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The purpose of this paper is to outline what the author believes will be the top five legal issues relating to globalization and business for the first 50 years of the twenty‐first century.

This is a wrap‐up paper articulating the author's opinion about what she considers to be the top five legal issues that will be face in the first half of the twenty‐first century.

The paper reveals cooperative censorship; intellectual property treaty harmonization domination by developing country interpretations; international tribunal dispute resolution clauses; return of the law merchant; and eminent domain or public utility – the future for dominant search engines/content aggregators as the possible top five legal issues pertaining to businesses and globalization.

The paper presents an interesting prediction of the top five legal issues relating to globalization and business for the first 50 years of the twenty‐first century.

The purpose of this paper is to examine privacy rights and the relationship between those rights and business and government interests in data collected from individuals.

This paper approaches legal issues from the perspective of the consumer or citizen.

While conducting research for this paper, it was found that the issues facing the citizenry on privacy protection have been addressed extensively in the not too distant past. The distinguishing characteristic is the speed with which data can be collected and disseminated and the infinitely more vast amount of personal data being collected not only by the government and businesses with whom consumers conduct transactions, but also by independent data brokers.

Privacy rights are ephemeral and difficult to measure. Businesses, therefore, appear to have difficulty determining the value of protecting consumers' privacy. Additionally, governments from which citizens derive many social services accumulate substantial personal information given in exchange for those services. Businesses and governments are increasingly negligent in protecting the data collected on individuals, which has been revealed by a series of reported data breaches, disclosures, thefts, and surveillance activities. This paper addresses the inherent value in protecting the privacy interests of individuals and proposes that more robust privacy laws, derived from established tort law, be developed and used by concerned persons.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of remote surveillance or satellite imagery as they relate to trade secret law, knowledge management, and competitive intelligence.

The paper approaches legal issues from the perspective of a trade secret holder.

While conducting research for this paper, it was found that, while technological improvements relating to satellite imagery and remote sensing are increasingly more precise and ubiquitous, the laws protecting businesses that have an interest in protecting trade secrets are inconsistent. On the one hand, the US Government has given itself a powerful tool to protect trade secrets under the Economic Espionage Act. On the other hand, the Government has granted remote satellite companies licences under which they may sell satellite images to industrial competitors, consequently thwarting trade secret protection efforts

Trade secrets represent a valuable contribution to a nation's economy, particularly when some interventions do not meet the requirements necessary for more traditional intellectual property regime protection (e.g. copyright, trade mark, patents). A trade secret's value lies in it remaining hidden. There are few cases addressing trade secrets and satellite imagery. The stalwart case, E.I. duPont deNemours & Co., Inc. v. Rolfe Christopher, represents a tentative foray into the subject, but only suggests the rights a trade secret holder may have when a commercial satellite company collects otherwise innocuous data and sells those to a competitor. A proper plaintiff to test the boundaries surrounding trade secret law, satellite imagery, and competitive intelligence remains at large.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the legal implications presented by the Google Library Project which entails the digitization of the collections of five prominent libraries.

This paper focuses on knowledge access and the effect digitization will have on the availability of books heretofore available only in analog form and in libraries. This paper does not address “e‐books” or similar electronic publishing formats but instead analyzes the process of digitizing hard copy books in their entirety, making the content available for searching online, and the copyright, private property, and antitrust issues that will confront a online commercial library.

While conducting research for this paper, it was found that the internet space opens up as many problems as opportunities. The copyright laws have been well balanced over the years to reflect the interests of the copyright holder and the public. Commercial entities, in particular, internet search engines, are entering into licensing and other contractual arrangements which may limit public access to works that would otherwise be available for use under the existing fair use, first sale, and library exemption regimes.

What may be considered original is the emphasis on the contract between Google and the University of Michigan's “cooperative agreement.” It is unusual that such a document is available for public scrutiny and provides a window into the thinking of both parties. Google, with extraordinary assets available to it, may be able to unfairly skew knowledge access in a way unimaginable in a traditional library setting. Characterizing the legal relationship between Google, the libraries, and the public may not be new, but the approach should afford additional insight into the ongoing hard copy/electronic copy debate.

The purpose of this paper is to address ethical and legal issues relating to employment contracts and the effect on knowledge transfer.

Relevant literature for business competition, learning and knowledge management and ethics were reviewed to prepare this paper.

This paper was an opportunity to express an opinion that employment contracts should reflect economic realities of both the employer and the employed to encourage high‐ethical standards.

Employers and the employed may be encouraged to forthrightly discuss issues relating to ethics and competition in light of changing economic conditions.

This paper offers a self‐help perspective for employees, making them more aware of employment contract terms and responsibilities. Employers may be encouraged to craft more progressive contracts to not only protect business proprietary information and maintain ethical integrity, but also assist employees in taking control of their futures.

The purpose of this paper is to examine legal opportunities to develop creativity and innovation in a knowledge‐based economy.

This paper approaches legal issues from the perspective of the knowledge holder who is, more often than not, an individual in possession of some creative output that may potentially be of interest to a knowledge acquirer that is, more often than not, a business. The scope is limited to legal constraints and control mechanisms currently in use that restrict or discourage knowledge holders from achieving full creative potential, with the hope of encouraging further research on how to achieve the promise of a knowledge‐based economy. It is also limited, from a legal perspective, to US laws, with reference to a few international treaties.

While conducting research for this paper, it was found that, although there is a plethora of technological means that attempt to codify and harness innovation and encourage creativity, some legal mechanisms may be out‐moded and cumbersome. This is not to say that existing regimes, like intellectual property law, are useless, but that they are designed to take advantage of brick and mortar inventions that have little in common with the products and services being considered for the future.

It is anticipated that there will be a sea‐change in traditional thought about laws relating to knowledge and rights management. Historically, knowledge holders have been at a disadvantage when negotiating with knowledge acquirers. Now that the commodity is knowledge, knowledge holders have a unique opportunity to reveal, or not, to their own advantage. The goal of this paper is to identify alternative scenarios to encourage the flow of information to the benefit of knowledge holders as well as knowledge acquirers.

WE write on the eve of an Annual Meeting of the Library Association. We expect many interesting things from it, for although it is not the first meeting under the new constitution, it is the first in which all the sections will be actively engaged. From a membership of eight hundred in 1927 we are, in 1930, within measurable distance of a membership of three thousand; and, although we have not reached that figure by a few hundreds—and those few will be the most difficult to obtain quickly—this is a really memorable achievement. There are certain necessary results of the Association's expansion. In the former days it was possible for every member, if he desired, to attend all the meetings; today parallel meetings are necessary in order to represent all interests, and members must make a selection amongst the good things offered. Large meetings are not entirely desirable; discussion of any effective sort is impossible in them; and the speakers are usually those who always speak, and who possess more nerve than the rest of us. This does not mean that they are not worth a hearing. Nevertheless, seeing that at least 1,000 will be at Cambridge, small sectional meetings in which no one who has anything to say need be afraid of saying it, are an ideal to which we are forced by the growth of our numbers.

LIBRARY Association elections occur shortly and this impels us to repeat the somewhat musty axiom that men, and women now, get the government they deserve. Such axioms, however, apply perhaps more to political and other public elections in a democracy than to those of professional bodies, or semi‐professional ones like our own. Libraries should have their policies framed and pursued by the best minds available to them. It may be that these come to us through the Branches and Sections for, clearly, the candidates who leap to the mind as having national status, and compel our votes, must be a limited number. Our voting is not much assisted in many cases by the bare list of candidates' names and those of their nominators—even when the latter are known names—which are issued officially but it is not clear how this can be bettered. The A.A.L. usually issues a sort of Who's Who of its candidates and other sections might well do the same. There is still a danger that one type of librarianship may dominate the L.A. merely because it attracts a large number of the votes of junior members. It is not so great as it was; the University and Research Section, for example, commands about one thousand votes we are told, enough, if cast for their chosen candidates, to make their election probable. The Section, we note, invites its members to consider individually whether he or she could be a candidate and adds, “It is not compulsory to cast all the votes available … members who do not know enough candidates may still make effective use of their votes by supporting the candidates they do know.” In any case what is rather depressing in past experience is that not more than 12% of voters use their votes for any candidate; no elected candidate for some years past has represented the L.A. at large. We hope librarians will alter this state of affairs.

The purpose of the paper is to present the latest scholarly trends in the field of social capital in libraries, to review research concepts published by LIS professionals and to suggest further research possibilities in this area.

This paper presents a review and critical analysis of literature associated with research on social capital in libraries to highlight its importance for the development of LIS and its impact on the functioning of environments linked with various types of libraries. The goal of literature analysis was to determine the current condition of research on social capital in libraries. The main trends were identified and the need for further qualitative analyses, which are missing at the moment, was confirmed.

It was determined that, so far, LIS professionals have focussed mainly on the role of municipal libraries in developing social capital, the problem of building trust, especially in immigrant circles and the impact of libraries on promoting a civil society. Academic libraries, rural libraries, organisational capital in libraries and individual social capital of librarians were a much less frequent subject of research. The role of libraries in developing social capital in educational (primary and secondary education) and professional (non-university professionals) circles is practically non-existent in research, and it will require in-depth studies and analyses in the coming years.

This paper constitutes a synthetic review of the latest research concepts concerning social capital in libraries. It identifies the most important research trends and areas that so far have not been explored and suggests research methods to help LIS professionals design future research in this area more effectively.