In this article, Mary Lacity and Leslie Willcocks review the practice of outsourcing business and information technology services. Research finds that outsourcing can deliver value to client organisations, but that it takes a tremendous amount of detailed management by clients and providers to realise expected benefits. The proven practices that contribute to positive outsourcing outcomes can be summarised as contractual governance, relational governance, client retained capabilities, and provider capabilities. Despite outsourcing's maturity, some enduring contractual challenges remain, particularly in the areas of incentive pricing and contract adaptability.

Loyita Worley outlines recent developments among law firms where outsourcing has been embraced in relation to their library, information and knowledge functions and services. She defines the terms and themes of the subject – outsourcing, offshoring, nearshoring and onshoring – and offers some thoughts for the future of legal information services in the commercial sector.

Within the legal library world “outsourcing” has become a hot topic, and not necessarily a welcome one. In the last 12 months there have been several law firms making the move to outsource their Information Services, so why is this happening and what are the options? Kate Stanfield, Vice President, Knowledge and Research at Integreon examines the issues. Her article is based on a presentation given at the BIALL Conference in June 2011.

Edward Gill discusses the concept and issues surrounding knowledge process outsourcing and provides an insight into the business model of, and services offered by, the company, Evalueserve.

In this article Susan Alcock examines the issues relating to outsourcing of legal information services. She reflects the many concerns felt within the industry and offers many points-of-view that have been collected from those working in the field as in-house law librarians and legal information professionals.

Much has been written and discussed about the outsourcing of library staff. In the following article, Dunstan Speight, Library Manager at Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, looks at the role of in-house information teams. Although written from the perspective of the manager of a team of researchers in a City law firm, the author hopes that elements of his experience will have a relevance to other sectors and team structures.

Knowledge management is still a difficult issue within law firms. One of the potential barriers to widespread adoption of knowledge management in law firms has been cited as cultural resistance. In order to better understand this obstacle, a Delphi survey was conducted with key knowledge management experts in US and UK law firms. There were six factors that focused on elements of cultural resistance. This article, written by Elana Zeide and Jay Liebowitz, highlights the findings.

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.

This article, written by Natasha Choolhun, follows the progress of submitting a proposal to BIALL Council on the topic of devising a ‘Legal Information Literacy Toolkit’ following discussion at the 2011 BIALL conference.

In this article, James Mullan addresses recent technological developments with particular emphasis on Google+, Cloud Computing, mobile technologies, ebooks and e-readers.

In this article Nadine Fathers focuses on the increased accessibility to information relating to pending appeal cases.

Jackie Fishleigh summarises some tried and tested methods that can turn an intranet into an invaluable business tool. This article provides a number of top tips for engaging users and maintaining their interest and attention for the benefit of their working community. The article, which draws heavily on recently published material by Martin White and Interact Intranet, aims to be informative and entertaining!