The emergence of the National Assembly for Wales as a devolved legislature producing first Measures and now Acts, together with the establishment of a Welsh Government with a range of powers to make secondary legislation, has added a new layer of complication to the already over-complicated legislative landscape of the United Kingdom. This article, written by Daniel Greenberg, examines briefly some of the resulting complications.

This research, conducted by Erin Gow, aims to explore the information literacy and legal research training needs of users of the Middle Temple library.* In order to do this it focuses on the patterns of use of library resources by users, reasons for these patterns, previous training users have received, and general evidence of user training needs in law libraries. The research as a whole was generated in result of the recognition that many Middle Temple library users require further legal research skills training in order to confidently find and employ the extensive resources available through the library. Before such training could be developed, however, research needed to be conducted into the specific capabilities and needs of the unique user base at the library. As a result of the research the current habits of library users have been explored, their general training levels and needs identified, and recommendations made about how to structure training so as to address these needs and best serve users. It was discovered that Middle Temple library users generally visit the library frequently, and are already confident using certain materials such as textbooks. Despite confidence in using certain common materials, users struggle to take advantage of the full range of resources available, making training necessary. The difficulties many users currently face in the library stem from a general lack of information literacy and library skills training.

Legislation on the Web gives rise to a unique set of challenges. The content has strict rules governing its structure and typographic layout. One piece of legislation can change others, often in complex ways. The text may or may not be in force and may or may not extend to a particular jurisdiction. This unique linked data service and its value proposition is discussed by Carol Tullo. This is a data source that underpins and drives the UK legislation publishing processes and the validation of secondary legislation, providing a streamlined end to end set of online legal tools for all to use.

This paper written by Samuel Wiggins and Marie Cannon is drawn from their presentation at the 2013 BIALL Annual Conference. The article presents the findings of a survey conducted to explore the perceptions of New Professionals in the library and information sector, and the various challenges and issues they face on entering their first professional roles within law librarianship. The relevance of the professional library and information qualification within the legal sector is considered, as are potential barriers to working with legal information. The required skill sets and training needs for New Professionals and experienced professionals are also compared.

China is entering a new era; after the 12th National People's Congress, which is to be held in March 2013, China's fifth generation of power transition will be complete. Czarina Poon offers the LIM readership an overview of the political and economic developments within China and outlines the governmental and legal structures for a nation that is one of the last five remaining Communist countries.

If Scotland votes ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Should Scotland be an independent country?’ how will its relationship change with the remainder of the UK? A ‘yes’ vote will have huge financial, political and legal implications. This article, written by Candace Guite, considers the current role of the UK Supreme Court in Scotland, the recent conflict (to which the title alludes) and it reflects on Scotland's potential international status. The UK Government has argued that it would be regarded as the continuator state and an independent Scotland would be a successor state, and so, in the event of a ‘yes’ vote Scotland would have to re-apply for entry to the European Union and the United Nations. However, there are arguments to support the alternative option, that Scotland could be regarded as a co-equal successor state with England, and thus would retain EU and UN membership.

This paper, written by Wan Satirah Wan Mohd Saman and Abrar Haider, presents a case study of E-Shariah and discusses the application of information and communication technologies in the administration of Shariah Courts in Malaysia. The technologies have two roles in the administration of Shariah courts; firstly, these technologies enable the workflow of the courts and facilitate information management, and secondly they are used to integrate State Shariah Courts in various jurisdictions of Malaysia. The case study highlights the issues and challenges faced during implementation of this initiative and provides an appreciation of how effectively technology has been used to help Shariah Courts dispense speedy justice.

There is a perception in the legal information profession that levels of information literacy among law students and trainee solicitors are lower than they should be. In this article Ian Hunter considers if this starts at sixth form level and discusses the Google generation stereotype. Training sessions given to sixth-form students by the author are described and the students' levels of information literacy are considered against various information literacy standards. The suitability of these standards for sixth form students is assessed and suggestions for future information literacy training at school, HE and trainee solicitor level are discussed.

This article by Sue Westcott discusses some of the changes in government policy since the election of the Coalition Government and the implications of local decision making for public services. These changes in turn will change the type of sources that will be relevant to legal information work relating to public policy.

After more than 60 years of development, the People's Republic of China has established the world's largest size of legal education, with 624 law schools and 450,000 thousands of undergraduate students currently enrolled. As Wenhua Shan explains, whilst the quality of education has also been improved, it generally falls short of meeting the domestic and international challenges that China is facing in legal education and practice. The most important measure recently adopted by the Chinese Government to enhance the quality of legal education, the “Outstanding Legal Personnel Education Scheme”, is poised to bring significant changes to the structure, contents and methods of Chinese legal education; and it will boost deeper cooperation between law schools and the practice sectors. Further measures are nevertheless required to achieve the desired results of the scheme and to place Chinese legal education in an internationally competitive position.

At the University of Salford it is a struggle to find sufficient timetable space to deliver in-depth legal research training to new first year students. The training delivered often alienated students due to the information overload they experienced. Timetable pressures resulted in sessions being librarian-led with little interaction with students. This left students feeling overwhelmed, often nervous of using the library and performing research. As a result law students resorted to using Google as their academic research tool of choice. To combat these problems the Law Librarian, Nicola Sales, implemented the innovative training concept of ‘flipping the classroom’. Rather than using teaching time to instruct students in ‘how to’ perform research by demonstrating resources and concepts, the classroom was flipped so students studied online content before entering the classroom. Face to face teaching time was then spent actively learning through practical tasks and discussion to consolidate student learning. Students took responsibility for their own learning and teaching sessions were based on group work and discussion, facilitated by the librarian rather than being librarian-led. This article is based on the presentation, ‘Flipping Training’ delivered at the BIALL Conference 2013. It will look at how the ‘flipping the classroom’ concept works and how it has been implemented at the University of Salford. It will examine the benefits and drawbacks of flipping training as well as ideas for implementing flipped training within other organisations.

This article, written by John Bahrij and Lily Ko, focuses on resources in print and electronic form that are available in English for Chinese legal research in the Greater China region. The article covers resources for the People's Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) and Taiwan. An overview of each jurisdictions legal system is also provided so that the resources can be discussed in the context of the prevailing system of law.

Graduate traineeships are an excellent way for people to enter into a career in libraries, providing a vast range of relevant experience. In the following article, last year's Graduate Trainee at Lincoln's Inn Library Natalie Kent, describes her experience as a trainee in law, outlining her background, role, training and visits, and reflects on the profession more widely.

Alison Lorrimer, who works at the Departmental Solicitor's Office Library in Belfast, reflects on how the sources of legal information have been affected by the changing political landscape in Northern Ireland.

A presentation about collaboration, itself the product of a collaboration, looking at a collaborative project as an example of the value of people from different teams working together! That was Peter Griffith and Pete Smith at the BIALL Conference 2014 in Glasgow, a conference which took as its theme ‘law as a business.’ They discuss the challenges with reference to the LawSync project.