The Law Society library is launching an on-line search facility, making available via the Net one of the largest collections of legal publications in the UK.

Free of charge to members of the Society, the service - called Catalyst - will allow solicitors to check the contents of the library on-line using a flexible search facility.

Solicitors planning to request photocopies of publications via the library's document delivery service will be able to check whether it has the sources before placing an order.

They will also be able to place orders on-line.

In addition to current textbooks, the library also contains an extensive collection of previous editions, allowing practitioners to research the state of the law at any given time.

The library's collection of historical materials and archives is also recorded on Catalyst - these range from 19th-century charters of the Law Society to 14th-century manuscripts, as well as the official contemporary record of the gunpowder plot.

Chris Holland, librarian and head of information services at Chancery Lane, said: 'Catalyst offers more than the bibliographic details of our collection.

It is also a reference source which provides citations for cases, commencement details of statutes and information on the progress of European Union proposals.'

The library continues to take legal information requests, whether by telephone, e-mail or other means.

On the technical side, Catalyst is a version of Webview, the Web catalogue module of the OLIB library management system.

OLIB is produced by Sheffield-based company FDI Informatics, which specialises in library management systems and portal products.

Link: www.catalyst.lawsociety.org.uk

Philip Hoult