More than 3,500 legal tomes have been transferred to a new home at Aston University to make way for a new city centre meeting place for lawyers.

The former library at the Birmingham Law Society in Temple Row has transferred its lending library to the university as part of a new partnership with the Law Group at Aston Business School, which launched a law degree this September.

The library, which was originally established on Temple Row in 1934, contains a raft of hisorical and modern volumes although some of the older stock will be retained at Temple Row for reference purposes.

Paul Farrow, chief executive of BLS, said: “The Society has historically provided a full service reference and lending library for the region’s legal community.

“This has been a big financial burden on the organisation. What’s more, the service has become less relevant to a large section of  our membership: many of the bigger firms have their own libraries, and most firms now have on-line legal resources. Firms are reducing their consultation of hard copy.

“The deal with Aston University means that those of our members will have access to all the contents of a modern, comprehensive library.

“We also very much welcome the opportunity to partner with Aston in this way. It is an exciting venture and, we believe, a unique collaboration between a higher education institution and a regional law society. We hope to forge relations between our members and Aston Business School’s law students, as well as explore other potential links between the two organisations.”

Jill Poole, professor of commercial law and associate dean of community and corporate partnerships at Aston Business School said: “We are delighted to have the BLS library at Aston. The professional bodies remain keen to ensure that the lawyers of the future are able to access and use a physical law library in addition to relying on the increasing range of sources available electronically.

“Being able to physically see the extent of the paper sources of the law available in such an impressive collection is also particularly helpful in putting the law in perspective.  This arrangement also has the added advantage of freeing up space for BLS, and provides their members with more flexible access to a  substantial facility. We look forward to welcoming them to Aston and to building on this link with BLS given our forthcoming expansion of law programmes at Aston.”