WILLI STEINER MEMORIAL LECTURE 2013

The Willi Steiner Memorial Lecture was established in 2004 to commemorate the memory of W.A.F.P. Steiner LLM (London), MA (Cantab), FLA, of Gray's Inn, Barrister–in–Law, an eminent law librarian of national and international stature. Willi Steiner was a significant figure in the law library profession and as well as within BIALL; indeed he was a founder member of the association.Throughout his career Willi Steiner was devoted to law librarianship and worked to build ever closer links between librarianship and the legal profession. This biennial series of memorial lectures, now a fixture in the programme of the BIALL Annual Conference, feature speakers who address issues that reflect his role and his interests in law and librarianship. On this occasion, the fourth in the series, Hector MacQueen, Professor of Private Law at the University of Edinburgh, assesses the current state of Scots law and the Scottish legal system and, in the light of the referendum to be held in September 2014, argues that this small legal system cannot be self-contained, that it is in some crisis and will not be rescued should Scotland become independent. His paper was delivered at the BIALL Conference in Glasgow in June 2013 and, since then, it has been updated for publication in this issue of LIM.

LEGAL BIOGRAPHY

The theme for spring is legal biography and here I am immensely grateful to David Gee, Deputy Librarian at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS). Not only did he mastermind an excellent event, Legal Biography: a National Training Day, which was held at IALS on 15 May 2013, he also paved the way for the publication of the papers in this section of LIM by liaising closely with the speakers thereafter. David opens the theme, as Guest Editor, by describing the event itself and introduces each of the various articles.

INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES

The International Perspectives section contains an insightful article written by Wirt Soetenhorst, a founder of the Boom Juridische uitgevers (BJu) publishing business that is based in The Hague. His article analyses the current traditional business model (the sale of physical textbooks) and outlines several potential scenarios for the future of legal publishing in which publishers move into teaching and academic institutions.

CURRENT ISSUES

In the Current Issues section Andrea Longson, of the Advocates Library at Parliament House in Edinburgh, highlights the issues and implications following the implementation of the new legal deposit legislation which came into force in April 2013.

CURRENT AWARENESS

As usual, the Current Awareness section has been compiled by Katherine Read and Laura Griffiths at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.

SLS/BIALL ACADEMIC LAW LIBRARY SURVEY 2011/2012

With reference to the report published in the previous issue of LIM relating to the SLS/BIALL Academic Law Library Survey 2011/2012, as a point of clarification:

Please ignore the specific finding relating to Halsbury's Laws in Section 12: “Legal Databases” on page 268 of Legal Information Management, vol.13, no.4, 2013. It has become apparent that this specific finding had more to do with a change in the design of the 2013 questionnaire rather than being a true reflection of the popularity of Halsbury's Laws and it should therefore be ignored. The design change will be rectified in the 2014 survey questionnaire.