Legal Research

Value for Money: Making the Most of e-solutions at BU

Melissa Bowden Law Librarian at Bournemouth University (it must be lovely there on a day like today) and BWEB Committee Member will be talking about how get the most out of e-solutions in her session "Value for Money : Making the most of e-solutions at BU" In this post we asked Melissa about winning an award, being part of BWEB and attending the BIALL Conference. Many thanks to Melissa for answering these questions.

BB - It sounds like a great achievement to have won the inaugural Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Award for ?Outstanding Library Team' did you think you were going to win?

MB - We were positive about our prospects. We'd won the SCONUL Library Design Award in 2007, we'd been awarded funding from the Higher Education Authority for the eRes project in 2008 and our repository, BURO, had been selected by JISC as one of five case studies for the Research Excellence Framework. However, there was strong competition from other institutions and you never know until the night. Obviously, we were delighted to win.

BB - More and more resources seem to be only available online, what do you see as the biggest challenge for Information Teams in managing these resources?

MB - The biggest challenge we face is ensuring manageable pricing strategies in the context of both HE budgets and publishers' commercial needs.

BB - Without spoiling your session what are the major challenges you face when supporting your users?

MB - Users are becoming increasingly 'remote' and more demanding; they want relevant information NOW and they want appropriate help delivered to them wherever they are located.

BB - How big a challenge do you face working with Legal publishers?

MB - The limited integration with generic library tools, such as federated search engines, link resolvers and reference management software, presents us with ongoing challenges. However, in the last year or so, there are some positive signs from the major legal publishers.

BB - You're a member of the BIALL web committee, what would you say to anyone thinking about joining a BIALL committee?

Get involved! I've extended my professional network and I've learned a lot more about the way BIALL works. It hasn't taken up too much time and it's been a really valuable experience.

BB -Finally, are you looking forward to presenting and what one piece of advice would you give to someone who hasn't attended a BIALL conference before?

MB - Yes, although it's always daunting to give a presentation to your peers. My colleague, James Tudor (the Business School Subject Librarian) has collaborated on the presentation and I'd like to thank him for his excellent ideas. I've attended two previous conferences and I've thoroughly enjoyed them both. It's a really friendly atmosphere, a good chance to network informally and there's an interesting mix of sessions. The dinners aren't bad either...

Full post as published by The BIALL Blog on June 04, 2010 (boomark / email).