This article by Ivo Vogel and Dr Jochen Haug of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin describes an ambitious project to build a portal to a huge legal information resource covering German primary and secondary legal sources currently available on the internet. It will act as the first port of call for all legal researchers and it is hoped to extend the project to include hard copy sources eventually.

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 paper, written by Gineke Wiggers, Suzan Verberne, Gerrit-Jan Zwenne and Wouter Van Loon, addresses the concept of ‘relevance’ in relation to legal information retrieval (IR). They investigate whether the conceptual framework of relevance in legal IR, as described by Van Opijnen and Santos in their paper published in 2017, can be confirmed in practice.1 The research is conducted with a user questionnaire in which users of a legal IR system had to choose which of two results they would like to see ranked higher for a query and were asked to provide a reason for their choice. To avoid questions with an obvious answer and extract as much information as possible about the reasoning process, the search results were chosen to differ on relevance factors from the literature, where one result scores high on one factor, and the other on another factor. The questionnaire had eleven pairs of search results. A total of 43 legal professionals participated consisting of 14 legal information specialists, 6 legal scholars and 23 legal practitioners. The results confirmed the existence of domain relevance as described in the theoretical framework by Van Opijnen and Santos as published in 2017.2 Based on the factors mentioned by the respondents, the authors of this paper concluded that document type, recency, level of depth, legal hierarchy, authority, usability and whether a document is annotated are factors of domain relevance that are largely independent of the task context. The authors also investigated whether different sub-groups of users of legal IR systems (legal information specialists who are searching for others, legal scholars and also for legal practitioners) differ in terms of the factors they consider in judging the relevance of legal documents outside of a task context. Using a PERMANOVA there was found to be no significant difference in the factors reported by these groups. At this moment there is no reason to treat these sub-groups differently in legal IR systems.

This paper is based on a research study commissioned by the Financial Times and the Special Libraries Association (SLA) to explore the evolving value of information management to organisations around the world. Drawing on responses from both full-time information professionals and corporate executives, the research highlights the challenges facing both audiences and reveals a fundamental shift in the model of information management. The paper aims to provide an actionable framework for the continuing success of the information function in any organisation, describing the five essential attributes for modern information professionals. The research was presented by Simon Lord at the BIALL Annual Conference, 2014 and is published in full at: www.ft.com/sla

In this article, James Mullan addresses the recent trend relating legal project management (LPM) by law firms and assesses the long term potential for this concept. In addition, he seeks to identify how those in the law library and information profession can play a significant role in its introduction and development within a firm.

In recent years there has been an explosion of new ‘legal tech’ solutions on the market claiming to solve almost every problem or improve the efficiency of almost any process in a law firm. Alongside these new legal tech vendors are the traditional legal vendors offering enterprise solutions, and it can be challenging to identify, select and implement the right mix of solutions to solve your law firm's knowledge management (KM) needs. If you are thinking about or have been asked to introduce a new KM solution, it can be difficult to know where to get started, especially if you are in this position for the first time. This article, by Richard Tomlinson, explores some techniques and methodologies picked up over several years working in legal technology in big-law, to help you select and implement the best technology solutions for your firm.

The Willi Steiner Memorial Lecture 2019 was delivered at the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians’ Annual Conference by Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, DBE,1 the President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Lady Hale reflected upon some of the major changes in the law and access to justice since she was an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge and Willi Steiner was Law Librarian at the Squire Law Library. Her lecture coincided with BIALL's fiftieth anniversary year and focused on five significant developments: the explosion of judicial review of administrative action, the arrival of EU law, the growth of international human rights law, the recognition of gender and other equality, and devolution and the evolution of a new constitutional role for the courts.

This article by John Larkin QC, Attorney General for Northern Ireland, is based on his keynote speech which he delivered at the BIALL Conference which was held in Belfast in June 2012. He discusses the ways in which serendipity can play an important part in researching law, speaks of the frontiers that stand as limitations to contemporary legal research and identifies how these limits can be overcome; and he promotes the importance of both libraries and law librarians.

This article by Allie Lustigman argues that information professionals should have a significant involvement in their firm's intranets or portals and discusses how our skills can be used in this area. It outlines, with clear examples, the different spheres that we can become involved with in relation to intranets, which include; information organisation and search, taking ownership of intranet pages and spaces, allowing current awareness and news to flow through intranets, and training.

This article concerns the international law collections at the library of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) in London. It is based on a talk given by Hester Swift at the training day entitled ‘Socio-Legal Sources and Methods in International Law’ which was held at IALS on 25 November 2016.

Kate Stanfield has based this article on a presentation given at the 2008 Online meeting. She considers the potential role of the non-traditionally trained information professional within a law firm information service. Such roles include professional support lawyers, para-legals and business development and IT professionals.

Marci Hoffman, General Editor of the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, reports on how this major multilingual legal index handles its content, and how it is developing in the electronic era.*

In this article, Jackie Fishleigh looks at ways in which legal information managers can demonstrate their personal value and effectively market their services. In so doing she draws on her own recent experience promoting the intranet to every department in her law firm.

Wills are an overlooked source. Alongside birth, death and marriage certificates they are official legal texts that provide a record of families, kinship and personal life. They have a particular significance for research about gender and sexuality. This paper, by Daniel Monk, highlights some of the insights that they can provide and discusses the methods (and associated pitfalls) for accessing and reading them.

Technological developments and scientific innovations have enhanced the way people live and work. Courts are places where people seek justice and millions of cases across the globe are examined every day, and judgments are delivered. The courts system in India is on a vast and complex scale. The application and dissemination of information in India has been spreading at a faster pace over the past few decades. This has set the stage for the computerisation of courts to enhance transparency and efficiency in the Indian judicial system. The Indian sub-continent is a highly populated nation and from 2007 the government of India began implementing the eCourts Project as a citizen-centric initiative for expeditious and affordable justice delivery. This article analyses the various dimensions involved in the eCourts process and explains its significance in the justice delivery system in India. In also looks at the various challenges of implementing such a vast system across judicial system of India.

Professions of all types are being affected by globalisation of markets and the information technology revolution. The information world is developing rapidly and increasing numbers of people are being attracted to working within this modern sphere, many of whom have had no formal information training. Does this mean that a library and information qualification is no longer a requirement and if so why As an information graduate in the modern information world, I have two choices. I can take each day as it comes and become a pawn in a high stakes chess game played by others or I can take individual responsibility and develop my own career.

This article, written by Mark Hatcher, provides an overview of the background and achievements of the Bar Council, the professional body for barristers in England and Wales, since its formation in 1894. It traces the early years of the council and its expansion after the second world war, following the growth in legal aid and other post-war reconstruction measures. It describes changes in the structure and organisation of the Bar Council culminating in the implementation of reforms which followed the Legal Services Act 2007, which resulted in the separation of representation of the Bar from regulation of the profession which was delegated to the Bar Standards Board in 2006. It concludes with an overview of the key issues that are driving the Bar Council's activity to promote the Bar's high quality specialist advocacy and advisory services, and to promote access to justice for all.

Michael Chapman, who is a Senior Lecturer at the Inns of Court School of Law, writes about how the BVC is delivered to over 500 full-time students each year, using state of the art technology and e-learning methods which are a far cry from traditional teaching methods. This article is a companion to Peter Clinch's article on the BVC which also appears in this issue.

Jack Diggle from Prince OMC provides an overview of the world of outsourcing legal services. He explains the various methods of outsourcing and provides a glossary of the terms involved. He tells us what is happening in the UK in terms of outsourcing legal information work and explains how the concept of outsourcing began.

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.