RIKKI BREEM
Welcome to the final issue of Legal Information Management for 2015. We begin with some sad news. Recently, BIALL learnt of the death of Rikki Breem, a Life Member of the Association. This issue of LIM commences with a tribute to Rikki written by Barbara Tearle and Margaret Clay with further reminiscences from Christine Miskin and John Sinkins. Speaking personally, despite having an involvement with BIALL over a number of years I never met Rikki, nor did I know the late Wallace Breem, her husband. What characters, and great professional colleagues, they both must have been!
FEATURE ARTICLE
I am pleased to feature an article written by Alison Million. This represents an intriguing piece of historical research that finds an unexpected link between Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (ICLR) – both have been celebrating 150 year anniversaries in 2015. The article considers the extent to which Lewis Carroll's legal interests influenced Alice. As Alison writes in the abstract that introduces the piece, “In briefly reviewing ICLR history and the instigating factors behind reform it [the article] looks at the requisite skills needed finally to devise a successful Scheme and any potential overlap between those and some of Lewis Carroll's many subject disciplines. The article concludes that just as the law helped shape Alice, so has Alice contributed to English case law by providing a descriptor for “perfect nonsense””.
SELECTION OF PAPERS FROM THE BIALL CONFERENCE 2015
As is customary for the winter issue of LIM, the main focus is a selection of papers given at the BIALL Annual Conference which, this year, took place in Brighton between 11th and 13th June. The conference theme was ‘Charting the C's – Collaboration, Co-operation, Connectivity’. The following papers were delivered either as plenary lectures or as a parallel session during the course of the conference. We begin with Emily Allbon who looks at how librarians might take inspiration from outside their profession to gain greater visibility and influence within their own workplaces. She talks of partnerships and collaboration as a way for librarians to “infiltrate and conquer”. Furthermore, Angela Donaldson and Graham Ferris, both from Nottingham Trent University, write about collaboration and co-operation between librarians and academic staff.
Emily Stannard (nee Goodhand) write about copyright, and in particular the new copyright legislation and the impact for information professionals. Helen Doyle describes how the new cataloguing models, in respect of FRBR and RDA, have enormous implications for the legal community, particularly in the spheres of information and knowledge management. Rona Blair offers her thoughts on the challenges face and the practical techniques associated with manging a team that is geographically dispersed.
Sara Roberts delivered a striking presentation at the BIALL Conference concerning the earthquake disaster that befell Christchurch, New Zealand in 2010 and after. Her article for LIM explains the impact on the law library and how the law librarians have responded in, and adapted to, adversity and describes how, despite changes, the service delivered by legal information professionals has not diminished, rather that it has become stronger. Finally, Ruth Bird writes about her experiences of, and the tasks involved in, moving or relocating a library.
CURRENT ISSUES AND CURRENT AWARENESS
I am very grateful to David Gee of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies for his timely submission of the annual SLS/BIALL Academic Law Library Survey report for 2013/2014. Finally, the issue and the 2015 year is completed with a book review the current awareness section.
SUSAN PERKINS 1957-2015
I began this editorial with sad news and, unfortunately, I end it in a similar way. During the editing stages of this issue of LIM we received the very sad news that our Journals Production Editor, Susan (Sue) Perkins, had died very suddenly in hospital on 6th November. Sue had worked for Cambridge University Press since 2000 and had been responsible for LIM since 2004 when the publishing of the journal was taken over by CUP. Sue was a wonderfully efficient and truly professional colleague and she will be greatly missed by all those who worked with her. The previous editor of LIM, Christine Miskin, wrote that Sue “was such a great co-worker. Always friendly and willing to do all she could to get the journal processed as quickly as possible and nothing was ever too much trouble”. As the current editor, I completely agree with these sentiments. The success of Legal Information Management is a tribute to Sue's talents in journal publishing and production.
