Here’s the next installment in a series of “funformational” (fun + informational) e-mails about the many chapters within the Special Libraries Association.  We first looked at the New England Chapter in August.  September brings us the Europe Chapter!

Over 25 Legal Division members are a part of SLA Europe.   At present, there are a few Chapter members who hold positions within the Legal Division.  Sara Batts is a Past Chair of SLA Europe and is currently our International Relations Committee Chair.  Laura Woods was our 2011 Non-U.S. Travel Grant Award Winner and currently serves on our Nominations Committee.  Sam Wiggins was our 2011 ECCA winner and currently serves our Division’s Ethics Ambassador.

Kate Arnold, SLA President-Elect Candidate for 2013 and SLA Europe Past Chair talked about the bond we share with this Chapter.  “It’s wonderful to have the Legal Division collaborating with SLA Europe on the Early Career Conference Award, which has been in existence since 2007 and is going from strength to strength as a means of building awareness of the networking opportunities that SLA offers in both Division and Chapter activities.”  Kate, along with SLA Europe member Sylvia James, championed the creation of the ECCA awards.  The Legal Division is proud to be a co-sponsor for the past two years.  Our 2011 winner was Sam Wiggins, Information Officer at Norton Rose LLP in London and our 2012 winner was Marie Cannon, Information Officer at Trowers & Hamlins in London.  We look forward to continuing this partnership into the future!

SLA Europe is celebrating their 40^th anniversary this year!  Most of their approximately 300 members reside in the United Kingdom, however the Chapter serve the needs of information professionals in all of Europe.  Many of the SLA Europe members are quite prolific bloggers and Tweeters of important thoughts and information related to the library profession.  Check out their blogroll list, scroll down and it’s on the right-hand side.

Will you be in London at the end of September?  Join the Chapter for their event, Engaging Social Media for Fun and Career Success.  (See? I told you they are ahead of the curve for blogging and Tweeting!)  The event will be held on September 25^th in Canary Wharf.  (If you’ve ever watched “EastEnders,” it’s at one of the curves of the Thames, from the opening credits!)

Fun Facts About Europe!

The Legal Division enjoys a great relationship with SLA Europe.  We look forward to maintaining this for years to come.  Get to know our colleagues from across the pond!

Cheers,

Tracy Z. Maleeff
SLA Legal Division Chair

The International Relations Committee brings you soccer-themed round up of European useful links.

England were (not unsurprisingly) eliminated from the Euro 2012 football competition this week – another penalty shoot out deciding the team’s fate.  Still,  Wimbledon is now under way, and we’ve got the Olympics coming up – literally on our doorstep here in the City of London – so there is plenty of summer left for us Brits to get our fix of sport. We thought a few links to useful resources from the teams still in the soccer tournament might be of interest – so here’s a round up of some key legal sites that might help with queries (or not!) about the remaining Euro 2012 countries or the Olympic games.

The European Union publishes short guides to each country’s legal system – a good place to start.

Portugal
https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_member_state_law-6-pt-en.do?member=1

Italy
https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_member_state_law-6-it-en.do?member=1

Spain
https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_member_state_law-6-es-en.do?member=1

Germany
https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_member_state_law-6-de-en.do?member=1

The amount, currency and quality of freely available local information varies between individual companies. I’d say I have a 50:50 hit rate obtaining a case or a piece of legislation for free in the searches I have run. Other sources include Lexis.com and academic libraries – I’ve used the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies to obtain documents in the past.

Company information is available either via agents for the European Business Register or individual country directories. Google Translate may be your friend when negotiating European business registers, there is little consistency between countries about what is available and what is searchable online independently.

Portugal – you can register a company online here http://www.portaldaempresa.pt/CVE/pt/EOL but obtaining documents via http://www.irn.mj.pt/sections/inicio/ seems to be difficult.

Spain – the companies’ register can’t be searched outside a subscription service in any detail – the site is at http://www.rmc.es/InfGeneral.aspx?lang=en.

Italy – I have never managed to obtain anything useful directly from http://www.infocamere.it/eng/about_us.htm so have generally resorted to agents.

Germay – details are here  https://www.unternehmensregister.de/ureg/?submitaction=language&language=en

This PDF provides indicative pricing and availability for EU countries’ company information… http://www.gbrdirect.eu/GBRDirect%20Pricelist.pdf , other agents are available (see also http://www.7side.co.uk/moreinfo/International_Registry_and_Documents_Service.pdf from UK agents 7Side)

If you want to know more about the Olympics, the official site is at http://www.london2012.com/ and the BBC’s getting geared up over at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/2012/

Wishing you a happy summer of sport,

Sara Batts

International Relations Chair