Wallace Breem Memorial Award Winners
The Wallace Breem Memorial Award is presented biennially in memory of Wallace Breem who died in 1990. Wallace was a distinguished member of the legal information profession who was Librarian and Keeper of the Manuscripts to the Honourable Society of The Inner Temple. He was also a founder member of BIALL who served at various times as Secretary and Treasurer, Chairman, Vice-President and President.
Current holder
2012: the team at Inner Temple Library.
On behalf of the library team, Margaret Clay and Tracey Dennis received the award at the BIALL Annual Dinner which took place at the Europa Hotel, Belfast.
The award reflects the team's considerable contribution to the legal information profession via three sources in particular.
Firstly, the publication 'Transcripts of Judicial Proceedings in England and Wales: a Guide to Sources'. This was first published in 2006 and a new edition was published in 2011. The guide provides invaluable information on how to find transcripts of judicial proceedings of courts and tribunals in England and Wales in an easy-to-use format. The guide is compiled and updated by contacting service providers directly in order to ensure that the information given about their services is as accurate as possible.
Secondly, a daily current awareness blog. This provides up-to-date information on new case law, changes in legislation, and legal news relating to England and Wales. Users can receive updates via email, RSS or Twitter and a version of the blog is also available for mobile devices. Currently the blog attracts 20,000 visits per month from over 100 countries and has 2,000 subscribers and 2,430 followers on Twitter. The Times described the blog as "An extremely useful digest of latest resolutions and legal news stories from around the web, updated regularly."
Thirdly, the Access to Law Database which provides annotated links to selected UK, Commonwealth and international legal websites. Over 1400 sites are currently included. These are mainly legal, government and parliamentary sites with a particular emphasis on those which contain substantive law or related materials, or which will help the legal practitioner to find such information. New sites are added regularly, and existing site entries are checked and updated every three months.
Nominating our winner, a regular user felt that 'the quality of the work that they do, under considerable budgetary constraints, deserves an accolade'.
The judging panel agreed and were pleased to acknowledge the achievements of the team at Inner Temple Library.
Previous winners
2010: Steven Whittle, Information Systems Manager at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies for his considerable contribution to projects such as the FLAG (Foreign Law Guide) database, Intute Law, the CALIM (Current Awareness for Legal Information Managers) database and the FLARE Index to Treaties.
2008: Cathie Jackson for her work on Citing the Law.
2004: Peter Clinch for the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations.
2002: Peter Clinch for the FLAG project.
2000: Sarah Carter for LAWLINKS
1998: Betty Moys and Jules Winterton for their joint editing of Information Sources in Law, 2nd ed, 1997
1996: Jill Newell for her current awareness section in the Law Librarian
1994: Christine Miskin for the Legal Journals Index
1992: Guy Holborn for Sources of Biographical Information on Past Lawyers. The Law Librarian Vol 23 1992.
