European Documentation Centres (EDCs) are neutral collections of official publications of the European Union, open to the public and normally housed in academic institutions throughout the European Union (EU). EDC status entitles the host organisation to receive one copy of the most significant publications and documents of the EU. The EDC network goes back to 1963, and its primary purpose has always been the support of academic research into European integration. The decision to trigger Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union clearly raises questions about role of the EDCs in the United Kingdom after ‘Brexit’. This article is written by Margaret Watson.

This paper formed the basis of a seminar given by John Furlong and Susan Doe at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Annual Conference in St Johns, Newfoundland in May 2005.

This short piece makes reference to an event that was held in May 2019 at the London School of Economics. The occasion was entitled ‘Oral History Research: Illuminating the Past’. There were three speakers and the session was chaired by Professor Michael Lobban. One of the speakers that evening was Lesley Dingle and, following this introduction, her talk is featured in this issue of Legal Information Management.

This article represents a summary of the parallel session that Barry Vickery presented to delegates at the 2019 BIALL Annual Conference in Bournemouth. There, his presentation was entitled: ‘A glance at the past and a glimpse of the future – How to learn from the past to make better decisions in the future’. As BIALL was celebrating its 50th anniversary, Barry took the opportunity to look back at the last fifty years to highlight people and companies that had made good decisions and those that had made bad ones. He went on to explore different decision-making techniques that we could all utilise to help us to make more informed decisions in our daily life.

This article by the LexisNexis Segment Marketing team explains the approach, methodology and findings of the LexisNexis Gross Legal Product (GLP) report, first presented at the BIALL's Virtual Conference in June 2020. The GLP is a quantitative measure of underlying demand for legal services in the UK, comprised of 250 individual metrics which serve as proxies for legal activity. The article outlines the methodology and sources used to build the GLP; headline findings for Q2 2020 YTD; and provides suggestions for how firm leaders and knowledge professionals could use the information in their work. The GLP Q2 model found that demand for legal activity has declined by 7% since the start of 2020.

Since it was established, GlobaLex has become a recognised and heavily accessed worldwide database of international, foreign, and comparative law research articles. As Mirela Roznovschi explains, GlobaLex represents a valuable component of legal research in today's cyberlegal environment. In February 2015 GlobaLex celebrates a 10 year anniversary. This article celebrates the success of the service.

This article is written by Clare Cowling, Director, Legal Records at Risk Project, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London. Her article explores the hypothesis that modern private sector legal records are more at risk of loss than their historical equivalents. There are many reasons for this, but one factor, detailed in this article, appears to be the indifference or reluctance of legal practitioners themselves. The LRAR project seeks to allay any concerns practitioners may have about confidentiality and to raise their awareness of the potential commercial and historic value of their legal records. It will do this by a combination of case studies, interviews with stakeholders and investigations into the current information management and archiving practices of institutions specialised to law. In so doing it will provide guidance and advice on the more cost-effective management and preservation of legal records so that the history of change to non-governmental legal services in the UK over the past century will be accurately documented.

This article by Rachel Brett highlights the key issues to be aware of when carrying out international company searches and reviews the information available online from the national company registries for some of the key European and offshore jurisdictions including: Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands.

Hester Swift, Foreign and International Law Librarian, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, and Peter Clinch, Senior Subject Librarian for Law, Cardiff University delivered this paper at the recent BIALL Annual Conference.

The internet and the World Wide Web (www) has allowed the free flow of information across countries. Peter Martin and Tom Bruce from Cornell Law School pioneered the development of the ‘Free Access to Law Movement’ around the world. The Australian Legal Information Institute and various other Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) were established by adopting the Montreal Declaration at the Law via Internet Conference held in 2002. As a member of the United Nations, India adopted the UNESCO policy guidelines for the development and promotion of governmental public domain information. In India, the National Informatics Centre has played a leading role in supporting the maintenance and dissemination of Indian government public information that is useful for legal education, research and practice. This paper by Priya Rai, and Akash, gives a brief informative overview of the ‘free access to law movement’ resources pertaining to India. These resources have been categorised for easier understanding: parliamentary resources, legislative resources, case laws, law reform reports, international treaties and legal scholarship and journals. The article also provides an overview of the Legal Information Institute of India extending its contribution to disseminating Indian legal information.

Greg Rose outlines the main publishers of construction contracts used under English law. He then looks at sources for obtaining the contracts, both hard copy and electronic versions, and advises us on how to keep them up-to-date.

The British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) carried out a survey of BIALL members during May 2020 in order to gain a view, at a point in time, of the impact of Covid-19.1 National lockdowns in both the United Kingdom and Ireland had come into force in March 2020. The survey was a way of gauging how the legal information community was responding to the challenges and changing circumstances brought about as a result of the pandemic. This brief introduction by Karen Brown, President of BIALL, sets the scene for the results of the survey which appear in the pages that follow.2

In 2012 London becomes the first city to host an Olympics for the third time. The contrast between the Games of 2012 and those of 1908 and 1948 could not be starker and form a background to some of the matters discussed in this short piece. Central to the discussion is the contention that the development of the body of law now known as sports law is related to the accelerated commercialisation of sport during the past century. In short, the business of modern sport is exactly that – a business; indeed, sport is now a global industry and the commodification of sport will be seen to an exaggerated effect in London throughout the summer of 2012. Accordingly, this article by Jack Anderson begins by giving an outline of the financial robustness of modern sport, epitomised by the Olympics, before presenting a brief history of the evolution of sports law. Thereafter various issues in contemporary sports law are identified and discussed. The conclusion attempts to bring all of these themes together in order to give an overview of the area as a discrete, vibrant, if still emerging, discipline of law.

This article is aimed at anyone who is responsible for recruiting staff and discusses how to prepare for a successful job interview. It is written in the context of a competitive recruitment market caused by the increased workload in law firms since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The author, Victoria North, is a senior information professional with many years of experience of building successful teams. She shares some of the best practices she has learnt during her career.

Middle Temple Library has recently significantly enriched its portfolio of electronic resources. This situation was caused not only by the Covid-19 crisis, which certainly accelerated its efforts in this field, but also by the changing demands and habits of the Inn's members. The library specialises in arbitration and competition law, so a decision was taken to try two new digital platforms and, as Lenka Geidt writes, to share their experiences in the course of this article.

Let's face it librarians have until relatively recently had a pretty stereotypical image which occasionally, perhaps justly, is one of quiet resolve where the library is your domain and those that enter should do so quietly and should not remove your materials. This image is reinforced by adverts, television, films and even dolls.

A job with a global law firm can involve meeting or working alongside colleagues from many different countries. In order to communicate effectively, we need to be aware of the different norms within which we work. Sara Batts, Jas Breslin and Susanna Winter, who together have many years’ experience working internationally, discuss three key areas which can help enhance our interactions with our counterparts overseas.

It is apt to start this review about the 2000s by mentioning ‘a project called UKILELI…it aims to create a database of UK full-text legislation and case transcripts; available via the web. More critically it aims to be free.’ It was later renamed to the more easily pronounced BAILII. BIALL had voted to support the project with a donation and to encourage law libraries to do the same.

Roderick Munday, Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge and Editor-in-chief of the Justice of the Peace Reports, shares his invaluable perception and extensive research on the difficulties which arise from the excess of access to judgments.

This article by John Furlong is an updated and revised version of an article originally authored by John Furlong and Susan Doe and published in Legal Information Management 2006, 6(2) Summer 2006 and covers in some detail the basic sources for researching European Union law. It also gives some background on the growth of the European Union and its law making.