Andrew Mills, of Freeth Cartwright LLP, gave a paper at the 38th Annual BIALL Study Conference in Sheffield in June 2007 on blogging. He describes how he set up IMPACT(R), his blog, which covers intellectual property and IT issues. He describes the software he used and the potential pitfalls involved when starting out. He emphasises the importance of using RSS feeds and considers whether blogs will present a threat to traditional hard copy publishing because of the speed with which they can communicate information.

Angela Carritt of the Bodleian Law Library gave a paper at the 38th Annual BIALL Study Conference in Sheffield in June 2007. She discusses Oxford University's Legal Research Skills Programme (LRSP), looking at its content, methodology and effectiveness. She also looks at the programme as an example of a stand-alone skills course and asks whether such courses can be effective. Additionally, she discusses students' use of online resources and suggests that they have developed computer based study strategies which make the use of print resources inconvenient. The paper draws on research by Sandra Meredith into students' expectations and experiences of the LRSP and how they use their learning after the classes.

This article by Maria Mawson, Natasha Semmens and Mark Taylor, is based on a paper given at the 38th BIALL Annual Study Conference held in Sheffield in June 2007 and describes a new partnership between colleagues from the Library and the School of Law at the University of Sheffield, which has led to the development of an innovative new undergraduate foundation module in law. It begins by describing the situation which existed before the project. Next, two key changes which provided the impetus for the new collaboration are described. Finally, key elements of the new foundation module are discussed.

This paper was presented by Penny Bailey at the 38th BIALL Annual Study Conference held in Sheffield in June 2007 and covers the challenges involved in introducing a knowledge management strategy to a law firm. It suggests methods to be adopted in trying to implement such a service including identification with the firm's business objectives; persuasive communication; identification of the benefits accruing and strategies for collecting knowledge.

In this article, which is a summary of his presentation at the 38th BIALL Annual Study Conference held in Sheffield in June 2007, James Mullan provides an account of how the Content Team at CMS Cameron McKenna implemented LawPort and the issues they faced from the initial pilot to completion of the project.

This article by Paul Billingham of Concept Searching and Phil Ayton of UC Logic covers the history of computerised searching aids in the context of knowledge management projects and describes conceptSearching, which is a scientific approach to trying to solve natural language searching problems using a number of techniques, not just an algorithm. They also consider federated searching and describe the Sysero information portal and a taxonomy manager application.

This article by Rob Martin addresses the issue of effectively managing the searching of enterprise information systems in law firms. It discusses the relative merits of federated, enterprise and integrated search and includes a case study of the combined solution adopted by City law firm, Ashurst.

In this article Chris Wallis examines some of the recent and impending developments in technology for managing legal information – in all its various guises. He looks in some detail at the facilities offered by Microsoft Sharepoint and tries to identify its USPs.

Carol Tullo, Director of the Office of Public Sector Information, explains what comprises public sector information and how her office is planning to promote the re-use of such information, to the benefit of the citizens of this country via sophisticated web technologies.

Stella Dextre Clarke provided an article for our Winter 2003 issue on the government's drive towards interoperability, and the role of a controlled vocabulary in easing access to information. Here is an update, casting light on the relevance of the government's standards, from the viewpoint of our profession.

This is the second contribution by Lesley Dingle and Daniel Bates to an expanding audio and photographic archive, which focuses on the careers of prominent academics who have a long affiliation with the Faculty of Law at Cambridge University.

This article by Sarah Batts discusses findings from a dissertation research project investigating LPC and BVC students' use of resources in supporting their legal research. Although there are many similarities between the two cohorts in the tasks they find difficult, or their use of a virtual learning environment, there are also key differences in the sources of help they would turn to first to look for answers to problems. This understanding of the different emphasis that students place on different resources provokes a number of questions which, if addressed, could help promote a positive library experience for students.

Melinda Renner, from the University of New Brunswick, writes about her experiences as a New England Law Library Consortium International Fellow who was seconded to the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London. She describes the visits she made and her impressions of how academic librarianship in Britain and Canda appear to share many of the same issues and problems.

This article comes from Sue Woodman, the outgoing Chair of ALLA and brings us up to date with developments down under

In this very practical checklist Michael Oberwarth identifies the key tasks to be undertaken when starting a law firm library from scratch. He then suggests strategies for setting up an information service which will add value to the fee earners.