Katherine Dawson, from Citizens Advice Information Team, explains how they have developed and maintain two separate databases of information, using various metadata and classification tools. Adviceguide is a free site for the general public to access information on the legal and societal issues of daily living. Advisernet is a more detailed site giving in-depth information to advisers working in Bureaux.

The purpose of this article by Peter Savage of Cobbetts is to give a brief introduction to the methods used by companies to raise money by both debt and equity financing methods, primarily on the public markets in the City of London, and to set the background to the involvement of lawyers in the process.

Alison Lorrimer, who works at the Departmental Solicitor's Office Library in Belfast, reflects on how the sources of legal information have been affected by the changing political landscape in Northern Ireland.

In this article, John Sinkins, Chairman of Wildy & Sons Ltd, outlines a brief history of the company and how his family have been involved since 1895. It describes how the company has evolved, particularly since the turn of the millennium. He describes his personal journey and that of the company since he joined in 1968, more than 50 years ago.

In this article Aileen Johnson, Head of Knowledge at Charles Russell Speechlys, describes the process of creating a knowledge strategy for a law firm. Simon Heatley, a Knowledge Development Lawyer in Charles Russell Speechlys' Disputes team, comments on this at a practice area level. Although drafted from a law firm perspective, this process could be adapted and replicated in other organisations.

In this checklist, Margie Jones picks out some of the key issues she encountered when moving a regional law firm's library from the head office to new premises situated six miles from the town centre to a converted warehouse. These include the challenge of offering a distance service to the fee earners.

In September 2003, Nottingham Law School launched its innovative Postgraduate Diploma in Know-How Management for Legal Practice, the first course of its kind in the UK providing professional development and training for those engaged in knowledge management in legal organisations. Now nearing completion of a successful first year, with students from both private practice and in-house legal departments, and from a range of backgrounds in knowledge management, including librarians, professional support lawyers, heads of knowledge management, managing partners and in-house counsel, the Law School is currently in the process of recruiting intake for the second running of the course commencing in September 2004.

A new Law Licence was agreed between the legal profession and the CLA in late 2008 and Paul Rollins of the The Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, describes its main features and the role of the CLA in enforcing copyright law in the UK.

Catherine O'Sullivan of Norton Rose outlines the benefits of using the Moys scheme in a large law firm library. She also briefly discusses how the firm has tailored it to their specific requirements and she finishes by pointing out the potential disadvantages of the scheme.

This is the latest report analysing the results of the annual Academic Law Library Survey that is jointly sponsored by the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) and the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL). It has been compiled and written by David Gee, Librarian at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, a part of the School of Advanced Study at the University of London.

Goldsmiths, University of London, started teaching LLBs in Law in 2019/2020. Greg Bennett was hired in 2018 to be the subject librarian for law, and to stock the library before teaching commenced. In this article, based on his presentation at the BIALL Online Annual Conference in June 2021, the author will discuss his decision-making and selection processes regarding his choices about what to include, and what not to include in the collection.

As part of the 40th Anniversary Issue we are including information about some of the regional groups which have come into existence since the foundation of the Association, as this has been a particularly active area of our work. We have not included the City Legal Information Group in this article as we covered it in Vol.8 (4) 257–259.

The Financial Services and Markets Department is one of 11 main departments at City law firm Travers Smith LLP. Shirley Lofthouse, Head of Information at Travers Smith, considers the work of the financial services lawyer and the resources needed to support the research requirements of the department.

Amanda McKenzie writes about how information professionals can play a role in creating and implementing an effective knowledge management strategy within a law firm and how they and professional support lawyers can work together.

As part of our 40th Anniversary issue we asked the immediate Past President of the Association, Jackie Fishleigh, to tell us what she felt the most important activities of the Association have been over the past year. We also asked Daniella King, now the President, to write about what she considers are the challenges the Association immediately faces.

On the occasion of the Association's 30th Birthday, Mary Blake produced A History of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians 1969–1999, to which members are directed for a detailed account of the aims and objectives, activities and publications of the Association during that period. Details of the past ten years can be found in the History which is available on the website. The following account is intended to draw readers' attention to just some of the Association's most important milestones in its journey through the past 40 years, including notable events in the history of Legal Information Management.

This article by Patrick Overy, from the University of Exeter, aims to clarify some of the distinctions between different categories of working document and provides details of some of the databases and collections which are essential for research into the workings of the European Union.

Cathy Mattis shares some ideas for conducting KM surveys within a law firm.

This article takes the form of a short interview with George Woodman, Librarian at the Northern Ireland Assembly Library. The questions were posed by the LIM Editor. George was recently given Life Membership of BIALL and received the Wildy BIALL Law Librarian of the Year 2011 Award at the 2011 BIALL Annual Dinner in Newcastle. More significantly, George was awarded an MBE in HM The Queen's Birthday Honours 2010 in recognition of his services to the profession.