“When digital systems remove the physical object (the book) from the archive, then all that is left is a form of rights licensing. This is intellectual property in its purest form. If books as physical objects have helped to define the library in the past, then the negotiation of licences will define the library of the future. That is why the business of licensing electronic rights is so difficult.”

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.

The European Conversion for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) is an international treaty of the Council of Europe. It was adopted in 1950, ratified by the UK in 1951 and entered into force in 1953. The unsual feature of the Convention, as an international human rights instrument, is that it provides a mechanism for individuals to enforce their Convention rights against state parties.

Undeniably the perception of success of an information unit or library in a law firm (or any other organisation for that matter) is down to two main factors. The level of support from the organisation is one, and often that could be interpreted as attitude and/or the level of the person who is responsible for allocating budget etc (ie the library partner) and/or how influential he or she is. The second: the way in which the Library or Information Unit Manager operates, their influencing and interpersonal skills, their general management of the information function, in particular creating the perception of being good value for money and invariably providing the right (quality) information in the right quantity at the right time.

At Allen & Overy what our customers want is the answer. They want an answer which is timely, accurate and authoritative. I could amplify this bald statement by saying that sometimes the customer wants to know what the question will be. Not long ago a partner said to me that what he really wanted was that I should be able to tell him what the questions would be that the client would ask him at a reception that evening. Perhaps another way of putting it is to say that he wanted the knowledge he did not have at that moment.

Professions of all types are being affected by globalisation of markets and the information technology revolution. The information world is developing rapidly and increasing numbers of people are being attracted to working within this modern sphere, many of whom have had no formal information training. Does this mean that a library and information qualification is no longer a requirement and if so why As an information graduate in the modern information world, I have two choices. I can take each day as it comes and become a pawn in a high stakes chess game played by others or I can take individual responsibility and develop my own career.

What is the law other than a collection of rules intended to guide human coexistence and to govern society? Some of society's rules derive from an earnest desire to improve the lot of the public. Others simply atempt to constrain antisocial behaviour or codify exixting customs, some good, some bad. So in a few modern Muslim societies, ancient rules about the proper form ofdress for women are enforced as strictly as those intended to prevent and punish criminal behaviour. And until quite recently, although not imposed so strictly, similar customs applied here: wearing of hats in Church, medieval dress for nuns and 17th century wigs and gowns in court. Other laws regulate without a moral imperative: traffic regulations and limits on noise spring to mind. Some laws attempt to control commerce and are a mix of the regulatory and moral.

The Human Rights Act 1998 (the Act) incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) into English domestic law for the first time since the Convention was signed in 1951. It does this by imposing a duty on public authorities to act in a manner which is consistent with Convention rights, unless legislation prohibits them for doing so.

First of all, apologies for the title. This article is based on a talk I was asked to give to the Welsh Law Librarians Group at their inaugural meeting. I was allocated the graveyard slot in the afternoon and it was intended to be something to make everyone wake up. There is nothing like suggesting librarians are no longer needed to do just that.The purpose of this piece is to look at developments in legal information provision — and information provision generally — over the past five to ten years.

No, I am not about to start an agony aunt copyright column but rather aim to select and try to resolve one or two copyright problems law librarians may have. Law librarians are no different from any other set of library and information professionals in finding copyright a difficult area. Copyright may be a minefield, as is so often said, but if one is aware of the potential problems and treads carefully, a safe path may be found through it.

My Institute is part of, and funded by, the Max Planck Society, which roughly corresponds to an Academy of Science in other countries. The Society runs 80 research institutes today, out of which 12 conduct research in the humanities, including six institutes that deal with legal questions on a superior level, including mine. The different institutes are located in different parts of the country, and this very much corresponds to the federalist foundations of the German state.

The MDP environment in which I work is the professional services firm of Andersen. I am the manager of the combined research service for Andersen's UK Tax practice and the Andersen Legal law firms in the UK. Andersen Legal in the UK is the firm of Garretts in England and Dundas & Wilson in Scotland. Andersen Legal practices share knowledge, resources and technology to offer a broad range of legal services to clients around the world.

Although one can read differing accounts of what is involved in information auditing, most commentators would probably accept that audits are, in some form or another, a type of investigation undertaken for the purpose of optimising information use within organisations. In practice this can range from the compilation of a straightforward inventory of published materials to an analysis of information use and flow across the whole of an organisation's operations. Despite differences in scope, most audits are likely to consist of a survey of the organisation combined with some form of gap analysis.

There are a wide variety of reasons for you to decide to create a digital collection in your library but there are a number of questions that you should ask about the collection before you make any final decisions. This article does not attempt to provide answers to these questions, as the answers will vary greatly from library to library and depending on the different types of information being considered, but rather it highlights those issues you should consider when evaluating collections. The case study of the NSW Electoral Profiles shows how the NSW Parliamentary Library created a digital collection in response to a demand from our users for information and a need to be able to deliver it quickly across a wide area.

UK and International case materials, news updates and commentary. This service includes

Current awareness. News and Updates on Human Rights.

Cases. Includes relevant cases from All England Next-Day Case Digests, Butterworths Human Rights Cases, European Court of Human Rights, All Englans Law Reports and Law Reports of the Commonwealth.

Commentary. Lester & Pannick: Human Rights Law and Practice

Human Rights Act 1998

Links. A Selection of links useful to practitioners affected by the Human Rights Act 1998

Catalogue

E-mail Alterter. Allows the user to recieve tailored daily or weekly updates Containing the development appearing in Human Rights Direct.