Dr Peter Clinch - BA(Hons), MA, MPhil, PhD, FHEA
After gaining a degree in law and geography at the University of Keele in 1968, I trained at University College London and qualified as a chartered town planner, working for Sheffield City Corporation until 1973. I retrained as a library and information officer at Sheffield University and worked as a librarian serving the staff of South Yorkshire County Council until 1978. I gained a valuable grounding in academic librarianship when appointed Business Studies and Law Librarian at the then Preston Polytechnic (now University of Central Lancashire) in 1978, remaining there until 1992. In that year I was appointed to my present post at Cardiff University.
At Preston Polytechnic, in cooperation with law school staff, I developed a first year undergraduate programme of legal research skills training. This valuable experience led to work, in partnership with teaching staff in Cardiff Law School and the Centre for Professional Legal Studies, to develop legal research skills training for undergraduates and those following the Legal Practice and Bar Vocational Courses.
Between 2000 and 2002 I was seconded to the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London as Project Manager for the development of the free to use Foreign Law Guide (FLAG) database.
It is an inventory of the holdings of foreign, comparative and international law in UK universities, national libraries, the Public Record Office and the libraries of the Inns of Court in London.
In 2003 I developed with colleagues from the Information Services Division of Cardiff University, the free to use Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
It is consulted by lawyers, students and law librarians across the world to resolve obscure legal abbreviations to publications.
In 2008 devised and developed with Steven Whittle of the IALS, the free to use FLARE Index to Treaties, a searchable database of basic information on over 1,500 of the most significant multilateral treaties from 1856 to the present, with details of where the full text of each treaty may be obtained in paper and, if available, electronic form on the internet.
In 2009 commissioned by a joint committee of the Inner Temple and Middle Temple Inns of Court, London to provide a report on the feasibility of the merger, storage or disposal of their foreign law collections.
1994- Co-opted member, Libraries Sub-Committee, Society of Legal Scholars
2000- Registered teacher in higher education (Fellow Higher Education Academy)
2002 Winner of the Wallace Breem Memorial Award for outstanding contribution to the world of legal information – development of the FLAG (Foreign Law Guide) database.
2003- Member, Foreign Law Research Group (FLARE), successor to the FLAG Project Management Committee
2004 Winner of the Wallace Breem Memorial Award for outstanding contribution to the world of legal information – development of the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations.
2006- Assessor for the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme run by the Higher Education Academy (HEA)
2006 Winner of the Wildy-BIALL Law Librarian of the Year award
Conferences
Speaker at over fifteen conferences, seminars and training events since 1989, the most recent being:
Supporting law teaching. UKCLE/BIALL Event: Teaching and learning for legal skills trainers. University College London. 16th February 2005
Teaching legal research – thinking about the principles. UKCLE/BIALL Event: Understanding teaching and learning. Wills Hall, University of Bristol. 21st March 2006
Information literacy – building the team. Workshop presentation with Cathie Jackson. BIALL 37th Annual Study Conference, Brighton 16th June 2006
Legal research – tips and techniques. Solicitors in Local Government, 47th Annual Weekend School for Government Lawyers, University of Warwick. 16th March 2007
Finding foreign law fast and sorting citations successfully: FLAG database and Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations at intute internet for law seminar, Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, London. 19th March 2007
Teaching legal research skills. University of Southampton Law School course review day. 21st June 2007