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Role: Administrator and Legal Staff - Book Types and initial cataloguing are typically done by an Administrator. Day-to-day lending and returns can be managed by any Legal Staff member.
Upstream dependencies: Book Types must exist before Books can be created. If the Create Book on Purchase Invoice setting is enabled in Law Management Settings, Books are created automatically from BAS purchase invoices - no manual entry needed for purchased books. Downstream: Lend Book records provide a log of who has which book, useful for tracking overdue returns.

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How the Library Works

  1. Book Type - categorises the collection.
  2. Book - one record per title in the library.
  3. Lend Book - a borrowing record created each time a book leaves the shelf.

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Set Up Book Types

Book Types let you organise your collection into categories. Path: Law Management → Books and Journals → Book Type → New

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Add a Book to the Library

Path: Law Management → Books and Journals → Book → New Requires: Book Type must exist. If purchasing through BAS and the auto-create setting is on, this step happens automatically.
New Book form showing Book Title, Status, Book location, Book Type, ISBN, Publisher, Book Subtitle, Published Date, Author, Page Count, Category, and Book Price fields
Book list view showing ID, Book Title, and Status columns, with example records in Available and Issued status

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Lend a Book

When a staff member or guest takes a book, create a Lend Book record immediately. Path: Law Management → Books and Journals → Lend Book → New Requires: The book must exist and have Status = Available.
Lend Book form showing Book, Lending Date, Return Date, Lent To selector, Employee ID or Guest Name, and Status fields
Lend Book list view showing ID, Status, and Lended To columns, with example records in Returned status

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Record a Return

When a book comes back:
  1. Open the Lend Book record for that borrowing.
  2. Update Status to Returned.
  3. Save.
The book’s status on the Book record updates to Available automatically.

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Check Library Availability

To see which books are currently on the shelf: Path: Law Management → Books and Journals → Book → filter Status = Available To see all books currently on loan: Path: Law Management → Books and Journals → Lend Book → filter Status = Issued

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Tips

  • Enable auto-create in Law Management Settings if your firm buys books through BAS. This eliminates manual data entry for every purchase - the book record appears automatically.
  • Record Lend Book entries immediately, not at the end of the day. A book taken without a record is a book that can’t be located when someone else needs it.
  • Use the Return Date field to set expectations. When a book is overdue, the Lend Book list filtered by Status = Issued and Return Date < today makes it easy to follow up.
  • Add descriptions for rare or specialised editions so staff can identify whether the specific edition they need is in the library before searching the shelf.