The notion that we are living through times of great change in the communication of information and the transmission of texts is a truism which will bring a weary look to most professionals with any kind of involvement in the area. The digital age, the information age, the electronic age — we've all heard these terms so many times and have sat through innumerable discussions, and seen even more documents, trying to sort out what it all means. There are almost as many views on the likely pace of change and the shape of the landscape 10 or 20 years from now as there are librarians to hold forth on the subject. Perhaps this helps to explain why the library community as a whole seems to be in such a rudderless state regarding the creation of digital content; no shortage of action, but no overall sense of direction. I am talking here about digitisation of our documentary heritage, that vast mass of books, archives and other media which fill our library shelves today.

This article is broadly based upon a presentation given by Gordon Anthony, which was given at the annual conference of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians on 15 June 2012 in Belfast. Its purpose is to outline some of the ways in which public law in Northern Ireland is unique within the wider setting of the UK. Although it is true that the law of Northern Ireland shares much in common with principle and practice elsewhere in the UK, there are some notable differences that are attributable to the fact that Northern Ireland has its own court system and legal and political history. The article thus examines some of the differences that exist at the constitutional level and which can be associated with, most famously, the Belfast Agreement 1998. It also summaries some of the differences that can be found at the level of legal citation, for instance of case law and statute law for the jurisdiction.

Beverley Woolfson analyses the concept of information overload: how it has evolved, and its relevance to the information professional in the commercial law firm. Using data gathered during her MSc dissertation research and combining it with current theories on the topic, the writer concludes that while the information intermediary is often vulnerable to the dangers of overload, a number of strategies can be implemented to ensure that its effects are minimised.

‘Classification, then, is a tool for very simple but infinitely important purposes. Its whole object is to secure an order which will be useful to readers and to those who seek information with the smallest complication of search or other effort. It is a technique designed to expedite the full use of the knowledge stored in books and other material housed in the collection.’ (Maltby, 1975). Rita Marcella expounds her view of the importance of subject classification.

How does a supplier of information products, whether in an electronic or hardcopy format, go about keeping a customer happy when that customer happens to be a law librarian? The challenge of providing excellent service is of as much interest to the law librarian as a provider of services as it is to him or her as a consumer of services. For the session entitled “I can't get no satisfaction?” a panel of speakers was created consisting of David Smalley (Commercial Director at Lawtel), Paul Baker (Executive Director, Operations at Butterworths) and Pippa Hall (Customer Services Manager at Sweet & Maxwell). The panel was asked to focus on customer care and how it might be improved. As leading players in the field of customer care within the legal information sector how have they dealt with the issues of billing and customer support and how have they communicated with those customers that have raised problems? Do the speakers see a role for law librarians in the process of product development? How do the speakers see their products developing in the future and how do they expect future developments to be communicated to law librarians in the future?

Dawn Jones discusses the findings from an in-house project looking at how agile and flexible working can be successfully adopted by legal and business professionals. It is based on information gained from speaking to those with agile and flexible working already entrenched in their businesses, external consultants who advise on this change of working habits and internal teams and individuals who are already exercising agile and flexible working (albeit in a non-formal way). It is a high level guide to start thought processes around the differences between agile and flexible working, the people, the offices and the finances.

Barristers need information. They need it to defend their clients by presenting their case in court. Some of the information they need is to be found in a book; some is to be found on a database. Choices made by the barristers and the rationale for these choices form the basis for what is to follow, as Ruth Fay explains. In this piece of research, a lack of a control group meant that no firm conclusions could be drawn. However, some interesting findings emerged in terms of how the library was used. A number of recommendations were proposed. For the most part, they centred on practical and immediate rethinks with encouragement towards the ushering in of a new culture.

Vanda Broughton describes the methodology of constructing a thesaurus from a faceted classification for law (Bliss Bibliographic Classification 2nd ed. Class S). The structure of the classification is described, and the way in which the thesaural relationships are derived from this is demonstrated. Recent work to automate the process, using the encoded classification data used for the schedule display and alphabetical index, is explained. Examples of the way in which this functions are included, and an analysis of the output shows where editorial work will help to improve the resulting thesaurus.

On reflection, if it were not for BIALL I might well not be writing this. I am not referring to John's invitation to give a presentation in Cork but to the fact that BIALL played a pivotal role in my becoming a professional support lawyer. In 1997, Kate Hodgson and I were awarded BIALL bursaries to go to the AALL Conference in Baltimore; while we were there, Kate happened to tell me about the PSLs at her firm, Cameron McKenna, and the work they did. The more she told me, the more I thought, like the character Mike in the musical A Chorus Line, ‘I can do that, I can do that!’ I came home from Baltimore having gained not only a good friend but also the idea of changing my career in a way that would combine my legal training and my law library and publishing experience.

Sarah Rudman, Learning and Knowledge Management Director, describes the successful implementation by the information and knowledge management team of a new intranet in a London law firm.

Peter Clinch, Information Specialist – Law, Cardiff University describes the nature of the BVC and the important role played by law librarians in the training of young barristers.

Anne Jones, Assistant Commissioner for Wales, reports on how the Act has been implemented in Wales, discusses some of the issues that have arisen as a result, and outlines the Information Commissioner's approach to its regulation.

The Kent Law School at the University of Kent celebrated its 40th Anniversary in 2008 and Diane Raper, the current law librarian, reviews the changes that have taken place over the years in relation to user comment and feedback, and external drivers which have ensured the provision of a first-class library and information service for staff and students. She also considers the major changes in the modus operandi of the service over the last 40 years.

This article by Sarah Batts discusses findings from a dissertation research project investigating LPC and BVC students' use of resources in supporting their legal research. Although there are many similarities between the two cohorts in the tasks they find difficult, or their use of a virtual learning environment, there are also key differences in the sources of help they would turn to first to look for answers to problems. This understanding of the different emphasis that students place on different resources provokes a number of questions which, if addressed, could help promote a positive library experience for students.

This article, written by John Bahrij and Lily Ko, focuses on resources in print and electronic form that are available in English for Chinese legal research in the Greater China region. The article covers resources for the People's Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) and Taiwan. An overview of each jurisdictions legal system is also provided so that the resources can be discussed in the context of the prevailing system of law.

This article by Stuart Stone, Librarian at the Radzinowicz Library at the Institute of Criminology at Cambridge, examines a selection of online information resources used by criminologists and compares their particular features and deficiencies. The author's involvement in training early career researchers, both in formal training sessions and one-to-one sessions, over a long period, allows for user responses and experiences of the resources to inform this examination.

Claire Greening explores some of the challenges that library and information professionals face when weighing up hard copy and online resources. Rather than trying to establish a preferred or ‘best’ format, this article instead explores the advantages that both formats have to offer and considers how they can co-exist within the law library. The article concludes with some questions to ask when purchasing and organising resources and explores some of the practical considerations to take into account regarding training.

This paper that is written by Phil Bradley is based on his keynote lecture, which he gave on 12 June 2014 at the BIALL Annual Conference. He considers the growth of information on the internet, both in terms of type and amount. His article considers the difficulties that this flood of data brings with it, the challenges facing traditional search engines when faced with access by mobile devices and applications. The role of privacy and the ‘internet of things’ are also discussed. Finally, there is an overview of the role of the information professional in this new information environment.

Ruth Bird, Bodleian Law Librarian, explains how the original home-grown classification scheme became unfit for purpose, due to the enormous expansion of international legal materials held, and the reasons for implementing the Moys scheme. She outlines the progress and the problems encountered to date in this huge project.