Hi

Early warning of the next ALLICE meeting

1230 Wednesday September 2nd 2009 at Anthony Collins, Edmund Street

Please let me have an agenda items - things you'd like to discuss, topics you'd like covered, speakers you've always wanted to hear, etc., etc.

Regards

Phil

Company Information event 4th November 2009

Hi

Here are details of our next training event

ACCESS TO COST-EFFECTIVE ON-LINE COMPANY INFORMATION TO SUPPORT RESEARCH, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING - AN ALLICE WORKSHOP

With the rising costs of ‘subscription’ databases, it is critical that information specialists maximise their awareness of free and low-cost sources of on-line company, market and business data to assist them in traditional areas of research and developing business development and marketing activities

This half-day workshop, run by Terry Kendrick at the NTI facility near Millennium Point, will provide delegates with a hands-on opportunity to explore these new sources of information

When : 1.00pm Wednesday 4th November

Where : NTI Birmingham, 15 Bartholomew Row, Birmingham, B5 5JU

Cost : £100 (ALLICE members £85)

Numbers are limited : Closing date for application is 1st October

Email phil.uttley@hammonds.com for an application form



For more information on Terry Kendrick see

http://www.terrykendrick.com

For details of the NTI venue see

http://www.ntibirmingham.co.uk/

Please let me know if there is anything else you need to know about this event

Regards

Phil

ALLICE meeting 3rd June 2009 - Minutes

Wednesday 3rd June 2009

Attendees:

Jon Beaumont, Matthew Cadden, Caroline Covington, Diane Harris, Sally Hassell, Hazel Hewison, Jasmin Hollingum, Caroline Janukowicz, Sue Kendall, Caroline Mosley, Alison Parker, Rachel Relves , Jackie Sellars, Phil Uttley

Apologies

Paula Biddlestone, Hilary Boucher, Louise Bowler, Margaret Brittin, Helen Dunn, Erica Foster, Susanne Homer, Lee Houghton, David Houston, Mandy Hulme, Keri Husband, Aileen Johnston, Christine Lambert, Bev Preece, Natasha Skeen, Mike Troon, Stephen Wheeler, Carol Wilson, Tricia Wyspianska, Louise Young

Subscriptions

The meeting voted in favour of an increase in subscriptions to £25 from 1st September 2009

Future events

The meeting supported the plan to run the company information event as proposed and agreed that the focus should be on ‘free’ company information sources with additional references to business development and marketing. The course should, initially, be offered to ALLICE members and then to both ASLIB and BIALL members if capacity allowed.

All members were asked to feed ideas for additional training events to Phil Uttley who would liaise with both Sue Kendall (BIALL) and Alison Parker (ASLIB) so that opportunities for co-operation were maximised. One idea for the future was a Web 2.0 event.

Next meeting

The next meeting will be held at Anthony Collins on Wednesday 2nd September 2009.

Phil Uttley was asked to contact Steve Wood, Service Manager, Information Services at Birmingham Reference Library to see if he could join us for that meeting

A.O.B.

Hammicks would be interested in attending an ALLICE meeting in the future

Members of the Birmingham Law Society who have not received a request to renew their library cards for the BLS library at Aston University, or who are interested in making a bid for any of the BLS stock, should let Pat Pritchard know before she attends the BLS meeting on 10th June

Caroline Covington will advise all members of the address for the Statute Law Revision Society in Hereford

ALLICE meeting 3rd June 2009 - Agenda

12.30 pm Wednesday 3rd June 2009

Meeting to be held at

Clarke Willmott
138 Edmund St
Birmingham,
B3 2ES

Agenda


1. Apologies

Hilary Boucher, Helen Dunn, Erica Foster, Lee Houghton, David Houston, Mandy Hulme, Keri Husband, Aileen Johnston, Christine Lambert, Bev Preece, Mike Troon, Stephen Wheeler, Tricia Wyspianska, Louise Young

2. Subscriptions

3. Future events

4. Next meeting

5. A.O.B.

ALLICE meeting - 3rd June 2009 - for comment

Hi

The next ALLICE meeting will take place at 12.30 pm on Wednesday 3rd June at Clarke Willmott, 138 Edmund Street

This will be a business meeting, primarily to discuss Association finances and planned activity over the next 12 months

The treasurer's projections of likely income and expenditure using various subscription levels follow this note. We'd like to be able to formulate a proposal on future subscriptions that can be sent out to all members after the meeting. If you can't make the meeting, please let me have your views so that these can be included in the discussion.

We'd also like to develop ideas about putting on more events like the EIA seminar we ran last year. Details of a proposed event showing course fees that would be necessary to make it self-funding follow the treasurer's report. Again, please let us know at the meeting, or before if you're not attending, what you think of this proposal, from both a content and cost perspective.

Please let me know whether you can attend or not

Regards

Phil



Financial Analysis

Bank Balance at 8th May 2009 = £1050

Assumption that we hold 4 meetings per year and each meeting incurs a charge of £250 to cover the cost of food and drink. Therefore, we need to maintain an operating budget of £1000 pa.

Assumption that we are charged £250 for June meeting.

£800 remaining at end of 2008/09 financial year.

The following projections are based on a membership of 40 people.

Option 1 – Maintain membership fee at £15 per person

Assumption that we do not subsidise any training or social events, there is no BIALL Conference bursary or charity donation

2009/10 £15 x 40 = £600
Plus £800 surplus from 2008/09 = £1400
Minus £1000 operating costs
= £400 surplus

2010/11 £15 x 40 = £600
Plus £400 surplus from 2009/10 = £1000
Minus £1000 operating costs
= Zero bank balance

2011/12 Subscriptions would need to increase to £25 per person to provide an operating budget of £1000.


Option 2 – Increase membership fee to £20 per person

Assumption that we do not subsidise any training or social events, there is no BIALL Conference bursary or charity donation

2009/10 £20 x 40 = £800
Plus £800 surplus from 2008/09 = £1600
Minus £1000 operating costs
= £600 surplus


2010/11 £20 x 40 = £800
Plus £600 surplus from 2009/10 = £1400
Minus £1000 operating costs
= £400 surplus

2011/12 £20 x 40 = £800
Plus £400 surplus from 2010/11 = £1200
Minus £1000 operating costs
= £200 surplus

2012/13 £20 x 40 = £800
Plus £200 surplus from 2010/11 = £1000
Minus £1000 operating costs
= Zero bank balance

2013/14 Subscriptions would need to increase to £25 per person to provide an operating budget of £1000.


Option 3 – Increase membership fee to £25 per person

2009/10 £25 x 40 = £1000
Plus £800 surplus from 2008/09 = £1800
Minus £1000 operating costs
= £800 surplus




Company Information Event

Trainer

Terry Kendrick

http://people.netcom.co.uk/r.kendrick/terry/

Venue

NTI

http://www.ntibirmingham.co.uk

Subject

Similar to:

http://www.cilip.org.uk/training/training/2009/research/findingcompanyinformation.htm

Cost

£100 (£85 for ALLICE members)

Date

To be agreed but hopefully before the end of the year

Duration

Half day (pm) Tea & coffee included

Birmingham Law Society Library

There are new pages on the BLS website providing details of the library stock now held at Aston University

http://www.birminghamlawsociety.co.uk/library_about.asp#findbooks

Minutes of meeting on 11th March

Wednesday 11th March 2009

Meeting held at : Martineau, No 1 Colmore Square Birmingham

Attendees:

Jon Beaumont, Louise Bowler, Adele Champken, Caroline Covington, Helen Dunn, Diane Harris, Sally Hassell, Hazel Hewison, Jasmin Hollingum, Susanne Homer, Lee Houghton, David Houston, Mandy Hulme, Keri Husband (No 5 Chambers), Caroline Janukowicz, Sue Kendall, Christine Lambert, Caroline Mosley, Beverley Preece, Jackie Sellars, Natasha Skeen, Phil Uttley, Denise Watkins, Tricia Wyspianska and Louise Young

The Chair welcomed Gavin Cummy, Kathryn Johnson and Lucy Cudd from LexisNexis

Normal business

1. Apologies

Hilary Boucher, Margaret Brittin, Matthew Cadden, Joanne Dunn, Erica Foster, James Furnival, Aileen Johnston, Christine Newlove, Alison Parker, Pat Pritchard, Rachel Relves, Mike Troon, Barry Vickery, Stephen Wheeler and Carol Wilson

2. ALLICE Bursary for the BIALL conference

This bursary covers the cost of conference fees for one ALLICE member to attend the BIALL conference in Manchester from 18th to 20th June. No applications have yet been received and the deadline for these is 4th April 2008. A bursary application form is available from Phil Uttley phil.uttley@hammonds.com or on the ALLICE blog
http://www.allicelawlib.blogspot.com/

3. Union List

Bev Preece has again offered to co-ordinate the publication of the ALLICE Union List this year. This list holds details of the journal and law report holdings of those firms that contribute. Copies of the list are sent to contributors. Bev will be contacting members separately to ask for contributions

4. Future events

There is a social evening at Chez Jules http://www.chezjules.co.uk/ on Tuesday evening 24th March. Deal on offer that night is 3 course meal and half-bottle of wine for £15. Please let Phil Uttley know by 17th March if you would like to join the party





5. Next meeting

The next meeting will take place at 12.30 pm on Wednesday 3rd June at the offices of Clarke Willmott on Edmund Street. It will be a networking meeting to discuss plans to run and fund training events in the future.

6. AOB

Alison Parker has taken over as Chair of ASLIB Midlands from Margaret Brittin and she is looking for any new ideas or opportunities for training events - either to run in-conjunction with ALLICE or another third party. She is also looking for new committee members so, if anyone is interested in getting involved, please contact her either on 01384342100 or by e-mail Alison.Parker@higgsandsons.co.uk

Sue Kendall informed the meeting of an upcoming BIALL course in Birmingham. It is called "Managing Training Challenges" and is scheduled for 9th July at Mills & Reeve. It will be a variation on the theme of "training the trainer" with case studies from law firms and advice on devising library/online training for fee-earners.

7. LexisNexis

The slides from the presentation given by Gavin, Kathryn and Lucy are attached to the same email as these minutes. The following questions were tabled :

1. Can you demonstrate your new PSL product, or talk about it with examples?

Gavin had covered this new product in his presentation but asked people to contact him or their account manager if they required more information or a trial.

2. What impact has the present economic climate had on your current round of negotiations for subscriptions?

Again, this had been covered in general discussion but they were talking to individual clients in an attempt to help them realise overall savings in their information service budget.

3. Have you had any significant cancellations this year?

No, except where companies had gone out of business altogether or there had been mergers between clients

4. We are looking at cancelling a number of print journal and law report subs next academic year, 2009/10, since they are duplicated in full text on Lexis. This will make us vulnerable by relying on the electronic source and my question is whether it is procedure for updates to be sent by Lexis when titles are dropped? Do they have lists of what has been dropped, say over the last 5 years? If we cancel print, we need to know there is a reliable archive. Can we have a regular update on this area? More communication?

It transpired that the real need here was for more timely communication when online content was removed. Gavin explained that their most vulnerable content was that supplied by third parties. The LexisNexis content acquisition team were constantly negotiating agreements to ensure retention of new and archived content but, on occasions, it became impossible to maintain the content in a viable way. Currently information about content changes was communicated via the e-burst newsletter but he agreed that more could be done.

5. What is LexisNexis pricing policy or pricing strategy - when the cost of a looseleaf or database is reviewed, how it is reviewed.

It depends upon the publication but all are constantly reviewed based on cost, update frequency, etc.

6. What are their plans for the future in terms of paper and electronic. Many are stopping paper subscriptions. Will they assess titles based on subscriptions and will some titles be stopped altogether. Probably the question is how are Lexis dealing with the downturn in regard to unprofitable titles.

Currently, contribution from their paper based content represents 60% of their total revenue so this has a sound future

7. How can they possibly take on PLC? What would make the user switch to their Know How product? Are they selling them based on content, price or what?

This was discussed after the presentation but Gavin believed they are marketing LexisPSL on both content and price grounds

8. What is their view on CD-Rom products? Do they see them as worthwhile continuing or are they planning to phase them out?

There are no plans to phase out CD titles as subscriptions to these remain fairly static

Action Point : Finally, Gavin took away an action point to check plans for the frequency of updates to Harvey on Industrial Relations and Employment Law and let Bev Preece beverley.preece@emwph.com know