England and Wales have no public law libraries, so how does the general public find legal information? This article, written by Abi Reader, Assistant Librarian at Certara Predictive Technologies, provides a starting point in understanding the availability of publicly available legal information. It explores the intersection of two austerity measures, cuts to legal aid and public library spending, through searching public library catalogues for primary sources of law. Public libraries provide computers and internet access to search free online legal information sites but overall provide limited access to print law reports. This article is based on research presented at the 54th Annual BIALL Conference.

Last year Jake Hearn, Vice Chair of the LIM editorial board, created an elective module on the core components of and types of roles within the legal information profession, which was offered to postgraduate students at City, University of London, with the module being hosted at City, University of London and The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple. Here Jake gives the reasons for creating the module and tells us how it all came together and how it has progressed since then.

Colin Hulme, head of intellectual property (IP) at Burness Paull, considers the impact of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) programmes on the observance of copyright by corporates. This article was commissioned by the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) and first appeared in the New Law Journal in 2023.

With the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) having been introduced in 2021 the training of solicitors has changed. But what impact will its legal research assessment have on their ability to do this sort of work? Here Greg Bennett, who works at BPP in London – where in addition to being a law librarian he is also studying the LPC – gives an overview of the situation and outlines his own concerns.

The transformative journey of law librarianship has been marked by significant milestones, from the transition from hard copy to online access, to the current development and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI). This article is based on a presentation at the BIALL Conference in June 2024 by Melissa Mills, Knowledge Manager at William Roberts Lawyers, and explores this evolution, focusing on her experiences and insights gained over the years, particularly in the Australian context.

In this article Anne O'Connor and Joanna Morris of Thomson Reuters set the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (REUL Act 2023) within its broader historical context, summarise provisions likely to be of interest to the legal information community, and explain how and why the REUL Act 2023 has given rise to legal uncertainty.

This article by Paul Magrath, Head of Product Development and Online Content at ICLR (incorporated Council of Law Reporting), provides a survey of 10 key technological developments that, over time, have contributed towards or affected our understanding of the administration of justice. Developments involving digitisation, the internet, and artificial intelligence (AI) are dealt with in greater depth, with a particular focus on recent AI developments at ICLR.

In this article Alan Wheeler advocates for academic librarians to employ the principles of autoethnography and storytelling within their practice, as a tactic for student engagement. As a librarian and researcher operating within Higher Education (HE), Alan has always illustrated his practice with personal accounts of how to operate effectively as a student. Here, he proposes that librarians in academia embrace the autoethnographic principles of vulnerability, uncertainty and subjectivity to explore their position within HE, but also as a teaching tool.

Client service skills are the human side of the work of an information professional. Whatever type of legal research environment we work in, our internal clients will expect that we have the right technical skills to support their work. But technical excellence in our day-to-day professional lives will amount to nothing if we cannot also deliver excellent client service. The benefit derived from this will be a more relevant research service, powered by experts, while the profile of the services provided will also be raised. In this article Jas Breslin aims to set out some of the behaviours that can be used to build a rapport and trust with clients, so that they can benefit from an information team that better understands their needs.

‘Going Green: The BIALL Sustainability Working Group’ was a parallel session presented by Christine Baird during the BIALL Annual Conference ‘Gaining the edge: investing in our skillset’, held in Belfast in June 2023. The session aimed to provide an introduction to the newly formed BIALL Sustainability Working Group. The session, and this subsequent article, outlines the group's aims, projects and structure, as well as the wider contexts which motivated the group's establishment. It discusses the ways in which information professionals can develop more sustainable working practices, both individually and by leveraging the power of our professional networks. This paper explores the opportunities for legal librarians to engage in community activism, and the importance of both this concept and of ‘cathedral thinking’ in responding to the climate crisis.

They say that everyone has a book in them. But how do lawyers and other legal professionals go about getting published? How does the publishing process work and what are the benefits of being published? This article by Sian O'Neill of Globe Law and Business outlines the benefits of being published and how the process works, including generating new ideas, approaching a publisher and the publishing proposal, as well as the production process and what authors can expect in terms of marketing.

In this article Amy Kaufman, Head Law Librarian at Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, examines what role Canadian law libraries can take in responding to the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Report in 2015, which examined the treatment of Aboriginal people in the country throughout its history, and its Calls to Action.

Legal Information Management Co-Editor and experienced professional journalist and author Mike Breslin offers up some personal tips on writing an article, including how to plan, how to work through it in stages and how to write copy specifically for LIM.

In this article Jas Breslin, Head of Research and Information Services at Charles Russell Speechlys, gives a brief overview of the type of work performed by a corporate lawyer, and some of the key resources used to support their work.

The Japanese art of Kintsugi teaches that imperfections and failures are not flaws to hide but opportunities for growth and enrichment; it says that true strength and beauty come from embracing imperfection and learning from the fractures along the way. In this article Hélène Russell draws on insights from three conference experiences to show how KM professionals can make use of Kintsugi and act as the ‘golden joiners’ within their firms when it comes to AI projects, making use of their blend of resilience, organisational cultural awareness, communication skills, and adaptive knowledge-sharing practices.

While every law librarian should be able to find a case, tracking one from claim form to judgment is another thing entirely. Here Anneli Sarkanen outlines why and when this might need to be done, the various sources that are available and the methods that are used

While we are aware that algorithms are at play in the background of much of what we do in our day-to-day life they are still widely misunderstood, says Sarah A Sutherland, the founder and principal consultant at Parallax Information Consulting. Here Sarah talks us through how we should approach our technology adoption by considering what algorithms are being used for and what the underlying technology and data that supports them actually is.

In an era where efficient information management is crucial, KnowAll Matrix stands out as a transformative tool for legal informational professionals. It was developed by an experienced UK legal library consultant, Penny Bailey, and here Bailey Solutions explains how this innovative platform goes beyond standard library management systems to offer a future-proof solution, revolutionising access to legal knowledge. Utilised by large law firms, barristers' chambers, government libraries, European agencies, a European parliament, and other organisations, KnowAll Matrix supports information staff to proficiently manage all traditional library functions, including cataloguing, subject indexing, classification, circulation, loans, acquisitions, and serials management. Furthermore, it offers essential features for modern electronic resources management. Its user-friendly interface ensures seamless discovery of both print and digital resources in a single search, prioritising user convenience. Over two decades, as the legal and technological landscapes have evolved, so too has the product, with innovative features like multi-hierarchical taxonomies, practice group resources, single sign-on, and contract renewals. This article delves into these new features and their utilisation by clients to make the library and information centre a primary resource for legal professionals seeking information.

This systematic literature review paper, written by Channarong Intahchomphoo, Jason Millar, Odd Erik Gundersen, Christian Tschirhart, Kris Meawasige and Hojjat Salemi, examines academic research publications to learn about the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics on human labour. Papers were collected from three academic databases: Scopus, Web of Science and ABI/INFORM Collection. From 710 papers, 159 papers were included. The article finds that the effects of AI and robotics on human labour can be categorised as: (i) positive effects, (ii) negative effects, and (iii) neutral or unsure effects. The positive effects have five reasons regarding AI and robotics’ potential to: do dangerous work, do tedious work with high efficiency and accuracy, do some aspects of computing work, do work that human labour does not want to do and be used to deal with the labour shortage, and help to reduce business production and maintenance costs. The negative effects are based on two reasons, that AI and robotics will take over human labour in part or entirely, thereby creating unemployment crises, and will not only replace manually repetitive jobs from human labour but also cognitive jobs, causing human labour to fear that their jobs will be replaced by AI and robotics. The neutral and unsure effects are based on various unique arguments. The findings of this review are used to suggest future research for academic communities and practical recommendations to legal professionals and policy makers.

This year's BIALL Annual Conference, held in Leeds in June, was a great success, with excellent speakers, cutting edge tech on display and even a murder – which was quickly solved – during the big dinner on the Thursday night.