The Gazette 1972

Birmingham Conference of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians by M. NEYLON (Librarian, King's Inns)

The third annual conference of the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians was held at the Univer- sity of Birmingham during the weekend September 14th to 17th. Approximately sixty attended, including mem- bers from England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the United States, Australia and Japan. The theme of the confer- ence was The Administration of Justice—A Guide for Law Librarians. Friday morning was spent visiting libraries, includ- ing the Harding Law Library and the Birmingham Law Society Library and the Courts. On Friday after- noon, at the first session of the conference, Professor G. J. Borrie gave a stimulating talk on the aims and activities of the Institute of Judicial Administration of which he is director. There were seven sessions in all. Among the matters reviewed were legal literature; the courts as constituted by the Courts Act, 1971, imple- menting the Beeching Report; the Ormrod Report; the origin, function and organisation of the Home Office and the services, resources and administration of its library. At a panel session on Saturday morning Mr. Justice James, a presiding judge of the Midland and Oxford Circuit, the President of the Birmingham Law Society, a barrister-at-law and a law lecturer each gave his views as to what services were required in a law library. Among the many points emphasised was the necessity to have books readily available and for that purpose to restrict lending facilities to overnight or weekends. Since the library was a laboratory for the users it should be adequately stocked and with present day needs should have world-wide material, including reports and statuts. They deplored the fragmentation of law lib- raries having regard to rising costs, the scarcity of trained law librarians and the increasing volume of legal material, the greatest explosion being in Common

Market law. Other points referred to were the desira- bility of teaching library usage to all first-year students and the advisability of withdrawing from open access books listed for recommended reading and in frequent demand. In their opinion the law librarian should have an outline of major works, be familiar with the indexes of such works and keep a note of what books are in demand. Sandwiched between visits to legal institutions and discussions were the annual general meeting, receptions given by Sweet & Maxwells, Butterworths and Birm- ingham University as well as meetings of the executive committee and the sub-committees on acquisitions, cataloguing and classification, the Society of Public Teachers of Law, standards for multiple copies in law libraries and publications. The topics discussed were interesting and diverse. The passage in Gibbon's Decline and Fall describing the potentate whose library of 62,000 volumes demon- strated the variety of his taste and were all of use was adverted to by one of the speakers. This writer can attest to the very great benefit which accrued to those who attended this conference. These benefits are too numerous to mention. It is, I think, a sine qua non that all wishing to keep abreast of developments in current legal literature and law librarianship should attend this annual conference. At the annual general meeting the appointment of Professor Owen Hood Phillips to the office of President of the Association was announced and the information was received with applause. It was agreed that the 1973 Conference should be held at Edinburgh next September, to be organised by the Chairman and Mr. G. H. Ballantine of the Signet Library. The theme will be Common Market Law.

Committee on Practice and Procedure on Family Law

They will also receive submissions on problems of substantive law in relation to the above topics. The Society has been asked to submit recommen- dations and the President has apponted a Committee to this end. This Committee would welcome submissions by mem- bers on any of the relevant topics, which submissions should be forwarded in writing to the Secretary on or before the 30th day of November 1972 and should be marked for the attention of the Family Law Committee.

The Committee on Court Practice and Procedure are at present giving consideration to matters of Court Proce- dure concerning the following topics : (a) Matrimonial disputes including property and child custody disputes. (b) Care of children in want of care. (c) Juvenile offenders. (d) Legitimation. (e) Affiliation. (f) Desertion. (g) Adoption. (h) Legal aid in relation to the above topics.

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