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Raising the Bar: How Chambers Librarianship has Risen to Twenty Years of Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2022

Alison Million
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Abstract

Twenty years ago the author, Alison Million, submitted an article to Legal Information Management (LIM) entitled ‘Of Barristers and Books’ which recounted her experiences of working as a librarian to barristers’ chambers in the era of print and CDs. The article brought her into contact with the Librarian of Inner Temple Library and together they founded the Bar Librarians’ Group to meet the interests of both Inn and Chambers Librarians. This article in 2022 recounts how the ensuing 20 years have brought very different challenges to Chambers Librarians in the online era and how the Bar Librarians’ Group works hard to resolve difficulties on behalf of LIS professionals serving the Bar.

Keywords

barristerslegal professionbar librarianshiplaw libraries
Type
Supporting Barristers
Information
Legal Information Management , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , September 2022 , pp. 119 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by British and Irish Association of Law Librarians

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References

Footnotes

1 Million, Alison, ‘Of Barristers and Books’ (2002) 2(4) Legal Information Management 13–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Ibid.

3 Holborn, Guy, ‘The Inns of Court Libraries in the 21st Century’ (2008) 8 Legal Information Management 46–50Google Scholar.

4 Clay, Margaret, ‘A Career at the Inner Temple: Thirty Years On’ (2021) 21 Legal Information Management 23–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Alison Million, op. cit.

6 Barnes, David (ed), The Independent Bar: Insights into a Unique Business Model (Global Law and Business Ltd 2018)Google Scholar.

7 Ibid 6, Chantal-Aimée Doerries.

8 Jemma Slingo, ‘Greying Inns: Study Reveals Ageing Barrister Population’ (2021) The Law Society Gazette https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/greying-inns-study-reveals-ageing-barrister-population-/5109378.article accessed 5 August 2022.

9 Alison Million, op. cit.

10 Bar Standards Board, ‘Diversity at the Bar 2021’ (January 2022) https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/uploads/assets/41290ce6-4e2b-41c2-a44974a830332211/BSB-Report-on-Diversity-at-the-Bar-2021updated accessed 5 August 2022

11 David Barnes (ed) Op cit. 61 by N Hearn, R Murray and L Scott.

12 Chambers and Partners, Chambers UK Bar Guide 2022 https://chambers.com/legal-guide/uk-bar-14 accessed 5 August 2022.

13 Readers are advised that the article by John Flood, dated 2007, contains a profanity in its title and, therefore, cannot be printed in LIM. Any reader wishing, nonetheless, to consult the article should Google ‘The Fall and Rise of Barristers’ Clerks’ and ‘John Flood’. A PDF version is available on SSRN. For diversity of chambers, see page 4.

14 Holborn, Guy, ‘The Emergence of Professional Law Librarianship and the Professional Law Librarian: the History of BIALL in Context’ (2019) 19 Legal Information Management, 80–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Partly included in Holborn, G., ‘Lawyers and Their Libraries’ in Black, Alistair and Hoare, Peter (eds.), The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland. Vol 3: 1850–2000 (Cambridge University Press 2006) 468 and footnote 62Google Scholar.

15 ‘Obiter Dicta’ [editorial], (1894) 29 The Law Journal 625.

16 Wikisource, The Library: The Library a Magazine of Bibliography and Library Literature, Volume 6.djvu/419 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:The_library_a_magazine_of_bibliography_and_library_literature,_Volume_6.djvu/419 accessed 5 August 2022.

17 Guy Holborn, see Footnote 3, p49.

18 Mary Nixon and Carol Allison, ‘Learned, Professional and Independent Libraries’ in J H Bowman (ed), British Librarianship and Information Work 2001–2005 p.131 (Routledge 2016) 131 (First published 2007 by Ashgate Publishing).

19 Alison Million, op. cit.

20 Alison Million, op. cit.

21 Greenberg, Daniel, ‘Lions and Librarians: a Plea for the Intelligent Conservation of an Unnecessarily Endangered Species’ (2019) 19 Legal Information Management 80–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Kramer, Adam and Higgins, Ian, Bewigged and Bewildered?: A Guide to Becoming a Barrister in England and Wales (3rd ed, Hart 2016) 6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Bar Standards Board, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Guidance for Barristers. cpdguidanceforbarristers-1.pdf (barstandardsboard.org.uk) accessed 5 August 2022.

24 Binsfeld, Anne, ‘New Barristers' Information Literacy Challenges as They Transition From Education to the Workplace’ (2019) 19 Legal Information Management 36–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Holborn, Guy, ‘Law Librarianship at the Inns: ‘Plus ça Change’’ (1999) 30(4) The Law Librarian 218–221Google Scholar.

26 JDC, ‘The Future of the Inns of Court Libraries’ (1923) 155 The Law Times 417–419.

27 Guy Holborn, see Footnote 3, p49.

28 David Barnes (ed) op. cit. 6 by Chantal Aimée-Doerries.

29 Chambers and Partners op. cit. 1119.