This is the latest article in our Checklist series and has been written by Fiona Durrant. It consists of a methodical list of questions to aid reading of a contract for an online subscription.

The USA PATRIOT Act (“Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act”) has been troubling for libraries of all types, writes Dave Rogers, and recent legislation to renew provisions have brought the debate on balancing security and personal freedom to the foreground. The article contains an annotated bibliography.

Paper presented by Sandy Ghandi at the Joint Study Institute held at St Anne's College, Oxford, August 2006.

The second part of this comprehensive bibliography edited by Tibor Kövér, Tamás Böszörményi, Eszter Horváth and Krisztina Orphanides covers the publications of specific legal bodies and useful addresses and internet sites.

Most employers seek references for all prospective employees by way of a factual check on a candidate's employment history, qualifications and experience and in order to obtain an assessment of their performance and character from their previous employer. However, the risk of ill-judged or inaccurate comments resulting in legal action has caused many employers as a matter of policy to provide only bare references specifying job title, length of service and leaving salary and to decline the provision of any further facts or expression of opinion. This growing gap between the information employers are willing to give and the information they want to receive, alongside the obvious adverse consequences for employees where an existing or former employer declines to provide a reference, continues to cause much confusion. So what are an employer's responsibilities when they are asked for a reference?

This paper formed the basis of a seminar given by John Furlong and Susan Doe at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Annual Conference in St Johns, Newfoundland in May 2005.

Paper presented by Robert Walker to the Joint Study Institute, Oxford, August 2006, reviewing the process of constitutional change which started in 2003 and ended with the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.

Chris Wallis provides a useful guide to developments in the legal portal market and continues our series of articles on portals begun in the last issue with an article by Jill Halford.

This article by John Furlong attempts to provide a context and a background for the various names ascribed to the jurisdictional entity of Ireland.

The majority of websites and intranets are built by creating static HTML pages with software such as FrontPage and Dreamweaver. The effective use of these products requires staff with a combination of technical, design and content management skills, and these are not easy to find, even for large organisations. Over the last few years content management software has become increasingly popular as a way of being able to ensure that the content on web sites and intranets can be updated as quickly as necessary without the need for everyone who wants to publish to be trained in a software product such as Front Page.

This article in the From Our Own Correspondent series comes from the Netherlands and features the Dutch Foundation of Law Firm Librarians, with information supplied by Paul Bartelings, who is its current chairman.

Bad information can have a number of undesired consequences for those people and organizations supplying it, whilst those affected by its provision have a number of legal remedies open to them. Jonathan Crowhurst discusses these issues after some definitions of information and bad information have been suggested. Concluding remarks suggest that information is not neutral, that bad information is largely down to lack of end user education and lack of investment in training, and that technology does not supply all the answers.

Louise Adamson, a Professional Support Lawyer in the Employment Team at Maclay Murray & Spens LLP, explores new regulations which tackle discrimination on the grounds of age, highlighting the main provisions and potential legal challenges to the regulations themselves.

This is the latest report analysing the results of the Society of Legal Scholars and BIALL Survey. It has been compiled by Peter Clinch, Information Specialist – Law, Cardiff University.