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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
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.
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.
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