A central feature of modern life is increased, fast and often relatively cheap access to information. There is, of course, much to be said for this. Thus, a highly selective system of law reporting is unlikely to provide either an accurate overview of the working of the legal system or the amount of detailed guidance which either a specialist practitioner or a generalist needing help with a specialized problem requires. There is therefore much to be said for the growth of law reports dedicated to specific areas. For the lawyer, however, particularly one subject to the doctrine of precedent, there are dangers. Research becomes more time-consuming and costly (even more so with the growth in professional negligence liability)—and these difficulties will in due course come to be borne by his clients. Paradoxically, the increase in available information may impede thorough research, if important materials are confined to specialist series of reports, especially where the increased expense of maintaining extensive libraries leads to reductions in the range of subscriptions and, therefore, of the comprehensiveness of the most commonly consulted collections. More