By the time Legal Information Management (LIM) readers receive this autumn issue the UK may well be heading towards Brexit and the deadline of the 31st October. These have been difficult times but I am constantly reminded of the significant and positive part that our profession plays in underpinning all that is right with democratic principles, the importance of freedom of speech and concerning the significance of the rule of law.
In this issue of Legal Information Management, rather than focussing on Brexit-related issues or on a particular theme, we feature articles on a variety of different topics written from a range of perspectives.
CURRENT INTERESTS
We start with an article written by Margaret Watson of the Bodleian Law Library at Oxford entitled Diversity and the post-colonial law library. In this article she considers the current debates about decolonisation and diversification and how this is re-shaping thinking about how law library collections are organised and arranged. There follows a piece written by David Hand and Matthew Terrell of Justis called Bridging the gap between university and practice: findings from a study on legal research education. Their research project identified that the teaching of legal research is highly variable across universities and that broadly there are three approaches taken regarding this task. Their research suggests that consideration should be given to formulating a standardised approach to legal research teaching.
Simon Drane addresses the issue of How data will enable the shift towards the productisation of legal services; a move that will see a transition from a model which is predominantly centred around internal work processes to one that is geared towards customer outcomes. He writes, “Law firms need to develop a clear data strategy and build new skills, but also need to go beyond this and define a clear product strategy around how this data will power new productised revenue models which lead to higher value service opportunities”. David Gee provides his excellent and thorough annual report concerning the BIALL/SLS Academic Law Library Survey, this time relating to the year 2017/2018.
On an historical note, and away from legal information, Mark Hatcher provides an interesting account of the background, history and achievements of the General Council of the Bar, the professional body for barristers in England and Wales, since its formation in 1894. Finally in this section, Hester Swift of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Library writes on Researching customary international law. Her account is based on the online course, ‘Customary International Law’, created by the IALS Library for the Postgraduate Online Research Training (PORT) platform and which is available to everyone.
FOCUS ON LEGAL PUBLISHERS AND SUPPLIERS
For this feature, the focus this time is on Wildy & Sons Ltd and an article written by John Sinkins, who is the chairman of the company. He provides a brief history of Wildy & Sons Ltd, looking at how the business has evolved and where the service stands today.
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES
Under the ‘International Perspectives' heading, Harriet Seun Dapo-Asaju and Oludayo John Bamgbose focus on Nigeria and write about the adoption of the new 17 SMART Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how access to government information is essential. They look at the challenges of meeting these goals and the roles of law librarians and those working in public libraries, in facilitating access to government information in Nigeria.
ORAL HISTORY RESEARCH: ILLUMINATING THE PAST
Mary Stewart and Dvora Liberman write briefly as a way of introducing an event that was held at the London School of Economics (LSE) in May 2019. The occasion was entitled Oral History Research: Illuminating the Past. There were three speakers involved, two of which were Mary and Dvora, and the session was chaired by Professor Michael Lobban Professor of Legal History at LSE. The other speaker that evening was Lesley Dingle and her talk entitled Legal Oral Histories in Cambridge. ESA: Some Examples of Researching Personal, Institutional and Social Developments follows the introduction.
CURRENT AWARENESS
As usual, the current awareness compiled by Katherine Read and Laura Griffiths concludes this autumn issue of LIM.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As ever, I am very grateful to each of the contributors to this journal and to the members of the LIM Editorial Board as well as our publishers, Cambridge University Press.
