ABSTRACT

Law librarians have responsibility for the selection, acquisition, storage, arrangement, and delivery of material records of legal relevance in convenient and speedy ways suited to the nature of the legal research of their users. This chapter describes law libraries in Britain and Ireland in context and relates their present state and their historical development to the various branches of the legal profession and the legal systems. It provides a brief comparative outline of law libraries in other countries. The chapter explains professional collaboration, networking and professional associations of law librarians in Britain and Ireland and internationally. A survey of the underlying directions of change and strategic drivers as they affect law libraries seeks to give some sense of the future for law libraries. The libraries of the Inns are private libraries not open to the general public; they serve members of their own Inn, including student members training for admission to the Bar.