BIALL Awards and Bursaries
Committee
Press Release
Not for release until
Monday 18th June 2012
www.biall.org.uk
Wallace Breem Award 2012
The BIALL Wallace Breem Award 2012 has been awarded to 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, Elaine Wintle of Blackstone Chambers 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.
Note for editors:
The British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) was formed in 1969 as an
independent and self supporting body to promote the better management of law libraries and
legal information units in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland and to represent the
interests of law librarians and legal information professionals, and other suppliers of legal
literature and reference materials.
It has in excess of 900 members, both personal and institutional, who work in the courts,
government departments, higher education, chambers, law firms, professional bodies,
commercial and other organisations with legal information units and in publishing and book
supplying.
It provides training courses, conferences, journals and other publications, a website, a blog, a
mailing list, bursaries, and networking opportunities for members. It promotes awards for
excellence. It co operates with other organisations nationally and internationally.
The opinions in this press release are those of BIALL. They may not represent the views of
employers of member of the Association.