Parallel Sessions

Please see below a summary of the Parallel sessions for this year’s Conference. Due to the limited number of places on each session we recommend that you pre-book your preferred choice at the time of registration.

Managing subscription data is a familiar challenge for information teams, often relying on outdated spreadsheets that limit efficiency and data potential. In this practical case study, Debra O’Malley, Information Services Manager at Pinsent Masons LLP, shares the journey of transforming a 15-year-old spreadsheet into a dynamic Named User App using Power Apps and SharePoint. This session highlights the process of moving from manual, cumbersome data management to an integrated digital solution that streamlines workflows, improves accuracy, and unlocks new opportunities for data use.

Delegates will discover how collaboration across teams can drive innovation in information management and learn practical strategies for leveraging MS365 tools—especially Power Apps and SharePoint—to redesign existing systems. The session will feature a visual walkthrough of the app development process, including screenshots and examples of data transformation, offering actionable insights and lessons learned.

Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how even small steps toward digital transformation can yield significant benefits, and how reshaping data for new platforms can reveal hidden value in familiar tools. Whether you’re just starting your digital journey or looking to enhance your current processes, this session will spark ideas and encourage you to explore new ways of working with the technology you already have.

This presentation will provide an overview of the use and satisfaction of State Law Advisors regarding online legal databases at the Research Centre in the Department of International Relations and Cooperation in Pretoria, South Africa. The presentation sought to evaluate the effectiveness of digital platforms in facilitating legal research and decision-making process as it seeks to address the underutilisation of online legal databases by the State Law Advisors in the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Pretoria, South Africa. Identified key issues on this presentation include restricted after-hours access, dependence on librarians for database retrieval, insufficient mobile optimisation, and a limited understanding of advanced search functionalities.

The key outcomes delegates will take away from this presentation is enhancing awareness on subscribed online legal databases, addressing challenges in accessing and utilizing online legal databases, improving user-friendliness of online legal databases, enhancing preferences for alternative online legal databases especially when it comes to State Law Advisors employed within the government law libraries sector.

Laura Dickson reflects on her journey from Scotland to Canada and how law libraries, professional associations, and volunteer leadership helped shape her legal career.

The presentation will begin with Laura’s personal background and transition from small town Scotland to practising law in Canada, highlighting how involvement with the Hamilton Law Association and the Federation of Ontario Law Associations provided opportunities to build connections, develop leadership skills, and contribute meaningfully to the profession.

The talk will explore the evolving role of law libraries as essential professional hubs that provide access to legal information, education, and collegial support. In an era of information overload and rapid technological change, law libraries help legal professionals navigate complex resources, evaluate emerging tools such as artificial intelligence, and maintain high standards of practice.

The presentation emphasizes that future legal leaders must also be information leaders. Volunteering with law associations and libraries offers practical experience in governance, advocacy, and program development while strengthening professionalism and collegiality. Particular attention is given to mentoring younger professionals, fostering supportive networks, and creating programming and events that engage members and build community.

The presentation will highlight access to justice initiatives delivered through law libraries and associations, demonstrating how these institutions connect lawyers, students, and the public to reliable legal information. Strong professional communities of which law libraries are the heart —across jurisdictions and generations — are essential to a resilient, ethical, and collaborative legal profession.

As the legal information profession navigates rapid technological change, organisational restructuring, and an ageing workforce, a risk is emerging: the loss of professional memory. When experienced information professionals retire, move sideways, or leave unexpectedly, vital tacit knowledge often leaves with them - knowledge that is rarely written down, easily transferred, or formally handed over.

This session explores how law librarians and knowledge managers can respond to this challenge by reframing knowledge loss not as a failure of processes, but as a moment of transition. Drawing on original interviews with practitioners at different career stages, alongside long-term professional reflection, the session examines what tends to “stick”, what disappears, and why traditional approaches to documentation often fall short.

At the heart of the session is BRIDGE, a lightweight, practical framework designed specifically for legal information contexts. BRIDGE stands for: Begin early, Record what matters, Involve others, Document accessibly, Give ownership, and Evaluate and evolve. Rather than treating knowledge capture as a one-off task at the point of departure, BRIDGE encourages an ongoing, human-centred approach to continuity that recognises how knowledge is actually created, shared, and sustained in practice.

Through short case vignettes, reflective prompts, and guided discussion, delegates will be invited to consider where professional memory currently resides in their own organisations, where the risks lie, and how small, realistic changes can make a meaningful difference. The session is designed to be relevant across roles and career stages, offering practical insights that attendees can adapt to their own teams and environments.

In a profession defined by transition - from print to digital, from physical spaces to virtual ones - this session asks a simple but pressing question: how do we ensure that what we know moves forward with us?

This session is designed for information & research teams who are keen to explore how AI can enhance their research, and support self-service, with a focus on company and sector research. The session takes a non‑technical approach, ensuring accessibility for teams at an early stage of their AI development.

The format blends practical demonstrations with reflective discussion. Drawing on our own experiences - both successes and challenges - we will showcase how generative AI, particularly Microsoft Copilot, is being used within Pinsent Masons by us and our fee-earning and business support colleagues.

We provide sector focussed expertise rather than legal research and will explore how we’ve applied tools including Copilot Web, Copilot Researcher, and AskFT in practice.

Delegates will hear about case studies, practical prompting techniques, and gain insight into how AI can be integrated into everyday research workflows. We will also share lessons learned about positioning ourselves as leaders in AI adoption, demonstrating tools to colleagues, and communicating the specific value of research teams in an AI‑enabled business environment.

Highlights include our top prompting tips, efficiencies gained through workflow integration, and agent‑building strategies and ideas for future development.

A core part of the session will discuss our risk‑based approach to AI adoption and how we communicate this guidance across the business; as well as how we engage with other teams and stakeholders.

Delegates will leave with clear takeaways: practical tips for prompts and agent building, ideas for experimenting with workflows, and strategies for framing the value of their teams in the AI age.

In an era of tightening budgets and expanding content choices, information teams must ensure every subscription delivers maximum value.

This session provides a comprehensive guide to optimising subscriptions by leveraging data-driven insights into usage, engagement, and user preferences. Participants will learn how to evaluate which resources resonate with different user groups, uncover cost-saving opportunities, and align subscription portfolios with organisational priorities on a global scale.

Experts will share best practices for gathering and interpreting usage analytics to reveal who is using what - and why it matters. Case studies will illustrate how to communicate findings to stakeholders, linking engagement data directly to strategic outcomes and return on investment (ROI).

The discussion will also cover how to reframe subscription management from an administrative task to a high-impact service that drives efficiency, supports decision-making, and showcases the unique value of the information function.

By the end of this session, delegates will have practical tools and proven approaches to optimise their subscriptions, prove the value of their work, and create a dynamic, user-centric information service

In an era where information moves at the speed of business, traditional models of corporate librarianship are evolving. This presentation offers an inside look at a marketing research team that operates as embedded librarians—not as external consultants or centralized support, but as fully integrated members of a global marketing department. Spanning the U.S. and the UK, the team bridges time zones, professional cultures, and disciplinary backgrounds to deliver timely, strategic insights that directly shape marketing decisions. The team doesn’t just answer questions—it influences campaigns, shapes content, and guides strategy. This embedded model transforms the librarian’s role from information provider to trusted strategic partner.

Changes in Light was made by dance artist/scholar Anna Macdonald in collaboration with Chief Librarian Marilyn Clarke, and the staff from Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, the largest law library in Europe. The film documents and responds to their recent reparative work moving 'commonwealth' law materials from basement spaces to central parts of the library with more natural light. The session includes a screening of the short film (18 minutes) and audience discussion of themes raised.

Changes in Light explores the impact of the affective qualities of libraries on those who use them as a way of revealing the colonial complexities of law itself. The images in the film, captured by Macdonald and videographer Marisa Zanotti, emerged from movement workshops with library staff which focused on the embodied experience of different parts of the library. During the workshops, staff were invited to think about their relationship to change and how a sense of movement, a sense of the possibility of change, might be created.

Drawing on Julietta Singh's text "Unthinking Mastery" (2018), the film focuses on ways of resisting what Singh describes as the sense of timelessness associated with colonial mastery. It does this by combining processual footage from movement workshops with library staff, portraits capturing changing light within the library space, and audio interviews reflecting library users lived embodied experiences.