This year's British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) awards, held in Brighton, must surely have sent the excitement dial all the way round to ten when last year's winner, Kate Stanfield of CMS Cameron McKenna, was pipped to the association's top gong by Hill Dickinson's Marilyn Siddons-Smith.

Ms Siddons-Smith walked away with the award for legal information professional of the year in the large law firm category for her two decades of dedication, including chairing BIALL local groups in Manchester and Liverpool and growing the library staff at Hill Dickinson by a factor of ten.


Ms Stanfield received praise for her 'lateral thinking and great vision' and was held up as 'an inspiration to anyone who wants their library to reach its full potential'.


Paul Norman at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies bagged academe's legal information professional of the year award, with Newcastle University's law librarian Linda Kelly coming in at second place.


The award for best use of technology in a library project meanwhile went to Brian Thomas and Penny Bailey for BIALL's own Web site. They nabbed the award for creating a virtual reference library 'which enables BIALL members and visitors to obtain comprehensive legal information'. The judges noted that the site lets BIALL 'make effective use of technology to the benefit of all in the legal community'.


JISC, the joint information systems committee set up by academics, managers and technology experts, was runner up in the best use category for its free information service aimed at those in further and higher education. The judging panel said its service is a 'core advisory service with a valuable mission statement'.


No smaller firms ended up with an award in their category, so next year's awards await them. But to win they must 'demonstrate commitment to providing a first rate service in the demanding environments of legal practice and education and of developing technological outreach solutions for the legal information profession,' said BIALL's president Barbara Tearle.