History - 1990's
1990
Death of Wallace Breem, Founder Member who had been a charismatic figure in the life of BIALL.
First visit to Ireland (Dublin) for the annual Conference.
Establishment of BRILL (the Bristol Law Librarians Group), the Leeds Law Librarians' Group and the Manchester Legal Information Group, as separate local groups.
CALL conference held in Vancouver.
1991
Publication of the Bibliography of Commonwealth Law Reports, edited by Wallace Breem and Sally Phillips.
Council decided to set up an award in Wallace Breem's memory.
Butterworths offered to sponsor an exchange of conference delegates between BIALL and ALLG (the Australian Law Librarians' Group). The first BIALL delegate to ALLG was Betty Moys.
Membership exceeded 500.
1992
The first Wallace Breem Memorial Award was made to Guy Holborn for his articles in The Law Librarian on biographical sources for past lawyers. Sally Phillips received a commendation by the Library Association Besterman Award panel for the Bibliography of Commonwealth Law Reports which she compiled jointly with the late Wallace Breem.
A Working group was set up to review BIALL committees. The change in committee structure led to a review of the role of Council and a consequent revision of the Constitution in 1994.
1993
Membership exceeded 600
Establishment of the Newcastle Law Librarians' Group as a separate local group.
1994
A new Constitution was adopted. The term of office of BIALL Chair was reduced to one year and the offices of Vice-Chair and Immediate Past Chair were introduced (both of one year's duration), resulting in a spread of workload. The office of Membership Secretary was abolished and the Hon Editor ceased to be an Officer.
BIALL appointed a part-time Administrator, Susan Frost, who had been a member of BIALL since 1979, to undertake the administrative tasks of a growing association. She took on the work of the Membership Secretary and some of the work of the Secretary.
The annual conference was held in a hotel for the first time and official delegate exchanges began with OSALL (the Organisation of South African Law Libraries).
1995
The annual conference at UMIST in Manchester attracted 333 delegates: this figure was not reached again until 1998.
Philip Cohen of Oceana was presented with Life Membership in recognition of his support for BIALL on the occasion of the Conference being held in the city of his birth.
Discussions began with Canadian and American colleagues for a joint Institute, reminiscent of the 1986 Oxford Institute.
Guidelines for archiving BIALL's documentation were drawn up by Mary Blake, who became BIALL's archivist.
GRIP (Group on Relations with Information Providers) was set up to liaise with publishers.
Christine Miskin resigned as editor of The Law Librarian and a volunteer successor was not forthcoming. As a result BIALL decided to employ a professional editor and Laurence Eastham was commissioned to edit The Law Librarian.
1996
First Pepper v Hart training course.
NZLLG (the New Zealand Law Libraries Group) joined the group exchanging delegates.
Membership again exceeded 600, having dropped below that number during 1994 and 1995.
Spring launch of the BIALL website.
1997
Princess Diana's funeral was held on the Saturday of the annual Conference in Newcastle and caused a slight change to the programme.
A survey held into the timing of the annual conference came out in favour of moving it from September to June and maintaining the AGM at the annual conference, which necessitated a change to the Association's year.
First BIALL Chair appointed from Scotland (David Hart)
1998
First BIALL official presence at the Library and Information Exhibition at the NEC.
First Joint Study Institute held at Cambridge in September immediately preceding BIALL's conference in Portsmouth. Sixty two delegates attended from AALL, BIALL and CALL/ACBD.
Following two years careful preparation, the Web Editorial Board was set up to develop a website for BIALL.
Council decided formally to dissolve SIGs (Special Interest Groups) for lack of interest.
First BIALL Chair appointed from a law firm (Loyita Worley)
1999
First annual conference held in June.
Transitional arrangements to change BIALL's year to April- March resulted in a "short" 1998-99 year from July 1998 to March 1999.
Publication of Guy Holborn's Sources of biographical information on past lawyers, a revised version of his 1992 award winning articles.
Publication of Law and Order: trends in legal information provision, the outcome of a study by BIALL and sponsored by Sweet & Maxwell.
Membership reached 700 exactly.
1960s 1970s 1980s 2000 - to date
