Category: library

Playing catch-up

Ok, going on holiday for a month sounded like a fabulous plan, but the reality is, you get the best part of a months work backlogged for when you come back, and spend all your time trying to get that done while also keeping on top of the current stuff.

I’m aiming high – by the end of this week, the mail pile should be gone….hopefully.

In the meantime, a link to a story the lovely Hedgehog Librarian sent me while I was off bungee jumping in New Zealand…

The Digital Repository of the National Library of Scotland (which has its very own lovely blog here) has made a choice of technical partner for its ongoing project of creating a Digital Repository of many of the important documents from their massive (and always increasing!) collection.

Also, I just realised that the NLS also has a Flickr account, uploading lots of interesting photos from their photograph collections. A great way to be able to see some of the things you wouldn’t always expect a library to have. After all, libraries just hold books…don’t they? 😉

UK Library Blogs update

I’m continuing to add to this list, as and when I can, and trawl through those already on the list to check for changes since the last visit / my mistakes in the collection of the initial list (my apologies to Neil Infield for accidentally renaming him to Ian!)

Also, I received an email telling me to look at FADE Library‘s great work on collecting UK health library blogs, which I will(with their kind permission) also add in to the overall list (and blog about in a later post) to try and make it as comprehensive as possible. Unfortunately, my email provider went squiffy and deleted the original email before I could reply, so I don’t know who to credit for alerting me to this massive piece of work by the FADE staff, and also means their own blog details were zapped! If this was you, please can you get back in touch so I can add your blog, and say thank you personally!

Copyright joy for law firm libraries!

Yay!
As emailed out over lis-law last week, the Copyright Licensing Agency have developed a CLA licence just for law firms. Body of the press release below:

New licence for law firms

15th October 2008

CLA have announced the launch of a new licence designed specifically for UK law firms.

From 1 November 2008, the new Law Licence will offer law firms additional benefits to the existing photocopying rights.

The Law Licence now enables articles and clippings from law reports, journals and press cuttings (magazines, journals, legal and other periodicals, but not newspapers) to be scanned, stored electronically and distributed externally to clients.

The new licence has been developed in consultation with The Law Society of England and Wales and the City of London Law Society so that it meets the needs of law firms that wish to copy from law reports and journals, business titles and other published media.

Chris Holland, Librarian & Head of Information Services at the Law Society said, “CLA photocopying licences are well established within the legal sector. This new licence gives additional rights to make digital copies, reflecting the much increased use of digital technology in law firms, including the use of electronic case files and shared email folders. It also removes the previous limit on the number of photocopies that could be made for a single occasion or purpose, thus providing more flexibility than the previous law firm licence to photocopy.”

The licence will be officially launched at the Law Autumn event at Birmingham NEC on October 15 & 16 where customers will be able to find out more about the benefits from CLA licensing staff.

CLA’s Andy Greenan, who is leading the licence launch, says, “Law firms want to be able to digitise relevant articles and reports to share with individual clients by email or within a case-based file. For the first time this licence allows that and I am sure demand will be high.”

Law firms that already hold a CLA licence will be able to upgrade from 1 November.

For further information about the benefits of the new Law Licence, please contact CLA on 0800 085 6644, email licence@cla.co.uk or see www.cla.co.uk.

Now, I’m assuming that if the Law Society of England and Wales are happy with this, it’s equally applicable for Scotland. Hopefully. Being able to legally scan and store certain things can be handy, although we’ve often already negotiated these sort of agreements with individual publishers. Any reduction in the amount of time spent faffing abouttrying to work out what we’re allowed to do, and with what materials, will be very nice!

Scottish Information Networking event – First steps in blogging

A legal librarian friend forwarded me this event notification today from SIN, the Scottish Information Network. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the notification myself (nor did at least one other member that I know of), despite having joined SIN back in April. I think they may need to look at their email /contact list management!

Scottish Information Networking event – First steps in blogging

Dear colleague

Do you blog or are you thinking about blogging? The Scottish Information Network is running an evening event entitled “First steps in blogging” on Tuesday November 4th. Come along and hear advice from some real bloggers or perhaps even plug your own blog! The event will also be an opportunity to meet with other members of the network and find out more about what’s happening in the information world. See below for more details and let me know ASAP if you would like to attend

John Coll
Business Information Services Manager
Scottish Business Information Service
National Library of Scotland
George IV Bridge
Edinburgh
EH1 1EW

Tel:0131 623 3816
E-mail: j.collATnls.uk

First steps in Blogging
6pm Tuesday 4th November, Level 5
Livingstone Tower, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

Speakers:
Neil Infield, Manager, British Library Business & Intellectual Property Centre (BIPC)
Neil recently launched the first blog for the British Library’s BIPC called In through the Outfield . He previously worked for Hermes Pension Management and is also a committee member of SLA Europe. Neil is a well known figure in the information world and is a regular contributor to publications such as Information World Review and Business Information review. He will talk about his own experiences in setting up his blog as well as offer tips and advice to existing and would-be bloggers.

Christine Rooney-Browne PhD Student, University of Strathclyde
Christine is currently researching the social value of public libraries as part of her PhD and has written a number of articles on this topic. She also writes a blog called The Library of Digress and she will offer her own insights into running a blog.

There will be an opportunity to put questions to both of the speakers during the evening and the talks will be followed by drinks and nibbles. The event is kindly sponsored by Bureau van Dijk

To book a place please contact John Coll e-mail j.collATnls.uk Tel: 0131 623 3816

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to travel from Edinburgh to Glasgow in time to attend this event. I’d really have liked to be able to meet Christine, who also helps maintain the UK Library Bloggers wiki! Hopefully the wiki will get a mention as a good place to start to find other library bloggers! 🙂