In this analysis of the future of our profession, Barbara Tearle starts by looking at the past to see how much the world of legal information has evolved and changed. She considers the nature of the profession today and then identifies key factors which she believes will be of importance in the future, including the impact of globalisation; the potential changes to the legal profession; technology; developments in legal education; increasing commercialisation and changes to the law itself.

In his paper given at the 38th BIALL Annual Study Conference, Derek Law considers the role of libraries and teaching, in particular academic libraries, in the new Web 2.0 world. He considers the needs of the new generation of “digital natives” in terms of the traditional library and questions whether it still has a role to fulfil. He concludes that academic librarians must become fully involved in the digital revolution and embrace new methods of developing their collections.

Nicola Wakefield and Emily Allbon are academic law librarians. They offer their thoughts on the future that all academic law librarians may face as we move further into the 21st Century. They look at the key issues and examine possibilities for the future role of law librarians, considering how changes in technology, library spaces, study habits and the pressures of time and funding could affect us as a profession.

Lesley Young analyses how the acquisitions process has altered in an academic law library with a huge international collection of both hard copy and electronic resources, following the increasing introduction and use of electronic sources of legal information.

Susanna Winter from Baker & McKenzie considers the key issues which will affect law firm information services in the 21st Century. These include the use of technology, including the rise of so-called social networking and Web 2.0 tools; the impact of the Google-generation; the structure of information units; and the changing place of librarians within the law firm structure as a whole.

Jennifer Vass and James Mullan of the BIALL Blog take a look at the UK law librarian blogging scene, dispelling some of the myths associated with blogging before asking, “Where do you want to go today?”

Online legal resources are increasingly the sole official source. Authentication – the means to demonstrate that materials are what they purport to be – is inseparably interrelated with the official status of sources on the web. This article by Richard J. Matthews examines key features of the UK Statute Law Database, the US Government Printing Office future digital system (FDsys), and the Ohio Supreme Court database of judicial decisions that are relevant to assessing appropriate authentication procedures for those resources. Archival and computational authentication methods are reviewed. Overall findings of AALL's State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources and its recent national summit on authentic legal information on the web are analysed.

In her BIALL Conference Paper last June, Ann Hemming considered the potential impact of e-learning on the legal profession and legal information professionals in particular. She discussed what is meant by e-learning and how it can be incorporated into our current knowledge systems. She then considered the needs of the current generation of info pros and the potential uses of social networking tools, such as Second Life, in the e-learning environment.

Guy Holborn, Librarian of Lincoln's Inn, considers whether the Inns of Court libraries have a future in the digital age. He discusses their longevity and their context within the profession. Unfortunately, the past gives several examples of such libraries which have not survived, but he is confident that history will not repeat itself.

This article by Nicola Wakefield looks at the project to build a new academic law library at the University of Salford. It examines the tasks involved, resource planning and communication as well as highlighting successes and issues raised during the construction and design process. The conclusion of the article discusses the lessons learned from undertaking a task of this scale, as well as recommendations for others who may be about to embark on a similar project.

Amanda McKenzie presented this Parallel Session at the 38th Annual BIALL Study Conference in Sheffield in June 2007. She looks at the potential methods of identifying current awareness user groups and reviews traditional methods of current awareness delivery. She then discusses the use of third party aggregators, such as Lexis and PLC. She also looks at the potential for Web 2.0 and social networking methodologies, and evaluates alternative delivery methods, such as RDD feeds, in the context of offering comprehensive services to users.

This article by Rachel Brett of Lovells reports on the results of a survey into classification practice in law libraries carried out through the BIALL and LIS-Law mailing lists in March 2007. Major findings were that only three respondents did not use any form of subject classification. The most frequently used classification scheme was Moys, and the single largest grouping was the 40 respondents (40.8%) who used their own in-house classification schemes.

Distance learning at the graduate law level offers exciting opportunities for non-traditional students to learn not only substantive law but also new skills. One of these skills should be information research. In this paper, which was presented at a Parallel Session at the 38th Annual BIALL Study Conference in Sheffield in June 2007, Edward T. Hart looks back on his experience as a distance learner at Northumbria University, observes what worked and did not work and offers suggestions for law faculty and librarians to consider. The final section is a brief description of the current status of distance learning in American legal education.

Jessica Sambrook tells about her experiences of not only working in the idyllic Cayman Islands but also having to avoid the forces of nature. She describes the sources of legal information in the Islands and provides an interesting historical view of how their legislation has developed from English law.

In this latest in our series of practical guides, Dunstan Speight and Claire Groom pass on helpful hints garnered from their many years' experience of organising courses for BIALL and other organisations