John Trevor-Allen, the outgoing President of CILIP – the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals – talks to LIM editors Mike and Jas Breslin about his own career as a librarian, the challenges facing the profession and why every librarian is also a superhero. Well, sort of …

The International Law Book Facility (ILBF) ships donated law books to organisations across the globe which require good quality legal publications. Since its inception in 2005 it has delivered over 80,000 books to more than 250 organisations in 56 countries. Here Katrina Crossley, the Chief Executive of the ILBF, explains why it is so important and how it works, giving some examples of how the project has eased the way for people training in the law in Africa. The importance of law librarians in all of this is discussed too. Katrina also outlines how ILBF has worked with BIALL in the course of its law librarian training schemes in Sierra Leone and Ghana, and will continue to do so in other countries in Africa as this is expanded.

We have all heard horror stories of ChatGPT making information professionals redundant and taking over the world, but just how proficient is it at good old legal research? Greg Bennett, a law librarian at BPP, invested in the premium version of the package to put it to the test.

In this article, Beth Flerlage, an assistant librarian at The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, discusses the Middle Temple Library's experience in developing a nano-training platform for members. It details the creative process and describes how the organisation reviews the content using data from YouTube Studio.

“I will build it and so they will come” is not an effective strategy for any business or business function, Matthew Leopold tells us, and in this article, based on his presentation at the BIALL Conference in Belfast, he expands on this, exploring the importance of marketing legal information services internally and externally. Drawing on marketing principles and insights from renowned marketing thought leaders and academic research, this paper presents a four-step framework to enhance marketing effectiveness: understanding marketing's role, capturing attention through relevance and connection, delivering impactful communications and implementing actionable campaigns. By employing these strategies, legal information professionals can effectively promote their library services, enhance their visibility and meet the evolving needs of their audience.

This article by Ian Hunter, which has been adapted from his BIALL Conference presentation at the Belfast Europa Hotel, examines increasing the visibility of law firm library and information services in terms of what should be done and what should not be done. Or, as Ian puts it: “Is saying yes to everything really the right thing to do?”

In this article, which expands on a lightning talk that was delivered at the BIALL Conference 2023, Lauren Cummings discusses how she developed and delivered a commercial awareness workshop to third-year students at Goldsmiths, University of London. She then reflects on how employability training relates to information skills and how developing these skills can help students from less advantaged backgrounds achieve their career goals. Lauren also discusses how employability work might fit into the role of the academic law librarian.

Kanban is a framework that is commonly used in the technology sector and other industries to help teams work more effectively, but it has not been widely adopted in LIS contexts. As many of us continue to adapt to hybrid workplaces, kanban could prove to be a useful tool for organising work and communicating. In this article Laura Griffiths and Alice Tyson of the IALS Library explain how Kanban boards work and offer a case study of how a Kanban board was used in a recent project at the IALS Library. The article also discusses the wider value of kanban to the LIS sector.

In this article Emma Sullivan and Sandra Smythe go through the presentation they gave at the BIALL conference entitled “Apprenticeship pathways into the library, information and knowledge profession”. Emma and Sandra co-Chair the CILIP Trailblazer group, which is currently developing a Level 7 Library, Information and Knowledge Professional Apprenticeship Standard. Here they discuss how and why they became involved with the group and why the apprenticeship route is so important for the profession, both for employees and employers. (For more background to the CILIP apprenticeship schemes see page 140 of the Autumn 2023 issue of LIM.)

Working with construction contracts can be a real challenge for information professionals due to the confusing way in which they are often named, the sheer number of editions and amendments, the differing terminology that's employed and many other factors. Here Debra O'Malley, Senior Information Services Officer at Pinsent Masons, threads her way through the labyrinth of construction law while providing an overview of the vast range of contracts available and where they can be found.

Public Information Online (PIO) is an online service from Dandy Booksellers Ltd offering a wide range of official documents going back, in many cases, more than a century. PIO is safeguarding the accessibility to historic government decisions which have changed the face of our constitution. Here Donna Ravenhill, Managing Director of Dandy Booksellers, takes LIM through the origins and history of PIO, explains how you can make the most of its facilities, and outlines its plans for the future.

The right to free speech and expression is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 19 (1) (a) of part III of the Indian constitution. The fundamental rights act as the constitutional restraints over the state's authority to intervene within the protective gamut of civil liberties of the people. However, the Indian judiciary remains the principal enforcer of the constitutional liberties guaranteed as fundamental rights whenever breached by the state. As the interpreters of the constitution and guardians of civil liberties, the Indian constitutional courts have consistently acted to protect people from state-authorised interventions in their respective domains of fundamental rights. To this concept, this research article by Rebant Juyal attempts to study the landmark judgment of the Indian Supreme Court in the case of Anuradha Bhasin v Union of India, where the court upheld the fundamental right of people to express their speech and expression on the internet.

In the latest in our series of articles reviewing archived issues of Legal Information Management and The Law Librarian – as the journal was once known – the LIM editors leaf through the issues of 2003.