The President of the Australian Law Librarians’ Association talks to LIM about her varied career, the problems facing the organisation, and why she believes we're living in a time where those working in the profession can really make a difference.

The current BIALL President, Julie Christmas, talks to LIM Co-Editors Mike and Jas Breslin about how she became a legal information manager, how she's trying to upgrade the technology to allow the organisation to function smoothly, and why she believes that the job title ‘law librarian’ should – just perhaps – be consigned to history.

Kanban is a framework that is commonly used in the technology sector and other industries to help teams work more effectively, but it has not been widely adopted in LIS contexts. As many of us continue to adapt to hybrid workplaces, kanban could prove to be a useful tool for organising work and communicating. In this article Laura Griffiths and Alice Tyson of the IALS Library explain how Kanban boards work and offer a case study of how a Kanban board was used in a recent project at the IALS Library. The article also discusses the wider value of kanban to the LIS sector.

In this article Emma Sullivan and Sandra Smythe go through the presentation they gave at the BIALL conference entitled “Apprenticeship pathways into the library, information and knowledge profession”. Emma and Sandra co-Chair the CILIP Trailblazer group, which is currently developing a Level 7 Library, Information and Knowledge Professional Apprenticeship Standard. Here they discuss how and why they became involved with the group and why the apprenticeship route is so important for the profession, both for employees and employers. (For more background to the CILIP apprenticeship schemes see page 140 of the Autumn 2023 issue of LIM.)

John Trevor-Allen, the outgoing President of CILIP – the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals – talks to LIM editors Mike and Jas Breslin about his own career as a librarian, the challenges facing the profession and why every librarian is also a superhero. Well, sort of …

This article by Ian Hunter, which has been adapted from his BIALL Conference presentation at the Belfast Europa Hotel, examines increasing the visibility of law firm library and information services in terms of what should be done and what should not be done. Or, as Ian puts it: “Is saying yes to everything really the right thing to do?”

Yemisi Dina, the President of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries/ Association Canadienne des Bibliothèques de Droit (CALL/ACBD), talks to LIM co-editors Mike and Jas Breslin about her globetrotting career, the challenges facing the profession both in Canada and the rest of the world, strengthening the links between CALL/ACBD and BIALL, and why we should treat new technology such as AI as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Recruitment within the legal information sector has been challenging in recent years, in both the UK and the US, with a market that has been heavily skewed in favour of applicants. Which is why the City Legal Information Group (CLIG) hosted a virtual conference in late February to look at the current state of the recruitment market, the best ways to hire the very best people, and also the methods individuals might employ to find work in the sector themselves. Here Caroline Asbjornsen, a researcher at Watson Farley & Williams LLP and a member of the CLIG committee, talks us through what turned out to be a fascinating discussion.

Legal Information Management co-editors Jas Breslin and Mike Breslin sat down with current President Diane Miller to find out what her role involves, where BIALL is going, and how members can get so much more from a deeper involvement with the organisation.

Technology is transforming the way legal work is being delivered. It is influencing what law firms, clients and legal departments are expecting of their employees and what employees are expecting of their employers. It is reshaping legal education and careers; lawyers are becoming legal knowledge engineers, information professionals and knowledge managers are working closer than ever with IT teams. In this article, Ann Hemming and James Wilkinson will be considering lawyers’ training and BIALL members’ role in the landscape being reshaped by legal technology.

This paper is based on a research study commissioned by the Financial Times and the Special Libraries Association (SLA) to explore the evolving value of information management to organisations around the world. Drawing on responses from both full-time information professionals and corporate executives, the research highlights the challenges facing both audiences and reveals a fundamental shift in the model of information management. The paper aims to provide an actionable framework for the continuing success of the information function in any organisation, describing the five essential attributes for modern information professionals. The research was presented by Simon Lord at the BIALL Annual Conference, 2014 and is published in full at: www.ft.com/sla

This paper written by Samuel Wiggins and Marie Cannon is drawn from their presentation at the 2013 BIALL Annual Conference. The article presents the findings of a survey conducted to explore the perceptions of New Professionals in the library and information sector, and the various challenges and issues they face on entering their first professional roles within law librarianship. The relevance of the professional library and information qualification within the legal sector is considered, as are potential barriers to working with legal information. The required skill sets and training needs for New Professionals and experienced professionals are also compared.

Mark Stanley and Tamara Eisenschitz examine the relationship between professional support lawyers and information professionals in law firms of varying sizes. The results broadly support the hypothesis that tensions in larger firms between the two groups are less apparent. More importantly tensions are reduced where each group is doing clearly delineated work, irrespective of the firm's size. Tensions between the two groups are no longer the issue they once were, but these could reignite, especially if information professionals with legal qualifications and PSLs without fee earning experience vye for similar work. This paper recommends that to avoid frictions it is essential for law firm managers to get to grips with the nature and capabilities of these two groups and utilise them appropriately.