News
BIALL Conference Brighton 2010 - Call for papers
19 August 2009
Risks and Opportunities – Managing Resources in Difficult Times
BIALL 41st Annual Study Conference & Exhibition
Thursday 10 June 2010 to Saturday 12 June 2010, Brighton
ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION
The British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) was formed in 1969. It is an independent and self-supporting body which was established to represent the interests of legal information professionals, and other suppliers of legal literature and reference materials, in the United Kingdom and Ireland. There are over 700 members of BIALL, both personal and institutional. Almost every legal information unit is represented - academic legal research libraries, units in commercial, technical and industrial concerns, the courts and government departments. The diversity of the membership is one of BIALL's strengths as the members form a close network and share specialist knowledge and concerns, learning from the experience of others.
BROAD THEMES FOR THE CONFERENCE
In a highly stressed economic climate, it is critical that legal information professionals grasp the opportunities which arise from the myriad of problems presented by the uncertain economy: that is, to be creative and imaginative in managing all resources, be they hard copy, electronic or human resources.
Legal information professionals are being asked to do this while suffering the classic symptoms of recession:
- greatly reduced budgets,
- low morale among staff,
- the requirement to continually justify the existence of legal information units,
the drive to add value to services with no extra cash to fund initiatives.
Amongst the topics BIALL would like to cover during the Brighton Conference are:
- How to cut the right costs and make the right investments,
- How to add value to the legal information unit without stretching the budget,
- How to obtain Kite Marks such as the Customer Service Excellence mark (previously known as the Charter Mark), the ISO or LEXCEL Practice Management Standard,
- How to keep on the right side of copyright legislation,
- How to best negotiate legal electronic resource contracts and the renewals of existing contracts,
- How to best market the legal information unit within a larger organisation to minimise potential cuts to budget.
BRIEF FOR SPEAKER PRESENTATIONS
We are inviting speakers from within the legal and information world to submit proposals for papers which fit within this brief. The conference programme is a blend of plenary sessions lasting 45 minutes and delivered to approximately 250 delegates, and parallel sessions lasting 60 minutes and delivered to between 30 and 80 delegates.
Actual presentations should last between 25 and 30 minutes in the plenary sessions, and between 35 and 40 minutes in the parallel sessions.
Although the emphasis of the conference should be on the broad themes set out above, we encourage all submissions for sessions so long as they are on topics of current interest to the membership.
Parallel sessions are usually streamed, and this year we are keen to run a stream of sessions of particular relevance to senior level legal information professionals. We will aim to continue to stream according to sector (eg academic, law firm, general interest) as well.
As already outlined, the Association's members and Conference delegates hail from many jurisdictions, principally England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland. In addition the Conference will comprise delegates from the academic, corporate, professional societies and court/government sectors with a mix of senior and junior staff. Not all subjects lend themselves to a multi-jurisdictional multi-sector approach, but these aspects of the audience should be borne in mind, especially for plenary sessions.
Although a professional association not run for profit but for the benefit of its members, BIALL can offer speakers a package which normally includes travel expenses, overnight accommodation, attendance at the conference on the day of the presentation, and a modest honorarium.
SPEAKERS' ABSTRACTS
The BIALL Conference Committee will consider proposals for papers on the basis of abstracts. An abstract should be between 250 and 500 words long, providing a clear idea of the content of the presentation, an indication of its target audience, and an opinion as to whether it is best suited to a plenary or parallel session.
The abstract should be accompanied by a short biography, ideally between 150 and 200 words long, outlining relevant professional experience, publications, and papers delivered at previous conferences, seminars or training events. Submissions for plenary sessions should specifically include details of previous speaking experience at similar conferences.
ENQUIRIES AND CONTACTS
Informal enquiries can be made to the Chair of the Conference Committee, John Furlong at john.furlong@mop.ie or the Programme Co-Ordinators Hannah Fogg at hannahfogg@bpp.com and Niamh Burns at niamh.burns@barcouncil-ni.org.uk.
Examples of previous programmes, speaker biographies and session synopses can be viewed at http://www.biall.org.uk/ under conferences.
Abstracts should be submitted by email to john.furlong@mop.ie, hannahfogg@bpp.com, and niamh.burns@barcouncil-ni.org.uk
Closing date for submission: 16 October 2009.
