Supporting legal information professionals through BIALL 2024 bursary programme

The CLA Law Licence plays a key role in ensuring the UK’s legal sector is able to reuse content in a lawful and ethical way. As part of our commitment to supporting this sector and the professional development of people new to the legal information profession, our bursary initiative for this year included three one-day conference bursaries for BIALL 2024.

This initiative underscores CLA’s commitment to giving back to the library, information, and knowledge community. The conference, held in Leeds from June 12-14, 2024, offered a wealth of learning and networking opportunities focused on the theme “Full Steam Ahead: From Industrial to Knowledge Revolution.

This year’s bursary recipients shared their valuable insights:

Matthew Bland, a relatively new law librarian, said of the conference: “Being able to attend the 2024 BIALL Conference, generously helped by the CLA Bursary, was brilliantly enriching for my professional development as a relatively new law librarian. The conference theme, Full Steam Ahead: From Industrial to Knowledge Revolution, inevitably focused on the recent acceleration in AI technologies and the way in which they have revolutionised legal drafting, research and information retrieval. I found the demonstrations of such technologies… provided me with a real insight into the ways in which lawyers are beginning to conduct their research, and the ever-increasingly essential role of the law librarian in assessing the quality of the information accessed and retrieved…”

Jennifer Bruce expressed her gratitude for the “inspiring blend” of sessions and networking opportunities, saying: “I can’t thank CLA enough for the opportunity to attend BIALL 2024 in Leeds. The three-day conference was an inspiring blend of thought-provoking sessions, brilliant professional networking opportunities, supplier engagement and enjoyable entertainment… What struck me was that AI-generated outputs are only as good as the content they draw on, whether that means an organisation’s information being appropriately tagged, maintained and formatted by information professionals – or ensuring research responses are underpinned by official sources and the best possible, authoritative, up-to-date authored commentary… Huge thanks to BIALL for selecting my 2024 bursary application and to the Copyright Licensing Agency for sponsoring it.”

Chloe Bolsover highlighted the increased focus on AI in legal information systems and the importance of user sophistication in navigating technological change.  She said, “Thanks to BIALL and the CLA, I had the brilliant opportunity to attend this year’s annual conference. The conference’s theme of “Full Steam Ahead” was inspired by past and present technological revolution in Leeds, as well as rising innovation in the legal industry. My main takeaways from this conference include the increased use of AI in legal information systems, and knowledge revolution in terms of using technology to streamline processes for efficiency… It was my first time attending the BIALL conference. Everyone was so lovely and welcoming; it was a great atmosphere throughout.”

CLA is delighted to have provided these opportunities to new professionals in the legal information field. “It’s fascinating to hear how the legal sector is already making use of AI technologies in their daily activities,” said Ossie Ikeogu, CLA’s Head of Sales and Renewals – Corporate. “The conference highlighted the growing role of law librarians in ensuring the accuracy of AI outputs, emphasising the critical need for high-quality, accurate content as the foundation for these tools. This is something which CLA is currently looking to address to ensure that these professionals who are using AI tools at work, are able to do so in a lawful and ethical way that supports the creative ecosystem.”

CLA is actively working with its Members (ALCS, DACS, PICSEL and PLS) on licensing solutions for our customers to address the evolving landscape of generative AI, stay up to date here: cla.co.uk/ai-and-copyright

For further information about the CLA Law Licence, visit: cla.co.uk/law-licence