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Supplier Liaison Group

The aims of the Supplier Liaison Group are to:

  • Promote the better administration and exploitation of resources in member libraries.
  • Develop relationships wih information providers, including publishers, agents and distributors of all media.
  • Represent the interests of BIALL members in appropriate forums.

Supplier Liaison Group terms of reference

    1. To keep under review and promote improvements in information provision for law libraries in any format.
    2. To keep under review and promote improvements in publications from The Stationery Office and other government agencies, especially from United Kingdom, Irish and European Community sources.
    3. To keep under review and promote improvements in information technology affecting legal information provision.
    4. To collect and publish management information related to legal information provision.
    5. To keep under review and promote improvements in the preservation of legal materials in any format.
    6. To liaise with legal publishers and other vendors.
    7. To establish and as appropriate act on the views of the membership with regard to legal information provision.
    8. To organise and run a Q&A session at the Annual Study Conference.
    9. To commission or contribute a speaker at the annual Online Exhibition.
    10. To keep law and procedure related to legal information provision under review.
    11. To establish sub-committees or working groups or appoint individuals to achieve these objectives subject to the approval of Council.
    12. To report, as required, to Council and the Standing Committee on Strategy and Finance (SCOSAF) and to provide a written annual report for the Annual General Meeting.
    13. To draft and manage annual budgets as agreed by Council and SCOSAF for costs associated with the committee
    14. To advise the membership as appropriate.
    15. To coordinate activites with other Standing Committees having regard to overlapping areas of interest.
    16. To maintain the relevant areas of the BIALL website.

An up-to-date list of committee members, with their roles and contact details, is provided at the bottom of this page. You are welcome to talk to us about any aspect of your dealings with publishers, and we will do our best to advise and assist. You are also welcome to contact us if you would like to find out more about the work of the committee, with a view to deciding whether to join.

Supplier Liaison Group News

At the Belfast conference in June 2012, LIG  (now the Supplier Liaison Group) ran a Q&A with representatives from Bloomsbury Professional, Justis and Kluwer Law International. As in previous years, the session seems to have been well received by the membership, with several questions from the floor being answered as well as pre-submitted questions. LIG is currently seeking official texts of the answers from the panel, after which a full report of the session will be available in the members area of this page (link below). LIG expects to run another Q&A at the 2013 conference. Suggestions of themes for this session would be welcomed by the chair.

Following a discussion with supplier representatives about confidentiality clauses in database licences, LIG surveyed the BIALL membership to establish its views on the subject. responses were mostly, but not universally, in opposition to confidential pricing. The feedback was anonymised and passed on to representatives of relevant suppliers. LIG has since discussed the issue further with PLC and LexisNexis, the former going so far as to submit a formal statement outlining its pricing policy. LIG concluded that historical practice makes removal of the clauses unlikely, and that more work on pricing transparency is required.

BIALL Supplier Survey 2012

LIG ran its third survey of BIALL members regarding their attitudes to their suppliers in March 2012. A link to the detailed results of the survey is available on the members area of this page. At the BIALL conference in June, the award of Supplier of the Year was made to 7Side, as the supplier receiving the highest average overall rating among suppliers rated by over 5% of respondents. Here is a brief summary of the results of the 2011 survey:

Good: 7Side, Edward Elgar Publishing, Globe Law and Business, Hammicks, Hein, Incorporated Council of Law Reporting, Prenax, Solcara, Wildys

Satisfactory: Ashgate, Bloomsbury Professional, Cambridge University Press, Estates Gazette Group, Hart, Jordans, Justis, Legalease, LexisNexis, Oxford University Press, PLC, Sweet & Maxwell, TSO

Poor: Ark Group, FL Memo, Informa, Kluwer Law International 

Next Meeting

TBC

Members:

Jackie Fishleigh, Chair and general contact for SLG matters and suppliers not mentioned below 
Michael Normile, Publisher contact for PLC 
Sarah Brittan, Publisher contact for LexisNexis
Joy Caisley, Publisher contact for Estates Gazette Group, CUP and OUP
Emma Manuell, Publisher contact for Sweet & Maxwell
Narinder Toor, Publisher contact for Informa

John Franssen, Council Liaison 
Philip Cable, Web Liaison 

Web page editors: Sarah Brittan, Emma Manuell

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