The challenges and opportunities facing law libraries today

In October 2018, the Library of the Court of Justice of the European Union brought together lawyers and librarians to discuss and exchange views on the challenges facing law libraries today.

What are the new trends shaping the legal profession and what is their impact on law libraries? How are the Google generation and discovery tools changing bibliographical research? Copyright, e-resources, open access, and the status of and outlook for the European legal publishing market were naturally on the programme.

The conference was opened by Koen Lenaerts, President of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and was chaired by Rüdiger Stotz, Director-General for Information at the Court.

Miguel Poiares Maduro, Global Governance Programme Director at the European University Institute in Florence, gave an insightful presentation on the new challenges to the legal profession which inevitably impact library services.

Globalisation has had a significant impact on international law resulting in rapidly growing regulation of international relations and supranational law.

Owing to accelerated digital transformation, new areas of law and new legal subjects have emerged. Artificial intelligence (AI) poses multiple challenges in this regard, as AI systems are increasingly being used in administrative decision-making for example, and so AI decisions could be tried in court. At the same time, librarians may before long have to assume a new role: feeding and supporting AI systems.

The speaker also highlighted the growing importance of legal blogs as an alternative to law journals. While blogs allow faster publishing, more flexible style and broader access, the challenge for libraries is to find solutions to curate these blogs and to integrate them into library collections.

The speech by Jane Sánchez, 25th Law Librarian of US Congress, was a video recording as she could not be present in person. However, this did not diminish its passion and influence on the audience. Jane Sánchez emphasised the need for change in the library: from stacks of books to an information hub, from a place to a service. The Law Library of Congress has been transformed in many ways: by changing the physical space and expanding the areas for training; by expanding access, including via social media; and by enhancing services and research assistance, including user orientation, training, webinars and library guides. The Law Library of Congress also fosters cooperation and collaboration with other libraries, for example with the Peace Palace Library in the Netherlands, by sharing information, research and reference services and by exchanging experiences.

In the same vein, Pep Torn, Director of the Library of the European University Institute, outlined collection development, library and data services, and metadata standards as major challenges to libraries today.

Many other noteworthy speeches were delivered at the conference. While it is not possible to mention all of them in a blog post, we expect the Court of Justice Library to publish the conference proceedings, which will certainly be added to the Council Library collection.

• The Council Library is located in the Justus Lipsius building, at JL 02 GH, Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 175, 1048 Brussels (Froissart entrance) – opening hours Monday to Friday 10.00 – 16.00.
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