If there are any two letters that represent the zeitgeist of our profession, and indeed the world at large, they are A and I. AI, of course, stands for artificial intelligence, a subject that we've covered quite extensively in LIM, and are sure to continue to do so. One such article was in our Volume 22 Number 2 (Summer, 2022) issue and was penned by Jake Hearn, the assistant librarian at the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple and a member of the LIM Editorial Board. In this article Jordan Murphy, the Chair of the City Legal Information Group, reports from a presentation Jake gave to CLIG in April 2023 in which the views expressed in his original piece were updated and expanded.

It goes without saying that few things are more important to information professionals than data, all the more so when that data relates to their own profession. Which is why this third edition of BIALL's Law Firm Survey is so welcome, providing, as it does, data on a range of different information departments working in the library space, while also drawing comparisons from the results of earlier surveys. Here Catherine Bowl and Diane Miller explain the process of compiling the survey, its findings, and the interesting trends it has highlighted.

This article, written by Kate Faulkner and Wendy Lynwood, considers the skills of law librarians and shows how they can assist those who also hold a copyright specialist role. Most librarians encounter some aspects of copyright within their role. However, the understanding that law librarians have with regard to law, legal research capabilities, teaching and liaison skills equips them to take on copyright, sometimes in addition to their law library role, or to move into a full-time copyright specialist role.

The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the legal information profession within law firm libraries in Britain and Ireland. As the pandemic only began the year before commencing this research, few studies had been conducted on the topic, thereby a clear opening for this study emerged. This study uses a survey research strategy comprised of a mixed methods research approach. Desk research in the form of a literature review opens the study. A questionnaire and 5 semi-structured interviews were subsequently conducted. To understand the impact of the pandemic on the legal information profession within law firm libraries, the research objectives break the topic down into 4 areas that give insight into the consequences of the pandemic. The research found that A) working from home was the major impact faced due to the lockdown in spring 2020; B) use and spending on print resources declined; C) the role of legal information professionals has not significantly changed; and D) future legal information professionals will need to upskill due to technological developments and improve the image of the profession. Owing to the recent outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to compare the findings of this research to similar future studies to determine the validity of the results.

This article, written by Jake Hearn, seeks to define and reevaluate artificial intelligence (AI) in the context of the corporate legal world. The article explores some of the opportunities on offer to information professionals to ensure that the profession continues to grow within the economic, cultural and professional context it is situated.

In recent years, the company called CB Resourcing has established itself in the recruitment business and regularly advertises for positions in the knowledge management, business research, legal tech and law librarianship worlds. In this short article one of the Directors of CB Resourcing, Simon Burton, offers some thoughts about the recruitment business, the current state of the market and describes the services that are provided by the company. The article has been written in the form of an interview with questions posed by the editor of this journal and answers given by Simon Burton.

In Autumn 2021 the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) carried out a follow-up survey to the May 2020 ‘Covid-19 Industry Survey'. BIALL President, Catherine Bowl, gives an overview of the findings of ‘State of the Nation' survey which was published in December 2021. The results of the survey are to be found on the pages that follow this introduction.

In response to evolving legal technologies, this article by Dominique Garingan and Alison Jane Pickard explores the concept of algorithmic literacy, a technological literacy which facilitates metacognitive practices surrounding the use of artificially intelligent systems and the principles that shape ethical and responsible user experiences. This article examines the extent to which existing information, digital, and computer literacy frameworks and professional competency standards ground algorithmic literacy. It proceeds to identify various elements of algorithmic literacy within existing literature, provide examples of algorithmic literacy initiatives in academic and non-academic settings, and explore the need for an algorithmic literacy framework to ground algorithmic literacy initiatives within the legal information profession.

This article consists of two parts. The first part is a review of the book entitled, ‘The Ethical Algorithm: The Science of Socially Aware Algorithm Design’, written by Professors Michael Kearns and Aaron Roth of the Computer and Information Science Department, University of Pennsylvania. The book was published in 2019 by Oxford University Press. The second part consists of thoughts learned from the book and how they could be applied to the work of legal information management professionals when facing tasks related to the ethical algorithms in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. How online privacy continues to be the main concern in the AI and robot era will be discussed, as well as the rise of concerns over AI and robots and how they might make unfair decisions toward vulnerable populations which could then become acts of discrimination. Examples of real-world problems of AI and robotics are also noted in this article.

The British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) carried out a survey of BIALL members during May 2020 in order to gain a view, at a point in time, of the impact of Covid-19.1 National lockdowns in both the United Kingdom and Ireland had come into force in March 2020. The survey was a way of gauging how the legal information community was responding to the challenges and changing circumstances brought about as a result of the pandemic. This brief introduction by Karen Brown, President of BIALL, sets the scene for the results of the survey which appear in the pages that follow.2

CLIG (City Legal information Group) Committee members Dunstan Speight and Lisa Sabbage report on the findings of the CLIG Professional Skills survey, winter 2013*. Information professional roles have developed in different directions in law firms in recent years and this survey sought to map the range of tasks being carried out by information professionals. It also documented the range of skills within the profession, including skills and experience which law firms might be able to exploit further. The hope is that, by showing the diversity of tasks and skills to be found in LIS departments across the City, the survey might offer individuals ideas and strategies for developing their roles within their own firms.

Lawyers are threatened as never before by the commoditisation of services and the automation of legal advice. Information professionals have been facing such threats for years. In this keynote article, Tim Buckley Owen asks whether it is time to make common cause?