New Look for LIM

This issue heralds a change in our cover. It was decided by the Editorial Board, together with Cambridge University Press, our publishers, that it was time to modernise our appearance. We think it is a great improvement and hope that our readers will agree.

Scottish Legal Information and Law Librarianship

Much of the contents of this issue are devoted to this topic and we have had wonderful support from our Scottish colleagues. We have attempted to cover the wide range of law libraries in Scotland. On the legal professional and historical front, John McKenzie writes about the Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow. Elaine Bird of the Signet Library and Andrea Longson of the Faculty of Advocates Library, both in Edinburgh, detail the services offered by their institutions. These three are all housed in wonderful historical buildings. The challenge of the new is taken up by Susan Mansfield, who has contributed a comprehensive article about the “born digital” library and information service of the Scottish Parliament, housed in the theatrically modern and controversial building in Holyrood.

Two academic law librarians have written for us – Kay Munro describes the services offered by Glasgow University for its law students and faculty, and Gareth Ryan does the same for Strathclyde University.

A clutch of government librarians have also contributed. Roddy Waldhelm describes the comprehensive information services offered to the Government Legal Service in Scotland. Nick Brotchie writes about the history of efforts at law reform in Scotland, and discusses current initiatives from his perspective as Scottish Law Commission Librarian.

Margaret Cherry, who is a very experienced legal publisher, currently running Avizandum, her own company, describes the history and current state of legal publishing in Scotland.

Janice Edwards and Stuart Reid of Maclay Murray & Spens provide a clear outline of the Scottish legal system. They cover the civil and criminal court system, the effect of devolution on Scots law, and examples of the differences between the Scottish and English legal systems.

It would appear that the profession is flourishing north of the border, as illustrated by Gill Black, the current Convenor of the Scottish Law Librarian's Group, in her article about their activities.

Current Topics

Julie Jones, from Cornell University Law School, has contributed a “think” piece on the future of information management in the digital age and she provides considerable food for thought. Jules Winterton has been presenting papers to the Philippines Group of Law Librarians, whilst also enjoying some spectacular scenery, guaranteed to make us all envious as we shiver in Arctic like temperatures at home.

Greg Rose has produced a comprehensive and extremely useful guide to the thorny problems of construction contracts.

Checklist

We have previously covered the topic of library moves, but Margie Jones, who recently had to both downsize and move a library collection to an out-of-town site, concentrates on particular aspects to be considered, including weeding the stock, with particular emphasis on how paper sources may or may not be replaced by electronic services. She also considers the impact on the library staff and how to manage expectations.

From Our Own Correspondent

John Eaton, our much-loved drummer from Winnipeg, has again kindly agreed to write for us. This time about a ground-breaking initiative involving Canadian academic libraries buying electronic resources on a consortia basis. This involves the publishers tendering for supplying the services – a real boot on the other foot idea. At present it is concentrated in the STM area but John is hoping it will spread shortly to law and social sciences.

Book and Product Reviews

This issue contains two very thorough and excellent book reviews, written by Dunstan Speight on Research Monitor and Andrew Clarke on a recent book on IM. We are grateful to them both – their work will be extremely useful to their fellow information professionals. Michael Oberwarth, our Book and Product Reviews Editor will always be very pleased to hear from any of you who would be prepared to contribute reviews in the future.

Winter 2008 Issue

The article by Daniel Hayter entitled A Beginner's Guide to the City's Financial Markets has been withdrawn from Cambridge Journals Online for permissions reasons at the request of the author and Bloomberg. The article remains available in the print issue.