Staying Legal: A Guide to Issues and Practice Affecting the Library, Information, and Publishing Sectors, 2nd ed.

Citation

Sturges, P. (2005), "Staying Legal: A Guide to Issues and Practice Affecting the Library, Information, and Publishing Sectors, 2nd ed.", The Electronic Library, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 258-259. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470510593031

The first edition of Staying Legal published in 1999 was an important addition to the information professional's shelves. It did, however, have one or two gaps in coverage (liability, for instance, was not fully covered), and in the subsequent four years there has been plenty of change in the legal environment. A substantially new team of authors has been recruited since then and the topics that the book covers have been somewhat adjusted. The new edition starts with a chapter on legal fundamentals, followed by a second chapter on public access to legal information. This is a logical beginning and very worth adopting. Although the book is capable of being useful for comparative purposes elsewhere, this is essentially a British book. In the case of Britain, we very much need to understand where our law comes from and how we can find out about it if we are going to observe it effectively. UK law is a complex, even arcane, area and now that the European Union (EU) is a major source of law affecting this country, the remarks on EU law are very worthwhile. Likewise, knowing where to find laws and commentary on them is vital for information professionals both on their own behalf and that of users.

Intellectual property law naturally features large, with three chapters on copyright, trademarks and patents, but two further chapters on contracts and licences ensure that the coverage is firmly planted in the information age. There are also chapters on data protection, criminal law and liability, and self‐regulation. Finally, the editors round off a coherent treatment of the significance of the law with a chapter on how to manage with the law in mind. Risk analysis, identification, prioritisation and management form the core of this chapter. The chapters are generally well written and convey a sense of authority. The material is well organised and clearly set out on the page so that it can be effectively used for reference purposes. Perhaps the last question to ask about it, however, is “Can we abandon our copies of the first edition if we buy the new one?” Well, you do need to buy the new one, but do not throw the old one away. There are opinions and approaches in the first edition that complement those of the second. There are also topics that have been regarded as not needing fresh treatment (legal deposit, for instance) that are well covered in the first. For the editors there is the certainty that a new edition will be needed not many years from now, but for the moment the second edition of Staying Legal does a very good job.