Wednesday 10 December 2008

Charity donation voting

2009 Annual Charity Donation

Please send your vote (ALLICE members only) to Phil Uttley

RNIB Talking Book Service

The Talking Book Service provides an extensive range of over 15,500 audio books, paid for by annual subscription and delivered through the post. The full loan annual subscription, which includes the loan of a player, costs £76. Talking Books are recorded in the RNIB’s modern studios, which are designed to be accessible to people with sight problems. They work with professional actors, narrators and authors to bring audio books to life. Last year they sent out two million books to 41,000 people and added 450 books to their stock.Even though they ask for a small annual subscription to join the Talking Book Service, RNIB has to subsidise this lifeline service by some two million pounds a year (about fifty pounds per person per year) to keep it running. This is found through fundraising and legacy income; they receive no Government help.

Birmingham Settlement

Birmingham Settlement provide care services for children and older people, training and employment opportunities for individuals, development support for voluntary and community organisations and money advice and debt counselling services for individuals They run six charity shops which raise money across the city to support their programmes, particularly their work with children and older people.They work in partnership to support the development of local voluntary and community sector organisations, to deliver services that meet the needs of their users in a flexible and far-reaching way, to ensure that their services are linked, with appropriate referrals made to provide maximum benefit, to provide services for all sections of the community, from young to old, irrespective of ethnic origin or background, to lobby and influence local, regional and national policy makers and to balance public sector funding, earned and other income while enhancing their financial standing and securing long-term viability

Linda Kalinda's Zambian Legal Resource Centre

The Centre’s aim is to offer legal resources and facilities to its members. Subscriptions will go towards the maintenance costs of the centre and salaries.The centre building is currently being set up and they hope to be able to open in late 2008. They have collected more than 250 books and are now starting to look at putting power and sanitation in the building. (report from Jan ’08)

Minutes of meeting held on 10th December 2008

Meeting held at : DLA Piper UK LLP, Victoria Square House, Birmingham

Attendees:

Jon Beaumont, Hilary Boucher, Louise Bowler, Matthew Cadden (Pinsent Masons), Adele Champken, Andrew Clarke, Caroline Covington, Hazel Hewison, Susanne Homer, Mandy Hulme, Caroline Janukowicz, Caroline Mosley, Alison Parker, Rachel Relves, Natasha Skeen (College of Law), Phil Uttley, Carol Wilson and Tricia Wyspianska

The Chair welcomed Nigel Fry, Rob Cornish and Tina Hartley from Wildy & Sons

Normal business

1. Apologies

Sally Hassell, Christine Lambert, Patricia Pritchard, Aileen Johnston, Beverley Preece, Joanne Dunn, Lisa Anderson, Christine Newlove, Erica Foster, Aine Astbury, Jasmin Hollingum, Sue Kendall, David Houston, Lee Houghton, Helen Dunn, Denise Watkins, Diane Harris, Jackie Sellars, James Furnival and Stephen Wheeler.

2. Charities

The Chair explained that our annual donation had been reviewed at the request of members and set at £50 this year. Three nominations had been received and voting forms were distributed at the meeting. A copy is available on the blog for those who have still to nominate their chosen charity

3. Treasurer’s Report

The treasurer presented her report for the year. She also asked those members who have yet to renew their ALLICE subscriptions to do so before Christmas (Cobbetts, No 5 Chambers, James Furnival, Lisa Anderson and Denise Watkins). It is expected that membership will fall to 40/42 for 2008/09. This will generate around £630. The EIA event, run in October, had cost a total of £1175. Attendance fees recouped £300, leaving net costs of £875.

4. AOB

Update on Birmingham Law Society (BLS) library – The Chair informed members that a BLS committee meeting recently established that the BLS library was now formally closed. The move of the stock to Aston University was complete and arrangements for BLS members to access it were now in place. BLS members will be invited to bid for the stock left at the Law Society. Confirmation of this has been received since the meeting and is available on the blog.

Anthony Collins job vacancy – Adele Champken informed members that she was leaving Anthony Collins in February. This would create a vacancy for a part-time librarian.

Happy events – Members were informed that both Aine Astbury and Jackie Hanes had given birth to baby girls recently – all are well

5. Wildy & Sons

Many thanks to Nigel Fry who gave a very interesting talk on the history of Wildys and its current structure and location

Monday 24 November 2008

ALLICE Meeting Agenda

12.30 pm Wednesday 10th December 2008

Meeting to be held at :

DLA Piper UK LLP
Victoria Square House
Victoria Square
Birmingham
B2 4DL

Map & Directions:

http://www.dlapiper.com/files/upload/How_to_find_us_Birmingham.pdf

Agenda

Normal business

1. Apologies
2. Treasurer’s Report
3. Charities
4. AOB

Nigel Fry from Wildys will be with us for a short talk and networking

The formal business will commence at 12.45 sharp to allow maximum time for networking afterwards

Monday 20 October 2008

Special ALLICE event on Monday 10th November at 12.00 noon

Special invitation for ALLICE members

Join us to celebrate the launch of the new i-law.com

i-law.com is changing - we’re adding new resources, new search tools, innovative features and a brand new look and feel to make sure
i-law continues to meet the evolving needs of our users.

To celebrate the launch of your new i-law.com, we’re holding a series of free events around the country in October and November, including our Birmingham roadshow on Monday November 10th.

attend our i-law.com roadshow to:

* See a short demonstration of your new i-law service and hear about the benefits it offers you and your business

* Try out the service for yourself and have your questions answered by the team at i-law.com

* Network with fellow ALLICE members, colleagues and the team at i-law.com over lunch

* Collect your i-law gift bag containing a memory stick, headphones, pen and handy user guide.

Whether you’re an existing i-law user or have never used the service before, you’ll have the chance to see how the new and improved
i-law.com will benefit you.

Our Birmingham road show takes place on November 10th, at the offices of Hammonds LLP, Rutland House, 148 Edmund St, Birmingham, B3 2JR.

To register or to find out more, email grant.chapman@informa.com today.

We're currently finalising dates and venues for further events around the country, including Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, and Bristol, in addition to our first event in London on October 24th..

If we’re not running an event close to you, a member of the team at
i-law.com can arrange to visit your office to conduct a session tailored to your needs. To receive further information as soon as it becomes available, email us.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Regards

the team at i-law.com

Wednesday 8 October 2008

ASLIB Midlands - Using Second Life

ASLIB Midlands

Using Second Life

WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2008 2.00 PM TO 4.30 PM

BIRMINGHAM CENTRAL LIBRARY

This half day event aims to help library and information professionals understand the uses of Second Life (SL), and to develop SL skills. In the first session Vicki Cormie, Lyn Parker and Sheila Webber will talk about their experiences of using SL for teaching, libraries and Continuing Professional Development. They will highlight some applications in different sectors, but with a particular focus on Higher Education. In the second part of the seminar delegates will have hands-on sessions in SL, with a choice of two options. SL beginners will get the chance to learn basic skills in a friendly environment, and those with more experience will discuss and explore some of the opportunities for information professionals.

Vicki Cormie is an Academic Liaison Librarian at the University of St Andrews. Her interest in Second Life began 2006 on a purely social basis when she found it was a great place to meet up virtually with real life friends. However she discovered the huge educational potential that it has and is now doing virtual teaching for a second year. In 2008 she was one of the founders of Minerva, the first island belonging to the University of St Andrews where she is currently developing an exhibition space to show off some of the treasures of the University Library's Special Collections.
Lyn Parker is the Quality and Development Team Manager at the University of Sheffield Library. Maggie Kohime (Lyn’s atavar in Second Life) was created in May 2007. Maggie is involved with supporting students in Second Life and participating in virtual seminars within the Centre for Information Literacy Research. She has written various articles and presentations on her experiences.

Sheila Webber is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, and Director of the Centre for Information Literacy Research. Her current focus for research and teaching is information literacy, and she is an internationally invited speaker in this field. Sheila is also active in exploring Web 2.0 applications and has been teaching in Second Life (first year undergraduates and postgraduates) since October 2007, under her SL name Sheila Yoshikawa. She is owner of the Second Life island Infolit iSchool and a member of the Educators’ Coop.

Cost: £35 Aslib members ; £45 non-members.

We have 8 free places for Aslib members willing to serve on the Branch committee for 1 year. See our website www.aslibmidlands.org.uk for details.







If you would like to attend the meeting please complete and return the slip below by Wednesday 19 November to Margaret Brittin, 27 Hansell Drive, Dorridge, Solihull, West Midlands B93 8RQ (margaret@brittin.fslife.co.uk)


Name(s): ………………………………………………………………………………

Organisation: …………………………………………………………………………

Address: ………………………………………………………………………………

Telephone: ………………………. Email: …………………………………………

Please delete as appropriate -

[ ] I enclose a cheque for ….
(Aslib members £35; non-members £45. Please make cheques out to Aslib Midlands)
[ ] Please invoice me

To apply for a free place* please sign here: …………………………………..
*Must be an Aslib member, willing to serve on the Branch committee for 1 year

Are you or your organisation a member of Aslib? [ ] Yes [ ] No
May we inform you of future Aslib events? [ ] Yes [ ] No

Do you have any special needs? If so, please give details


NB. The full fee for cancellations will be charged if we are not notified by 19th November

Friday 12 September 2008

Sue Hill session

Sue Hill is visiting Birmingham on 23rd October and has offered to run a lunchtime session for ALLICE members on that day

It's a bit close to the EIA event, unfortunately, but it would be good to set something up if we could.

Sue has suggested a session based on areas such as changing information management roles in law firms and recruitment trends in legal information.

Can you say if you would be interested in attending this session and, if there is sufficient interest, we'll firm things up with Sue and look for a venue.

Regards

Phil Uttley
Direct line +44(0)121 222 3487
Direct fax +44 (0)870 443 4103
phil.uttley@hammonds.com

Proposed Company/Business Information event

At the recent ALLICE meeting it was felt that we should investigate the possibility of setting up some form of Business/Company Information training for members.

I was asked to request that members register their interest (or otherwise) in this idea before I approached organisations/individuals with a view to developing this idea

Can you say, then, whether you would be interested in a dedicated session, possibly along the lines of the EIA event, that covered access to, and use of, sources of company and business information.

Regards

Phil Uttley
Direct line +44(0)121 222 3487
Direct fax +44 (0)870 443 4103
phil.uttley@hammonds.com

Minutes of ALLICE meeting 10th September 2008

Meeting held at :

St Philips Chambers, 55 Temple Row, Birmingham, B2 5LS

Normal business


1. Apologies

Lisa Anderson, Jon Beaumont, Margaret Brittin, Adele Champken, Andrew Clarke, Helen Dunn, Joanne Dunn, Zoe Durrant, Erica Foster, Sally Hassall, David Houston, Mandy Hulme, Sue Kendall, Caroline Mosley, Christine Newlove, Toyin Olanrewaju, Bev Preece, Pat Pritchard, Jackie Sellars, Karen Skiffington, Mike Troon, Barry Vickery, Denise Watkins, Louise Young

2. Officers & Committee

Little feedback had been received on election of officers but the committee thought that this should take place formally at a future meeting to give members the opportunity to submit nominations.
[Action: Committee]

Martineau have offered to join the committee to assist in things like event organisation. DH will lead for them.

3. Charities

Two nominations received and a general view was that the donation should continue but the amount should be reviewed.

In response to a suggestion that funds would be better spent on events, CC pointed out that the subscription was originally intended to cover meeting costs only but, as most hosts have not charged ALLICE, funds in the bank had grown and the committee had felt that it could continue to donate to charity without compromising the financial health of the Association. Current subscription levels would, in fact, be insufficient to cover costs of regular events like the upcoming EIA event as this had cost over £1000.

4. EIA event

Currently 25 applications to attend had been received.

5. Subscriptions

CC informed members that subscriptions were due and that these would again be held at £15. Members were asked to send their payments to CC as quickly as possible and, if possible, pay electronically to avoid bank charges. [Action: All]

6. Future meetings & events

DLA Piper are hosting December meeting on 10th December. Members were asked for ideas on topics for discussion, speakers, etc. Host also required for March meeting

7. AOB

Update on Birmingham Law Society library – not much was known – PU was asked to send members a report on the current situation [Action: PU]

College of Law job vacancy – F/T Information Officer post is about to be advertised at the College (to provide 12 month maternity cover from November) AA reminded members that a similar vacancy will exist at No 5 Chambers

BIALL website re-design – HH asked members for thoughts on the BIALL website and the current communication facilities so that she could feed this into the web re-design project. [Action: All]

Business Information courses – AP asked if members knew of any upcoming courses. DH was attending a CILIP course in London in October. Members discussed the possibility of running this sort of event in conjunction with CILIP/BIALL/ASLIB, etc. PU was asked to make contact with these organisations and other local law librarians groups to access the possibilities. AJ suggested that members should be asked to show what level of interest existed for such an event before this was carried out [Action: PU]

Round table discussion – Print v Electronic resources

Christine Lambert (Academic library)

Her book fund had reduced while costs of electronic resources had increased by 66% and hardcopy costs by 30% over three years (excluding textbooks). Significant duplication existed between print and ‘e’ resources and she estimates that she could achieve 75% savings by moving to ‘e’ journals where this was possible and 85% savings by moving to ‘e’ law reports and legislation. Other schools within the University were already going down this route and she felt that she would have little option but to follow.

Although the majority of students preferred using ‘e’ resources, she wondered whether employers would still want them to be trained in the use of hardcopy versions.

A project entitled UK Research Reserve was encouraging HE institutions to dispose of their hardcopy runs of journals in favour of stock held at the British Library. Wolverhampton were joining this initiative soon

The Society of Legal Scholars have recently issued a report entitled ‘A Library for the Modern Law School’ in which they set out a Statement of Standards. This is also having an impact of her future planning

Caroline Covington (Bar library)

St Philips had to balance the needs of barristers who worked predominantly in Chambers with those would worked remotely. They also had to take into account the differing levels of computer literacy that existed. For this reason they held significant runs of hardcopy law reports and Halsbury’s Statutes and Laws.

Barristers still liked to have pdf version of law reports and, although these were now available on WestLaw for ICLR series and this had allowed them to cancel their Justis subscription, she felt that they never dispense with their hard copy versions.

Moving to ‘e’ resources brought with it significant training requirements and setting up successful training sessions for barristers was proving difficult.

General discussion highlighted another risk associated with moving to ‘e’ resources. Once a subscription to the hardcopy version was cancelled, it would be very difficult and expensive to re-establish this if the need arose.

Alison Parker (Larger firm library)

Eversheds priorities when considering ‘e’ versus hardcopy resources had been fully supporting fee-earners at minimum cost and maximum efficiency.

Additionally, the firm offered a 24 hour service to clients and the IS team were unable to offer staffing to support this.

Consequently, all hardcopy resources were centralised in Birmingham and access to a significant range of ‘e’ resources were provided firm-wide. This resulted in a significant reduction in hardcopy stock. The centralised stock is rarely used.

Training was also a problem for Eversheds given the large turnover of staff and constant recruitment and each IS team had dedicated trainers who trained at least one day every week.

Whilst access to legal ‘e’ resources was firm-wide, access to ‘e’ company resources was restricted to the IS team.

RR informed members that the budget for hardcopy resources at Pinsents had recently reduced by 20% and the increased cost of these resources had compounded the impact of this on her ability to purchase stock of this type

Tricia Wyspianska (Smaller 'out of town' library)

Needham and James also faced a difficult balance to meet the needs of fee-earners with differing needs and levels of computer literacy.

Some fee-earners preferred hardcopy resources and expected their trainees to be able to conduct research using these resources. She felt, therefore, that colleges and universities should continue to retain the means to carry out training to develop these skills.

It was difficult, however, to justify the cost of duplication between ‘e’ and hardcopy resources within the firm and this was being addressed gradually.

General discussion followed and points were made about space savings that could be achieved through adopting ‘e’ resources over hardcopy and the impact on printing of using ‘e’ resources. JH informed members that printing had risen fourfold following the College’s migration to ‘e’ resources

Monday 28 July 2008

ASLIB EVENT - COPYRIGHT: LIFE AFTER THE GOWERS REVIEW

ASLIB MIDLANDS

COPYRIGHT: LIFE AFTER THE GOWERS REVIEW

THURSDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2008 1.30 PM TO 4.30 PM

BIRMINGHAM CENTRAL LIBRARY
The Gowers review was the most far-reaching review of copyright since the current Act was passed twenty years ago - before the digital revolution. It attempted to address the issues raised by the changes in how we can create, store, copy and publish information. The Government has accepted the report and the process of implementing it is now under way. The first major exercise is the review on copyright exceptions, which is due to result in changes to the law next year.

These changes could affect us all in our professional lives. This half-day workshop is an ideal opportunity to find out in advance what the impact is likely to be and to plan for it. Find out -

What the issues are that Gowers addressed and what's now proposed
How it will affect users
How it will affect teaching and research
How it will affect libraries
The players in the game
What will happen next

The workshop will conclude with a question and answer session where participants can ask questions and share knowledge and information.

Workshop leader: Mike Heaney

Mike is Executive Secretary of Oxford University Library Services and deals with a wide range of issues including the quasi-legal aspects of data protection, freedom of information and copyright. He is CILIP's academic libraries representative on the Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA), which brings together the UK's major professional organisations and experts representing librarians and archivists to lobby in the UK and Europe about copyright and related rights. In that capacity he has helped to shape LACA's submission to the Gowers review, and to the current consultation on copyright exceptions.

Cost: £35 Aslib members ; £45 non-members.

We have 8 free places for Aslib members willing to serve on the Branch committee for 1 year. See our website www.aslibmidlands.org.uk for details.







If you would like to attend the meeting please complete and return the slip below by Thursday 18 September to Julia Mason, Library Manager, Library and Information Resource Centre, Fire Service College, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire GL56 0RH. email: jmason@fireservicecollege.ac.uk


Name(s): ………………………………………………………………………………

Organisation: …………………………………………………………………………

Address: ………………………………………………………………………………

Telephone: ………………………. Email: …………………………………………

Please delete as appropriate -

[ ] I enclose a cheque for ….
(Aslib members £35; non-members £45. Please make cheques out to Aslib Midlands)
[ ] Please invoice me

To apply for a free place* please sign here: …………………………………..
*Must be an Aslib member, willing to serve on the Branch committee for 1 year

Are you or your organisation a member of Aslib? [ ] Yes [ ] No
May we inform you of future Aslib events? [ ] Yes [ ] No
Do you have any special needs? If so, please give details

NB. The full fee for cancellations will be charged if we are not notified by 18th September

Tuesday 24 June 2008

Minutes of ALLICE meeting 18th June 2008

Meeting held at :

Anthony Collins LLP 134 Edmund Street Birmingham B3 2ES

1. Planning a law firm library

Wragge and Co are moving offices in 2011 and Susanne Homer wanted to gather experience and opinion on how to plan a law library in an office move. She currently has 22 departmental libraries within practice areas and wondered to what extent firms have centralised their library services in the age of online information.

Martineau Johnson and Cobbetts (Birmingham & Leeds) have single centralised library services. Eversheds (Leeds & London) have a general reference collection in a central library and departmental subject libraries.
Eversheds (Birmingham) has a main central library in a separate building.
Anthony Collins has 3 practice libraries (related departments share a practice library).
Cobbetts (Manchester) has a central library with departmental subject libraries.

All firms have recently moved offices. Generally, fee earners prefer the decentralised approach where resources are on their desks, or at least close by. However, libraries are finding this might not be the most effective use of resources, particularly in the online information age. Choice depends upon priorities for your service. What do you want to achieve. How do you want to raise your profile? What space do you have within your office?

Members then discussed the pros and cons of print v electronic format for resources and how much duplication we have in formats. Some libraries have cancelled all print subscriptions where electronic versions exist and others have reduced print copy numbers to a minimum to encourage users to use the electronic version.

It was suggested that this would be an interesting theme for the next ALLICE meeting.

There was also discussion on the role of Professional Support Lawyers (PSL’s) in libraries and information provision. Some concern was expressed that librarians manage departmental libraries but PSL’s take the credit and that PSL’s do not have the information skills to run departmental libraries.

It was suggested this would be an interesting theme for another ALLICE meeting although it might exclude some members from non-firm backgrounds.

Members offered tips on planning an office move:

Be involved on the planning committee or be in touch with architects and designers.
Specify shelving requirements, e.g. height, depth, length, position in library, growth space.
Specify electronic and network sockets for PCs.
Employ specialist library removal firm.

2. AOB

Tricia asked for an update on Birmingham Law Society Library. Hazel has left the library, and it is now staffed on Monday and Friday only and is for reference only. Birmingham Law Society are discussing the move of their library to Aston University this autumn but it is unlikely that Aston will offer the same level and conditions of service. Caroline and Pat asked members to email them with comments, e.g. which resources are used, what services to keep, e.g. a postal lending service.

Adele Chapken has a friend (Carol) who is looking for administrative work in a library. She is returning to work after a career break. Please contact Adele if you know of any suitable roles.

The EIA training event is likely to take place in October. This will be a lecture style event, rather than hands-on, because of venues and costs. Details are being finalised, and will be advertised shortly.

No one applied for the ALLICE bursary this year. Committee decided to keep open for BIALL conference in Manchester in 2009.

Committee is looking for ideas for future ALLICE meetings, and is planning a summer social event.

Members requested an up-to-date members list, to reflect recent job movements.

Aine Astbury (No 5 Chambers) has returned from maternity leave and is working 2.5 days per week as a job share with Hilary Boucher.

European Information – an ALLICE seminar

European Information – an ALLICE seminar

The European Information Association (EIA) are running a seminar for ALLICE on


13th October 2008 at 12.30

at

Cobbetts, One Colmore Square, Birmingham

It will be a 4 hour seminar with sessions as follows:


* The European Union - how it works

* EUR-Lex - legislation, preparatory documents, case law

* Useful websites for European information

* National implementing measures


The seminar leader will be Ian Mayfield, European Documentation Librarian at Portsmouth University and accredited EIA trainer.

There will be a nominal £10 charge for ALLICE members but the seminar is also open to non-members for whom the cost is £30. This includes a light buffet lunch which will be available from 12.00 noon.

Places at the seminar are limited and booking forms can be obtained from

Phil Uttley
Hammonds LLP
0121 222 3487
phil.uttley@hammonds.com
























I enclose a cheque (made payable to ALLICE) for £…………..

(£10 for members & £30 for non-members)

Friday 20 June 2008

VISIT TO MARY SEACOLE LIBRARY, BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY

ASLIB MIDLANDS

VISIT TO MARY SEACOLE LIBRARY, BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY

THURSDAY 17TH JULY 2008 2.00 PM TO 4.00 PM


This FREE half-day visit is an opportunity to visit this stunning new library - one of the largest specialist health libraries in the country. As well as admiring the building there will also be the chance to learn about the wide range of electronic support services offered to students and to see a virtual ward with virtual patients.

Birmingham City University's newest library, the Mary Seacole Library, was officially opened on 27th June 2006. Located on the Edgbaston campus, the library occupies the whole ground floor of the state-of-the-art Seacole building which was awarded a Built in Quality award, for the Education category, at Celebrating Construction 2007.

The library was named after the pioneering nurse and heroine of the Crimean War – Florence Nightingale without the (mythical) lamp! It serves more than five thousand nursing and midwifery staff and students of the Faculty of Health and is part of a £30 million development at Birmingham City University.

This is the first library in the country to have a LiveReader, a machine designed specifically to help students who are either visually impaired or dyslexic. The machine uses a touch screen combined with CCTV technology to scan text, allowing it to be manipulated by changing text size, font and colour, and it will also read the text aloud.

Further innovations have included the launch of a 24 hour electronic enquiry service – Ask the Library. In 2007 the Mary Seacole Library piloted the use of RFID technology, which combined with self-issue and self-return, has greatly improved the ease of use of the library.

The Mary Seacole Library is in Westbourne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3TN, about 2 miles west of the city centre and is on a number of bus routes from the centre. For directions and further details see http://www.library.bcu.ac.uk//whatswr.htm.

And why not combine your visit with a trip to Birmingham’s botanical gardens, just across the road? (http://www.birminghambotanicalgardens.org.uk/)

If you would like to attend the visit please contact Chris Kostrzebski, IMI plc Business Development Support, Lakeside, Solihull, Birmingham B37 7XZ, email: Christine.kostrzebski@imiplc.com, tel: 0121 717 3904

Thursday 19 June 2008

Hollywood Librarian

As mentioned at the ALLICE meeting this week, please find details of showing times and dates for the Hollywood Librarian:

Mon 7th July 2008 : Doors open 4.00pm
Venue : Baker Hall, City North Campus, Franchise St, Perry Barr, Birmingham B42 2SU

Tues 8th July 2008 : Doors open 3.30pm
Venue : Emma Jessie Phipps Lecture Theatre, Gosta Green Campus, Corporation Street, Gosta Green, Birmingham B4 7DX

They are asking for a £3.50 donation on the door to cover costs and a contribution to the Letisha and Charmaine Educational Awards Charity which is being supported by the Festival.

Please contact Janice Bell on 0121 331 5642 if you would like to attend a showing.

Wednesday 21 May 2008

7side event

Hi

Barry Vickery, at 7side, is offering 10 ALLICE members places on their next tour of Companies House

Contact Barry direct if you're interested on barry.vickery@7side.co.uk

First come, first served so get your emails in quickly

It's all free (apart from your transport to Cardiff, of course) and, having attended one of these in the past, I can thoroughly recommend the experience.

Regards

Phil

EIA event

Hi

You may recall from the last ALLICE meeting and/or it's minutes that we were working with the EIA to develop a customised event for ALLICE members in Birmingham

We now have a commitment from the EIA to deliver a half day (4 hour) event covering the following topic areas

The European Union - how it works
EUR-Lex - legislation, preparatory documents, case law
Websites
National implementing measures

The format of the event will be a series of presentations followed by hands-on exercises. We are hoping to run this event in September

We now need to find a suitable venue for the event but, before I start approaching local academic/training institutions, I was wondering if there might be an ALLICE member who might be able to 'volunteer' suitable accommodation, eg, an IT training facility or similar where both presentation equipment and PCs are available. We had 18 positive responses to the questionnaire but, once a date is fixed that will almost certainly reduce.

Please let me know if you feel you might be able to help with this

Regards

Phil

Wednesday 14 May 2008

ALLICE meeting

The next ALLICE meeting is as follows:

Date: 12.30pm Wednesday 18 June
Venue: Anthony Collins Solicitors LLP 134 Edmund Street Birmingham B3 2ESMap & Directions: http://www.anthonycollins.com/contact_us/#

Please can you reply to confirm your attendance by Monday 9 June

This will be a general networking meeting but please let me know if there is anything you'd like on the agenda and please give your thoughts to possible topics for future meetings.

Please note:

The proposed Islamic Finance seminar will not now take place in the near future. This will be reviewed later this year.

We are still looking for a volunteer to co-ordinate the publication of a new Union Serials list

Tuesday 13 May 2008

ASLIB Midlands

Aslib Midlands is looking to recruit new members to its committee.

We're a small, informal, friendly committee and we hold meetings about every 6 weeks in central Birmingham (usually Thursday afternoons but this isn't set in stone). Our members are drawn from organisations who are Aslib corporate members - we have people from workplace, academic and public libraries.

Our main activity is organising a successful programme of events (workshops, visits etc) and most of the committee work is involved with this.

This could be a good opportunity if you're looking to increase your professional networking or to develop skills such as organising events etc.

If you think you might be interested and/or want to discuss it further, please contact me

Margaret Brittin (Acting Chair)

margaret@brittin.fslife.co.uk

Wednesday 12 March 2008

European Information Training Event

A proposal to arrange a session for the Association incorporating some form of training on European information has been posted to the blog and we need your views on what level of interest this might attract and what form it should take.

We have an agreement in principle from the EIA to support the event but we need to outline our requirements to them before they can give a firm commitment

Training on offer from EIA currently includes the following topics and it would be useful if you could say which would be of interest to you

§ The European Union - what it is, what it does, how it works
§ Tracing policy and legislative documents
§ Tracing background and explanatory materials
§ Using EU information networks
§ How the EU legal process works and how to track EU law effectively
§ The planning cycle, SEC documents and COM documents
§ The consultation process (EP, ESC and CoR)
§ Adoption (including ‘How do I know it’s been adopted?’) and transposition into national legislation
§ Case law (including ‘what’s the difference between C-1/05, T1-05

and F-1/05?’)
§ Documentation associated with mergers

It would also be useful if you could express your preference for the form of session – either full day, half day or lunchtime (12-2)

It is envisaged that the session would be run in Birmingham in September

ALLICE Meeting Minutes - Wednesday 12 March 2008

Wednesday 12th March 2008

Meeting held at :

HBJ Gateley Wareing, One Eleven Edmund Street, Birmingham, B3 2HJ

1. New Secretary

Phil Uttley (Hammonds) was welcomed as the Association’s new secretary and Jackie Hanes was thanked for all the work she had done in the past

2. ALLICE Bursary

ALLICE are offering a bursary to facilitate attendance at the BIALL Conference in 2008. Details of eligibility criteria and an application form are associated with these minutes. Applications should be submitted to Sue Kendall, sue.kendall@mills-reeve.com, by 4th April

3. EIA event

A European Information training event is planned for later this year. Opinions are sought on suitable content and event format. A response form is associated with these minutes for those not able to complete one at the meeting. Responses should be sent to Phil Uttley, phil.uttley@hammonds.com, by 11th April

4. Union Serials list

A volunteer is required to co-ordinate the publication of a new Union Serials list. Please let Phil Uttley know, phil.uttley@hammonds.com, if you are prepared to take this on. It is hoped that this might be completed by the end of May

5. Future meetings

The next meeting will take place at 1230 on Wednesday 18th June at Anthony Collins

Sue Kendall is trying to set up a ‘mini’ BIALL Legal Research Materials course in Birmingham/West Midlands later this year and would be interested in hearing from anyone prepared to host it. For further details on requirements, please contact Sue at sue.kendall@mills-reeve

Would anyone interested in hosting either the September or December ALLICE meeting, please let Phil Uttley knowmailto:knowphil.uttley@hammonds.com.

6. Digital Copyright?

Laurence Bebbington of the University of Nottingham explored the issues relating to copyright generally and digital copyright specifically. This interesting talk explained the issues that law librarians face in working within the copyright framework. Laurence highlighted the fact that the issues relating to digital copyright are no different than those relating to any other form of copyright and that the core issues are whether the material is copyrighted and what you want to do with it.

A copy of Laurence’s presentation (duly copyright cleared!) is associated with these minutes

Thursday 6 March 2008

Next meeting - 12th March 2008

12.30 pm Wednesday 12th March 2008

Meeting to be held at

HBJ Gateley Wareing
One Eleven Edmund Street
Birmingham
B3 2HJ

Map & Directions:
http://www.hbjgateleywareing.com/Images/pdf/HBJ_Gateley_Wareing_LLP_Bham.PDF

Agenda

Normal business

1. New Secretary
2. BIALL Bursary
3. EIA event
4. Union Lists
5. Future meetings

Guest speaker (Digital copyright)

Laurence Bebbington of the University of Nottingham

Monday 18 February 2008

Next meeting: Wednesday 12 March

The next ALLICE meeting is as follows:

Date: 12.30pm Wednesday 12 March
Venue: HBJ Gateley Wareing, One Eleven Edmund Street, Birmingham, B3 2HJ.
Map & Directions: http://www.hbjgateleywareing.com/Images/pdf/HBJ_Gateley_Wareing_LLP_Bham.PDF

Our guest speaker will be Laurence Bebbington of the University of Nottingham on digital copyright.

Please can you reply to confirm your attendance by Monday 3 March.

Monday 4 February 2008

BURSARY for BIALL Conference

Following a vote at an ALLICE meeting in 2007 it was agreed that ALLICE would offer a bursary to facilitate attendance at the BIALL Conference in 2008. (To be reviewed in future years according to the level of available funds).

Eligibility criteria will be similar to those applicable to BIALL bursaries:
1) Applicants must be current members of ALLICE
2) Preference will be given to applicants who have worked in law libraries for less than 5 years, who have not attended a BIALL Conference before and who would not otherwise be able to attend due to lack of funding from their employers.
3) The bursary will cover the cost of the Conference Package - it does NOT include travel or accommodation costs, except in exceptional circumstances.

Applications should be made by letter to Sue Kendall, LIS Manager, Mills & Reeve, 78-84 Colmore Row, Birmingham B3 2AB DX 707290 Birmingham 65 and include the following information:
name and qualifications
full contact details including e-mail
details of current job
reasons for wanting to attend this conference.

Final date for applications: 28 April 2008