BIALL Conference Research Articles

Will Librarians Be Needed in 2010? The Future of the Job Market

AbstractIn a paper given at the 39th Annual BIALL Conference held in Dublin in June 2008, Sue Hill MD of Sue Hill Recruitment, discusses the current issues affecting law librarianship and looks at potential future changes. She then suggests how legal information professionals can stay ahead of the game.

The Canadian Legal Information Institute - a Model for Success

AbstractIn a paper presented at the 39th Annual BIALL Conference held in Dublin in June 2008, Janine Miller described the development of CanLII by Canadian law societies from its earliest incarnation to the huge free legal resource that it now comprises.

Information Managers in the 21stCentury

AbstractIn a paper given at the 39thAnnual BIALL Conference held in Dublin in June 2008, Samantha Steer covered key findings from the 2007 Sweet & Maxwell SurveyInformation Managers in the21stCentury. The survey was prompted by changes in the legal market, including those that will follow from the Legal Services Act, and the wider availability of new technology, altering the delivery of legal information. The findings cover past changes to the information management role, and perceptions as to how the role will continue to change over the coming years.

Who's REALLY Computer Savvy? Web 2.0 Technologies and your Library

AbstractWhat are Web 2.0 applications and which ones will you be implementing in your library? Do “Baby Boomers” fear change and rely too much on email? Are “Gen X-ers/Gen Y-ers” more computer savvy in today's rapidly changing environment? Can social networking technologies enhance our productivity, or are they time-wasters in a professional environment? In this article, based on his paper given at the 39th Annual BIALL Conference held in Dublin in June 2008, Stephen Weiter attempts to answer these questions.

Federated Searching – the Process and the Problems

AbstractThis paper, taken from a presentation given by Melanie Farquharson, 3Kites Consulting, to the 39th Annual BIALL Conference held in Dublin in June 2008, discusses recent developments in the provision of federated search systems and how they can ease the legal research process. It also considers the attitude of legal publishers to such systems.

Researching the Law of Northern Ireland

AbstractThis paper is based on the presentation given by Heather Semple of the Northern Ireland Law Society to the 39thAnnual BIALL Conference held in Dublin in June 2008 and covers the historical and constitutional background to the country. The paper then considers sources of legislation and case law and provides helpful tips on how to undertake research within the complicated and difficult system of legislative publishing.

The “Law Society Library Online” – a Collaborative Project Between the Law Society Library and LexisNexis

AbstractThis new service won the Halsbury's Award for the Best Legal Information Service – Non-Commercial Sector at the recent BIALL Conference in Dublin. Chris Holland explains the background to the project and outlines plans for its future development.

E-Learning, in a World with too Much Information

AbstractIn her BIALL Conference Paper last June, Ann Hemming considered the potential impact of e-learning on the legal profession and legal information professionals in particular. She discussed what is meant by e-learning and how it can be incorporated into our current knowledge systems. She then considered the needs of the current generation of info pros and the potential uses of social networking tools, such as Second Life, in the e-learning environment.

How To Work A Room

AbstractRob Brown gave the opening presentation at the BIALL Conference and filled us all with confidence on how to network at either a social or business event. He gave lots of helpful hints on how to prepare for an event, whom to approach on entering a room and then ten practical tips on how to behave at the event to ensure successful networking.

LORD of the Links: The Legal Online Resources Database

At the 2004 BIALL Conference the Legal Online Resources Directory (LORD) was launched. The Legal Information Group (LIG) is currently developing the Directory to meet the needs of today's information professionals. James Mullan, Chair of LIG, gives a history of the LORD project and an outline of its possible future.

BIALL Code of Good Practice for Law Publishers

The BIALL Code of Good Practice for Law Publishers was launched at the 2005 BIALL Conference. Support for the Code of Good Practice is growing and demonstrates a commitment by legal publishers to respond to the rapidly changing publishing environment. James Mullan Chair of the BIALL Legal Information Group (LIG) provides a history of the Code to date.

Small Jurisdictions…Big Ideas

How do you get two solo information professionals in two separate small island jurisdictions to give one presentation, talking as one? Especially two who had never met together until the day before they were due to give the presentation at the 2005 BIALL conference in Harrogate The way this came about neatly sums up what it is like to be an information professional in a small jurisdiction. You spend a long time on the telephone and email, you take the initiative, collaborate, share ideas and bring out the best in each other. In short, you reach out beyond your little island, because not to do so means not to operate effectively.

The LORD Project

At the 2004 BIALL Conference the Legal Online Resources Database (LORD) was finally launched. LORD is still growing and demonstrates a practical benefit of developing a good working relationship with the legal publishing profession. Ann Hemming gives an outline of the project to date.

Report on the Annual BIALL Conference 2004 in Edinburgh

As Bob Dylan says, times they are a-changing. This theme was central to the weekend in the fair city of Edinburgh, hosts of the 35th Annual BIALL Conference. To be honest I was not sure what to expect from a law librarianship conference. The first manifestation of this was in packing for the event where I could not decide between a formal or a somewhat dressed down approach to my sartorial collection. I have been to conferences in other fields when at university for my first degree – namely the Classical Association Conferences and the British Association for the Advancement of Science conference. Both were pretty informal affairs (classicists having little requirement for suits generally).

Knowledge Without Frontiers: Report on the 34th BIALL Conference, Cardiff, Wales, June 2003

I was a very fortunate law librarian in June this year – as the Chair of OSALL (the Organisation of South African Law Libraries), I was the only South African able to attend the 34th Annual BIALL conference, thanks to the generosity of BIALL who sponsored me as an Official Delegate. As a small token of my appreciation, I have written some memoirs spanning those five fabulous days, and I hope you enjoy reading them.

The Way we Were, the Way we live now: ouRBase at Richards Butler

Whilst preparing for my talk at the BIALL Conference and bearing in mind the session during which I was speaking, it struck me how many things had changed since I started out in law librarianship. The foremost of these is definitely the development of information technology, which has had an immediate and prolonged impact on how we provide services to our users in both law firms and in academic libraries. This is something of which we are all aware – the shift from paper, firstly to CD Rom, then online and latterly to internet based services.