237 / 300
14.6 In addition to considering company matters, the Committee have also studied a Draft
E.E.C. Directive relating to Commercial Agents. The Chairman and Director General attended
a meeting in the Department of Industry and Commerce along with the representatives of other
bodies to meet two members of the European Commission. The Draft Directive poses problems
of defining a "commercial agent" which have still to be resolved. It would also confer sub-
stantial new rights on the agent to compensation on termination of a commercial agency
(the "clientele allowance") and during any period thereafter when a covenant in restraint of
trade is effective.
LIBRARY
Colm Gavan Duffy,
Librarian
15.1 Within the limitations imposed by the fact that the Library is an all-purpose room, and
that it is constantly required for outside activities such as Dinners, Debates and Examinations,
continued progress can be reported. Due to a strike in University College, Dublin, members
were deprived of a full library service in October, as lectures to apprentices had to be held in
the Library.
15.2 The Director-General arranged that for the first time, a qualified graduate library
assistant would assist Mr. Gavan Duffy, during the months of July, August and September
1974, and Miss Margaret Byrne, B.A., Dip. in Librarianship, was appointed. Miss Byrne's
main task was to classify and catalogue law books, which the Librarian was unable to do
owing to pressure of work as Editor of the
Gazette
; this has now been accomplished. Miss
Byrne has also sorted out the unreported judgements since 1965; these will be easily made
available to members by year in folders. Appreciation has already been expressed by members
of the useful service by which these judgments can normally be obtained within days of delivery
of the judgment, as it takes a minimum of two years to report them officially. Miss Byrne was
appointed Assistant Librarian in October.
15.3 New editions of standard legal textbooks, such as Cheshire & Fifoot on Contracts, and
Salmond on Torts, were acquired during the year. These are listed in the June and July-August
Gazette
s. New books on all practical branches of law which it was deemed worth purchasing
were acquired. The Finance Committee sanctioned the purchase of the volumes of the Fourth
Edition of Halsbury's Laws of England, edited by Lord Hailsham, which are being received.
The volumes of the Fourth Edition of the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents were
completed.
15.4 The total amount spent in the purchase of books for the year ending 30th April 1974,
was £1,665, and in the purchase of periodicals was £202, making a total of £1,867. The total
amount spent on binding in the same year was £334. The corresponding amounts last year
were in respect of books, £1,190; for periodicals, £130, and binding, £414. Increased amounts
for books and periodicals are due to the heavy increase in the price of law books. A paperback
standard work which cost £2.50 in 1971 would now cost £4.50.
!
Colm Gavan Duffy,
Librarian and
Editor of the Gazette
15.5 In view of the crucial space problem on the shelves in the present Library, in the basement
and elsewhere, the Committee sanctioned that the following volumes be transferred to the
King's Inns Library as a donation: (1) All bound volumes of "Iris Oifigiuil" from 1923 to
1967. (In practice they are never asked for.) (2) The Journal of the Food and Agricultural
Organisation in Rome (never asked for) and (3) Butterworth's Workmen's Compensation
Cases. (As these cases have been removed from the Courts since 1966, they are rarely asked for.)
(These will replace volumes lost in a fire some years ago.) As a result it was possible to transfer
700 volumes, comprising the English Law Times Reports, the English Law Journal Reports,
the English Patent and Trade Marks and Revised Reports to the ground floor in August, in
order to make more room for E.E.C. Publications and up-to-date material. As Regulations
of the European Community are binding as much on Irish Lawyers as the ordinary Irish
legislation, it will be appreciated that the Journal of the European Communities is essential;
there is however so much material that it takes 16 volumes a year to bind. This will ultimately
present real difficulties.
15.6 The Librarian attended the Annual Conferences of the British and Irish Association of
Law Librarians held in Edinburgh in September 1973, and in Bristol in September 1974.
15.7 The average number of books borrowed from the Library for the period January-June
1974 was altogether 378, making an average of 16 volumes per week. In addition at least 8
volumes per day, or 40 volumes per week, mostly law reports, were requested for photocopying
during term time.
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