Muriel Anderson, former Librarian of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, died peacefully on the morning of 25 June 2006. Staff at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, where she spent much of her career, learned the sad news the next day and a brief notice was issued to the professional community.

Sarah Spells provides information about the SOAS Library, including details of the law collection, services offered, and the challenges faced when dealing with queries about Asian, African and Middle Eastern legal materials.

The twenty-first century is already proving to be the real dawn of the information revolution. The internet is now officially coming of age and highly functional mobile devices are everywhere. The youth of today are permanently connected and the media world is shifting to a “born digital”, “on line first” mentality. Every part of our society is feeling the effects of this revolution and is reaping the benefits of “real time information everywhere” ... or are they? Adrian Dale, in the second Willi Steiner Memorial Lecture, suggests that the reality is that many businesses are failing to keep pace with information growth and desperately need help – the question is from whom?

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.

Melanie Mancino discusses the implementation of a firmwide research and enquiry service at national law firm Eversheds. It explains why the decision was made to centralise the service, and how this was achieved, and goes on to explore why it was important for standardisation to take place. It ends by looking at the process involved in introducing an electronic enquiry management system and provides a summary of basic functionality. The benefits of the new service for the both the firm and the IS team are also highlighted.

This article by Joe Kennedy of Baker & McKenzie. Wong & Leow in Singapore outlines the legal system in Singapore; explains the legislative process; discusses case reporting and gives guidance on how to find legal materials in both hard copy and online sources and both free and for fee.

In this article, which closely relates to Adrian Dale's topic for the Willi Steiner Memorial Lecture, Derek Sturdy explains what ECM is. He discusses the storage, editorial and publishing processes involved in ECM. He explains the importance of workflow and considers the advantages and disadvantages of potential software solutions to manage the process.

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 Conference paper by Martin Farley gives an outline of four wikis in the legal sector and examines why they were established, how they operate and how successful they have been at achieving their objectives. It also includes a brief introduction to wikis, a list of examples of other possible uses within the legal sector and a broad overview of advantages, disadvantages and probable future developments. It aims to provide an idea of what is practically possible at the moment and where the potential of law wikis lies.

Roger Cook met Karen on 27 November 2006, at the behest of the chair of the Editorial Board, to try and clear up some of the issues relating to the new LexisNexis Butterworths platform and to hear about some of the developments which will be happening during 2007. You will probably have seen some of these already, given the lead time between the interview taking place and the publication of this edition of LIM. He had been given some specific questions which had been raised by members of BIALL, but the conversation ranged beyond these to other areas.

This article by Charlotte Pache sets out the background of, and framework for, the legal system in Hong Kong. It outlines the structure of the courts and the legal profession, and details the practice for obtaining transcripts and judgments. It also provides a survey of law reporting and online resources for further information on case law and statute.

Gerry Power was invited to go to the University of Jos in April 2006 to present workshops to the Law Faculty and other interested legal professionals on using the internet for legal research. He writes about his experiences in dealing with running online workshops whilst coping with electricity shortages and the incredible experience of Nigeria!

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.

Nick Holmes explains the advantages of the new web publishing formats for legal information professionals. He describes what a blog is, how to set one up and publish it. He lists the legal blogs or blawgs, and considers whether blogs are good for business.

In her Conference presentation Kathryn Pearson discussed Bird & Bird's approach to Knowledge Management (KM). She considered the skills needed to become a legal knowledge manager and how these differ from those needed in Library and Information Services (LIS). She reviewed the merits of KM and the firm's approach to KM from three angles: people, process and technology, giving examples from recent KM projects.