History
Highlights from BIALL's History
BIALL was set up in 1969 following workshops on law librarianship held at Harrogate in 1968 and 1969. These pages highlight the significant events and people in BIALL's history and are drawn from the official History of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians 1969-1999, other BIALL publications and the memories of those involved in the events.
If you have any comments or suggestions regarding these pages, please contact Barbara Tearle.
1970s 1980s 1990s 2000 - to date
View previous annual conferences
View previous BIALL Chairs, Presidents and Vice-Presidents
Pre-history
Two strands led to the formation of BIALL. Firstly, the law librarians in London, Oxford, Cambridge and Ireland had been in contact working since the late 1940s, reinforced by their membership of IALL (the International Association of Law Libraries). Willi Steiner has recounted these days in BIALL's official history. Secondly, the outreach programme of Leeds Library School led to one of the School's staff, Don Daintree, organising Workshops on Law Librarianship in Harrogate in 1968 and 1969. They brought together the foremost law library figures as speakers and those few people who were working in law libraries as students of the Workshops. The inspiration for the Workshops was the Library Association's List C papers on the bibliography and librarianship of subjects.
1968
1st Harrogate Workshop in February held at the Russell Hotel. A meeting at the end of the Workshop set up an ad hoc Committee to look into the possibility of establishing an association of law librarians. Committee members were Wallace Breem, Don Daintree, Betty Moys, Willi Steiner and Derek Way.
1969
2nd Harrogate Workshop in April concluded with a meeting which set up an Association of Law Librarians. This was the inaugural meeting and those present are BIALL's founder members.
The first AGM was held in a basement room of the old IALS building in Russell Square on Monday 22 September. It was chaired by Willi Steiner, as Don Daintree was not available on that date. Several hours were spent debating the minutiae of the draft Constitution. One of the decision was to be a separate organisation, not affiliated to, or part of, the Library Association, resulting from strong arguments that organisations (especially law firms) who had no professional librarians, would be excluded from membership if the Association were part of the LA. The principle of welcoming professionally qualified and non-qualified law librarians into BIALL has prevailed ever since.
Officers were Don Daintree (Chairman), Wallace Breem (Secretary and Treasurer) and Betty Moys (Editor).
An Executive Committee (the forerunner of Council) was elected. In November it set up a Sub-Committee of Betty Moys, Allan Appleby of Sweet and Maxwell, and Wallace Breem to produce a journal.
It also decided to look into the possibility of holding a conference in 1970 at which the 2nd AGM would be held, and this is why the Conference and AGM numbering does not tally.
