Thursday, 11 October 2007

ASLIB: Employability Workshop

ASLIB Midlands are organising an Employability workshop on Thursday 8 November at Birmingham Central Library attached. The workshop is aimed at anyone who is looking for a job, whether it is for the first time, or in order to change or improve their current job. Please contact Margaret Brittin margaret@brittin.fslife.co.uk for further information.

Tuesday, 9 October 2007

ALLICE Meeting Minutes: Wednesday 3 October

ALLICE Meeting held at Needham and James in Birmingham on Wednesday 3rd October 2007

1. New members

We would like to welcome the following new members: Barry Vickery (7Side), Zoe Durrant (Cobbetts), Dipti Gohil, Mandy Hulme, Toyin Olanrewaju (Eversheds), and Louise Bowler (Wragges).

2. Membership subscription renewals 2007/2008

Caroline Covington sent Subscription Renewal Invoices in September. Please ensure that invoices are returned and payments are received by Friday 12 October. A new members list will be sent out afterwards.

3. ALLICE conference bursary update

Hilary Boucher and Sue Kendall volunteered to form a conference bursary committee. They will be meeting shortly, and aim to develop selection criteria by the end of the year. They both welcome any comments and suggestions you might have.

4. Birmingham Law Society Library update

Hazel Hewison and Pat Pritchard provided an update on the Birmingham Law Society Library. Members were thanked for their responses to the recent survey. We were warned that the future of the Library is uncertain. Many members are concerned about the possibility of closure. They are frequent users of the service, and have reduced their own collections on the basis of availability via the Birmingham Law Society Library.

There is a meeting at 4.30pm on Tuesday 16 October at the Birmingham Law Society. It has not been widely publicised but Birmingham Law Society members are encouraged to attend. We also discussed organising a petition to Save the Birmingham Library Society Library. However, to observe formal protocol, this will now be delayed until after the meeting.

5. Next meeting

The next meeting will take place on Wednesday 12 December at Cobbetts. We are not planning a Christmas social event, but hope to arrange one in the New Year.

6. UK Statute Law Database demonstration

We welcomed Clare Allison and Norman Hodgett of the Statutory Publications Office who spoke to us about the UK Statute Law Database (http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk).

The UK Statute Law Database is a publicly available collection of primary UK legislation. It was launched in December 2006, after 18 years in the planning. It contains the revised text of primary legislation, including useful annotations as to start date and extent. It also includes historic versions of legislation at a given point in time. It has a very flexible search engine, enabling users to search by title, citation and subject, and also date and extent. It has become an increasingly popular tool, with 100,000+ users in August. It has faced criticism for containing out of date legislation. In the future, the first priority is to complete updating the primary legislation, and the second priority is to carry revised secondary legislation.

Some members questioned the waiver of crown copyright for commercial use. Norman said that the information on the OPSI website was misleading, and confirmed that the UK Statute Law Database did waive crown copyright for commercial use.

All members were given a UK Statute Law Database user guide. An electronic copy is also available for members who were not able to attend the meeting. Please contact Jackie Hanes for further information.

Generally members were impressed by the service, as a rival to other government information services, and to the commercial legal publishers.

Tuesday, 25 September 2007

SLIM & CILIP Inforum: Job descriptions and CVs

SLIM and CILIP InForum are hosting "Jobs descriptions and CVs: Making them work for you" meeting at Birmingham Central Library on Wednesday 10th October. Please contact Lyndsay Rees-Jones lyndsay.rees-jones@cilip.org.uk for further information.

Friday, 21 September 2007

7Side: Visit to Companies House and Welsh Assembly

7Side http://www.7side.co.uk/ are organising a visit to Companies House and the Welsh Assembly Government on Friday 12 October. They are providing transport to the venue, and refreshments including a buffet lunch. If you would like further information or to book a place please contact Hannah Caunter at 7Side on hannah.caunter@7side.co.uk or 02920 451 444 Ext: 231.

Wednesday, 19 September 2007

Agenda: Wednesday 3rd October

Agenda for the ALLICE meeting on Wednesday 3rd October:

1. New members
2. Membership subscription renewals 2007/2008
3. BIALL conference bursary update
4. Birmingham Law Society Library update
5. Next meeting
6. Statute Law Database demonstration

Tuesday, 11 September 2007

Next Meeting: Wednesday 3rd October

ALLICE's next meeting will be as follows:


Please email Admin.Allice@gmail.com to confirm your attendance by Friday 28 September.

Monday, 10 September 2007

Subscription Renewals 2007-08

Subscription renewals for the year 1st September 2007 to 31st August 2008 have been emailed to members.


Please can you ensure that payments are returned to me by Friday 12th October 2007.

A new members list will be sent out in October/November.