Editorial

Here is the autumn 22(3) issue of Legal Information Management (LIM).

On the afternoon of Thursday 8 September the sad news of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was announced. The rules and process of succession, under UK legislation, meant that the throne seamlessly passed to her eldest son and heir, and the reign of His Majesty King Charles III began immediately. I was struck by the continuity, and the very next morning, Dominic Casciani (Legal Correspondent at the BBC) was reporting, ‘At the Old Bailey we've just had the first case called on in the name of the King. The court usher said: “Silence, be upstanding in court. All persons who have anything to do before My Lords and Ladies, the King's Justices at the Central Criminal Court draw near and give your attendance. God save the King.”’ (https://twitter.com/bbcdomc). Such moments of continuity and stability are so important in a world that is often in turmoil, whether it be in politics, in the economy, in conflict and war, or in our society.

FEATURE ARTICLE

This edition of LIM begins with a feature article written by Paul Magrath, of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England & Wales (ICLR), who provides an overview of ‘how technology, including artificial intelligence, is transforming legal practice and the conduct of litigation.’ He continues by taking a look at the ICLR's very own AI-driven search tool, Case Genie. The article is based on his presentation at BIALL's 52^nd Annual Conference which took place earlier in the summer, between 6th and 8th July at the Wyboston Lakes Resort.

SUPPORTING BARRISTERS

The next section concerns library and information services that support the work of barristers. This theme brings together five articles on the subject and starts with a look at how librarianship in Chambers has changed and how librarians have risen to the various challenges posed over the last 20 years. That article has been written by Alison Million. Alison's advice with regard to the theme as a whole has been very helpful in preparing this issue of LIM.

Michelle Celik continues the topic by describing her experiences of organising a Chambers information service. Harpreet Dhillon has written an article outlining the crucial role of the four Inns of Court libraries – those of Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple, Middle Temple and Gray's Inn - in supporting the work of barristers. Niamh Burns provides an insight into the current issues facing the barrister profession in Northern Ireland and describes how the Bar of Northern Ireland's Library & Information Service is supporting its members. Nuala Byrne then describes how The Law Library of The Bar of Ireland, based in Dublin, has developed to deliver a modern, networked, knowledge-based library and information service for barristers.

CURRENT INTERESTS

In the ‘current interests’ section, there are three articles covering three different topics. Firstly, Claire Sewell discusses the level of knowledge and skills needed in relation to copyright in an academic library context, and how a collaborative approach at the University of Cambridge has helped to increase confidence among library staff when dealing with copyright-related enquiries. Andreas Nishikawa-Pacher contributes an article entitled ‘Law reviews, open metadata and RSS feeds’. He suggests that more law reviews should adopt digital object identifiers (DOIs) and deposit openly accessible metadata, to improve scholarly impact. The third article in this section is written by Varda Mone and CLV Sivakumar who analyse the GDPR compliance issues posed by new emerging technologies.

CURRENT AWARENESS

As always, I am very grateful to Katherine Read and Heather Memess for contributing the current awareness section that brings the autumn issue to a close.

LIM EDITORSHIP

Having been fortunate enough to have been appointed to the role of editor-in-chief for Legal Information Management in 2011, I decided a little while ago that 2022 would be the right time for me to step down. Therefore, this issue of the journal will be my penultimate LIM. I'm delighted that Jas Breslin and her husband Mike Breslin will be jointly taking up the role of editor from the spring 2023 LIM onwards. Jas has been a long-standing figure of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) with a professional career that spans some 25 years working in law firm libraries. With all her experience in the legal information industry, Jas will be responsible for commissioning content for future issues of LIM while Mike, who has had a lengthy career in journalism, publishing and editing, will focus on the journalistic and editorial elements of the role. As a result, the journal will be in excellent hands and it can look forward to a very bright and confident future. The winter 2022 LIM will be something of a handover between us and that will be my last issue as LIM Editor.