the previous post on this topic the FT have now confirmed that West will be one of the channel partners licensed to carry FT content after April 1st where the client has a digital licence with the FT.The FT remain hopeful that they will sign a licence with Lexis Nexis and will advise the Legal Information Group Vice Chair of any developments in this respect.
Legal Information Group and the FT Content Licence
Posted on March 18, 2008Posted on behalf of Chrissy Street;A number of BIALL members have raised questions about the new licensing model announced by the Financial Times last year. As BIALL LIG Vice Chair I met with Caspar de Bono (Managing Director, B2B) and James Mann (UK Circulation and Content Sales Director) of the FT last week to raise some of the questions, the meeting was also attended by Jas Breslin (Council Member)...
Beyond Discovery...
Posted on March 10, 2008...also known as the Bloomsbury Conference which is being organised by the CILIP Commercial, Legal and Scientific Information Group have a free delegate place up for grabs.All you have do is write 200 words on:"How attendance at the Bloomsbury Conference would benefit my professional development...
Are Law Libraries becoming obsolete...?
Posted on March 10, 2008...well the good news is no according to this article from the Birmingham Business Journal, the bad news is that more and more Libraries are being "downsized" in favour of less "traditional" means of finding information, in other words electronic databases...
Here?s to the next 200 hundred years Hansard...
Posted on March 06, 2008...this is big news okay mabye not that big, but it transpires that the Goverment is planning to make 200 years worth of Hansard debates available online.The even better news is that some Hansard Debates are already available online and I'm not just talking about the debates available on the UK Parliament website...
BIALL website feedback survey
Posted on March 04, 2008Apologies for cross-posting, but we'd like to get as many responses as possible! We in the Web Committee are very much interested in getting some feedback from users of the BIALL website. In order to facilitate this, we have constructed a quick survey to gather opinions about the current BIALL website, and the direction that you would like it to go in...
MSC activities update
Posted on February 29, 2008Membership Services Committee (MSC) has been planning its activities around the forthcoming conference.Thank you to all those who responded to the questions on mentoring for new delegates at conference. It was good to have a range of responses from seasoned delegates as well as those for whom Dublin will be their first event...
A new approach to Members? Forum
Posted on February 29, 2008If you are attending this year?s conference you will notice that Members? Forum has been renamed ?Have your say??.The new name is not the only change. The Membership Services Committee (MSC) are looking at ways to encourage discussion and would like members to use this blog to post any suggestions or questions...
Cheese...if you please
Posted on February 28, 2008Tomorrow will see BIALL members gather for the now Annual Cheese and Wine Party.The Cheese and Wine Party is always an extremely well attended event so for anybody is going tomorrow the BIALL Bloggers look forward to seeing you there.
Not quite the Brits...
Posted on February 21, 2008...but there are still loads of reasons why you should add your nomination to those already received by the Awards and Bursaries Committee.Every year BIALL recognises and rewards the high levels of service and professional commitment achieved by individuals and services working within the legal information/law library sector...
Law Firm Librarians play crucial intelligence role (Part 2)
Posted on February 20, 2008Following swiftly on from a previous blog post Sweet & Maxwell/Thomson have emailed me to say that they are not planning to publish the research discussed in the Law Society Gazette article but they are happy to send the presentation, which is a summary of the results, to anyone who is interested...
Law firm librarians play crucial intelligence role..
Posted on February 14, 2008...is the title of a story on page 6 of this weeks Law Society Gazette (14/02/2008) in it the author discusses the results of a report published by Sweet & Maxwell (unfortunately not available online at present) which shows that librarians have exchanged their traditional roles of researching changes in the law to supplying commerically foucsed information...
The Past, Present & Future of Legal Information
Posted on February 05, 2008Lexis Nexis Butterworths have made this seminar available here for all to view. Unfortunately I'm not able to view this video but no doubt the Richard Susskind speech will be interesting, as will the Q&A session, with questions including;What might Web 2...
Law Librarianship in 2007 : A review
Posted on February 05, 2008Fiona Durrant, BIALL Council Member and Loyita Worley, editor of the BIALL Handbook of Legal Information have co-written a piece for the latest CILIP update. The piece is a review of developments during 2007 and a look at what the future holds for Law Librarianship...
Law Society Library online
Posted on January 30, 2008Monday the 28th of January saw the launch of a new site from The Law Society library called Law Society Library Online, the site was built in collaboration with LexisNexis.The site is available free of charge but registering will allow you to access "member only" benefits" which include access to;Queries and Enquiries Database with sources for specific precedents and answers to many legal information enquiries, based on the experience of the Library team...
Transcripts Guide...the Wiki
Posted on January 29, 2008The Inner Temple Library have started the process of updating their guide to finding the Transcripts of Judicial Proceedings in England & Wales. To facilitate the updating of this guide, which will eventually be available in PDF format, the Inner Temple have created a Wiki which all BIALL members are invited to edit or add content as appropriate...
BIALL Study Seminar - Edinburgh, December 6 - 7
Posted on January 25, 2008This year?s study seminar in Edinburgh looked like a Nurofen for my work headaches: targeted relief for pain. And (to rip off another slogan) it did what it said on the tin!The setting was the wonderful Signet Library in Parliament Square, hosted by Elaine Bird and the BIALL Professional Development Committee...
Building a Legal Research toolbar
Posted on January 24, 2008This article by Jennifer W Greig will be of interest to anyone who is considering developing a search solution that provides access to "sanctioned" resources.In it the author describes how they designed and eventually delivered the toolbar to their students.
LNB Global Platform Mailing List
Posted on January 17, 2008The Legal Information Group will close the Lexis Nexis Butterworths (LNB) Global Platform Mailing List on the 7/2/2008.This list was established in 2005 for BIALL members to discuss the implementation of the Global Platform. Since then the platform has undergone a number of functional and technical changes which have made it more usable...
Library 2.0 initiatives in Academic Libraries
Posted on January 09, 2008The Association of Research and College Libraries (ARCL) in the U.S have released a new publication which may be of interest to BIALL members. Entitled "Library 2.0 initiatives in Academic Libraries" this is a hybrid publication which uses a Wiki to display content in chapters...
Format shifting...
Posted on January 09, 2008Not as I had hoped the working title of the sequel to Transformers but one of a series of proposals put forward by the UK Goverment as part of its consultation on the future of copyright in the digital age."Fomat shifting" if legislated will give greater freedom to consumers to transfer content between CD's and MP3 players and other devices...
OPSI now "as revised"
Posted on January 04, 2008A recent addition to the OPSI website is the inclusion of "As Revised" statutes, this means that when visting the OPSI Website users have the option to retrieve Statutes as revised as well as enacted. Have a look at the Channel Tunnel Act for an example...
Merry Christmas
Posted on December 21, 2007Merry Christmas to all BIALL Members and readers of the blog! See you all in the New Year.The Blog Team
How to...expand
Posted on December 19, 2007Despite the fact it is Christmas I'm not talking about expanding waistlines. In fact what is referred to here is the strategy of Professional Publishing Companies which has seen them move from single volume print publishers to suppliers of "integrated content"Leading this change is Reed Elsevier (LNB) who are the subject of an article on the Times Online...
Publishers Association Annual Conference 2008
Posted on December 12, 2007The Publishers Association have released the details of their Annual Conference for 2008. Called "What does Higher Education want from Publishers?" the conference will look at the "impact that publishers make on today?s learning experience" More information and registration forms are available on the Publisher Associations website.
New CLA Licence is launched
Posted on December 06, 2007The CLA has introduced a new licence for the Adult Education sector. The enhanced Trial Scanning Licence is now available to all Adult and Community Education and Learning (ACL) providers.The licence allows for the creation of Digital Copies made from print originals owned by the licensee and for those Digital Copies to be used with technologies such as digital whiteboards, within Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) including email and fax.
Is ACAP ahead of the pack?
Posted on December 06, 2007A joint standard which has been developed by the publishing industry, working with search engines was launched at the end of last month. The ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol) initiative allows online content owners to grant search engines like Google rights to "display" their content in search results...
Westlaw/Lawtel User Group 2007
Posted on November 28, 2007The Westlaw/Lawtel London User Group was held at the "hip" Adnaz Hotel on Liverpool Street yesterday. The most interesting things to come out of the meeting were the Westlaw developments planned for 2008, some highlights includedCasesThe loading of more English ReportsThe loading of more unreported transcriptsLegislationMore PDF'sCummulative footnotesFuture versions (so now you can go back and foward in time!)Journals6 more journal titlesCirculation list functionality and list management- this sounds greatIn terms of the interface, there will links to and from Lawtel and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds for pre-defined content and content that you have searched for...
AALL Vendor Relations
Posted on November 22, 2007The American Association of Law Librarians (AALL) have developed a new page specifically for the work they do with Vendors and their relationships with Vendors.There are a whole host of tools available on page of the AALL Group that works with vendors, The Committee on Relations with Information Vendors (CRIV) including the AALL Fair Business Practices Guide, the U...
Will Lexis Nexis and Westlaw survive?
Posted on November 15, 2007An announcement today in the U.S. looks like it could challenge the dominance of Lexis Nexis and Westlaw when it comes to the provision of U.S. Case Law.Public Resource.org and Fastcase.com have said that they will release a large and free archive of federal case law, including all Courts of Appeals decisions from 1950 to the present and all Supreme Court decisions since 1754...
FT unveils the future
Posted on November 15, 2007Further to announcements by Lexis Nexis from the 1st of April 2008 Financial Times Content will only be available via third party applications if you have a content licence from the Financial Times, the reasoning behind this is as follows, with more information on their website;"As third party channels multiply, we want to ensure a fair and transparent means of delivering our valuable content...
Work in progress
Posted on November 03, 2007There will be some changes taking place to the look and feel of the blog over the weekend.Apologies for any inconvenience and strangeness that may result.
Legal publishers and RSS
Posted on November 01, 2007There has recently been a bit of a stir amongst the UK legal library bloggers regarding the issue of legal publishers and RSS for new books ? namely, that they aren?t doing it.Lo-Fi Librarian started the ball rolling with her post lamenting that the UK publishers haven?t quite caught up with their Canadian brethren...
Reed leads the way
Posted on November 01, 2007The 2007 Livres Hebdo report has confirmed that Reed Elsevier have been the biggest global publisher in 2007, other Legal Publishers who rank highly in the report are;Thomson (3)LexisNexis (5)Wolters Kluwer (10)Informa (15)There is some interesting information in the "Groups Close up" part of the report.
UKEIG Intranets Forum
Posted on November 01, 2007The UK eInformation Group (UKEIG) have established an Intranets forum for anyone who currently maintains or adminsters an Intranet and would like to hear from colleagues in the same field.The next Intranets Forum meeting is at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Thursday 13th December...
Bloomberg seminars
Posted on October 25, 2007I attended a very interesting free hour long seminar today on Equities and Bonds, held at the Bloomberg offices in Finsbury Square, Moorgate, London. The presentation was aimed at giving an understanding into how the markets worked in a simple, concise and clear manner...
LexisNexis free training
Posted on October 25, 2007The free coffee break training site is now live:www.lexisnexis.co.uk/coffeebreak
Sweet and Maxwell Customer Forum
Posted on October 17, 2007I attended the Sweet and Maxwell customer forum on Wednesday 17th and apart from a very filling lunch of Guinea Fowl learned a lot about what they have in the pipeline (keep an eye out for Web Plus) as well as some concerns from customers, (mostly about currency of online legislation, packaging of books and delays to deliveries)...
...and the winners are...
Posted on October 17, 2007Three Library & Information Services have received Halsbury's awards for their contributions to the sector as a whole. At the awards ceremony (held at the Inner Temple Hall) attendees were treated to a lavish reception, and at the presentation of the awards themselves, the winners were:Best London Legal Information Service (Commercial Sector) - Sidley Austin LLPBest Regional Legal Information Service (Commercial Sector) - Addleshaw Goddard LLPBest Legal Information Service (Non-Commercial Sector) -The Inner TempleLibraryFollowing the presentation of the awards all present were treated to a performance from"The Jazz Trio" whilst the wine flowed and canapes were consumed...
London Libraries & Information Community
Posted on October 10, 2007Neil Stewart at Library etc has posted about what looks like a really useful resource. The London Libraries & Information Community is described as a site for "News and events of interest to information professionals in and around London, UK"Currently only CILIP are posting to the online calendar, with the hope being that both BIALL, CLIG and CIG will begin to post events.
BEUG meeting
Posted on October 05, 2007Butterworths Electronic User Group (BEUG) meeting 4 October 2007 - summary of key items of interestThe meeting was well attended and there was good debate with some good attempt at answers by LN, even if if some felt they weren't quite as full and directed as we might have liked! Official meeting minutes will follow so below are just a few quick notes...
Legal Reference Materials courses
Posted on October 05, 2007Two Legal Reference Materials (LRM) courses are taking place in London in November and December in London. The LRM course provides practical guidance and hands on training on how to research case law and legislation using a wide range of online and hardcopy tesources...
BEUG meeting
Posted on October 04, 2007This afternoon (Thursday 4th October) is the Butterworths Electronic User Group (BEUG) meeting at the Café Royal at Piccadily Circus. I will report back with 'key themes' in a latter blog entry so watch this space...This meeting is usually a good opportunity to air key concerns and to hear about planned developments and how LexisNexis intend to address concerns...
CLA Open Meeting
Posted on October 01, 2007The Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) held its first ever open meeting on the 20th of September.The delegates consisted of authors, content producers and publishers as well as licence holders (Librarians and knowledge management professionals in education and business organisations)The main focus of the meeitng was on the implications for the CLA of the growing use of digital information and the impact of Web 2...
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