Legal Information Group
The aims of the Legal Information 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.
Legal Information Group terms of reference
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- To keep under review and promote improvements in information provision for law libraries in any format.
- 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.
- To keep under review and promote improvements in information technology affecting legal information provision.
- To collect and publish management information related to legal information provision.
- To keep under review and promote improvements in the preservation of legal materials in any format.
- To liaise with legal publishers and other vendors.
- To establish and as appropriate act on the views of the membership with regard to legal information provision.
- To organise and run a Q&A session at the Annual Study Conference.
- To commission or contribute a speaker at the annual Online Exhibition.
- To keep law and procedure related to legal information provision under review.
- To establish sub-committees or working groups or appoint individuals to achieve these objectives subject to the approval of Council.
- 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.
- To draft and manage annual budgets as agreed by Council and SCOSAF for costs associated with the committee
- To advise the membership as appropriate.
- To coordinate activites with other Standing Committees having regard to overlapping areas of interest.
- 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.
Legal Information Group News
LIG's most recent meeting was held on 31st August 2011. The committee welcomed a new member (see updated list of committee members below). There was also a discussion of how far LIG could go in negotiating pricing and licences with suppliers. The consensus was that members, especially in the commercial sector, would want to retain control of their own negotiations. However, where appropriate, LIG will continue to talk to Eduserv and JISC. The committee has seen draft Informa pricing for 2012, and will discuss aspects of it with Informa representatives. However, it should be stated that the document we have seen only acts as a guide for Informa account reps in their negotiations with customers. Some issues raised by BIALL members, such as looseleaf pricing and updating Northern Ireland legislation, were deferred as more appropriate for discussion at the January 2012 meeting with representatives of suppliers.
At the BIALL conference in Gateshead, LIG ran a Q&A session in which we asked representatives from Hammicks, Prenax and Wildy to comment on issues of importance to BIALL members. While minutes were taken of the session, the supplier representatives prepared answers to the questions in advance. All the official supplier answers will soon be available in the members area of this page, where the questions and answers from the 2010 session, involving LexisNexis, PLC and Sweet & Maxwell, are already available. A similar session is planned for the 2012 conference. There is interest from several suppliers, and a formal proposal will soon be submitted to the Conference Committee.
LIG is pleased to announce that it has established formal contact with Hein, Legalease and Nova Law & Finance.
BIALL Supplier Survey 2011
LIG ran its second survey of BIALL members regarding their attitudes to their suppliers in March 2011. 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 Bloomsbury Professional, on the grounds that their average overall rating had improved by much more than that of any other supplier, and from a score last year already above the mid-point of the range. Here is a brief summary of the results of the 2011 survey:
Good: 7Side, Hammicks, Justis, PLC, Wildys
Satisfactory: Ark Group/Waterlow, Ashgate, Bloomsbury Professional, Cambridge University Press, Edward Elgar Publishing, Emplaw, Estates Gazette Group, Financial Times, Globe Law and Business, Hart, ICLR, Jordans, Kluwer Law International, LexisNexis, Oxford University Press, Prenax/Brand/LLS, Sweet & Maxwell, TSO
Poor: FL Memo, Informa
Next Meeting
15 November 2011, venue tbc
Members:
David Percik, Chair and general contact for LIG matters and suppliers not mentioned below
Kirsty Milton, Vice Chair
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
