Law Society (England and Wales) Report on Expert Evidence

The Law Society (England and Wales) has published a report on the safeguarding of expert evidence in the European Union:

"The Law Society worked in partnership with the Suomen Asianajajaliitto (Finland); Det Danske Advokatsamfund (Denmark); Consiglio Nazionale Forense (Italy); and Slovenska Advokatska Komora (Slovakia). Each partner set up a Task Force comprising a defence lawyer, investigator, prosecutor, judge, forensic practitioner and bar association representative. In addition, representatives of 15 Member States and Norway completed questionnaires designed to ascertain the means by which expert evidence is used in criminal proceedings in each of the relevant jurisdictions. Each Task Force examined current practice and procedure in their jurisdiction and produced a research report including recommendations for practical and legislative change. In addition a comparative matrix was produced which offers a detailed analysis of the system in each jurisdiction. "

Canadian Association of Research Libraries Sponsors 2010 LibQual+ Library Quality Survey

The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) will be sponsoring another LibQUAL+ Canada consortial survey in 2010.

LibQUAL+ is an online suite of survey and quantitative and qualitative data evaluation tools that libraries can use to track users' opinions of service quality.

The last Canadian survey was in 2007. The majority of participants indicated they preferred to take the survey every three years to have more time to digest the results and assess the effect of changes/improvements to services implemented since 2007.

The 2010 survey will be open to CARL and non-CARL institutions and participants will be able to choose the new LibQUAL+ Lite survey alone or in combination with the full LibQUAL+ survey.

Those interested should enquire with Katherine McColgan at CARL.

For background information, CARL sponsored a conference called LibQUAL+ & Beyond in Ottawa, Ontario on October 24-25 , 2007. Conference presentations are posted on the site.

[Source: CARL E-Lert]

New Website for British & Irish Association of Law Librarians

Our colleagues across the pond at the British & Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) have redesigned their website.

Features include:

• RSS feeds or email updates to find out BIALL news, events and job listings
• access to online publications such as the BIALL Newsletter and Legal Information Management
• links to blogs, conference materials, etc.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Membership Survey Results

In the spring of 2009, the Executive of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) surveyed its membership as a preliminary step to a full Strategic Planning process.

The key findings from the survey have been posted on the CALL website.

They relate to the purpose of CALL, changes to the profession, changes in the workplace, the value of current association services, and CALL priorities over the next 5 years.

Back from Barcelona: New Library Titles from Supreme Court of Canada Library

Mr. and Mrs. Library Boy got back yesterday from our 3 week vacation to Catalonia in Northeastern Spain (with a side trip to the neighbouring province of Aragon for hikes in the Monte Perdido region of the Pyrénées and a visit to the Somontano wine producing area, which also hosts caves with fascinating paleolithic and neolithic paintings).

It all felt oddly familiar: Catalonia, within the Spanish federation, has an autonomous status, a different national identity, its own language (Català or Catalan), etc.

The central government and the Generalitat de Catalunya (regional government) also engage in the kinds of "flag wars" that would hold no mystery for the average Canadian who pays any attention to Quebec politics. Even the regional financial industry is dominated by Mouvement Desjardins-style credit unions known as Caixas, which are omnipresent in economics, social philanthropy and sponsorship of the arts.

We had a chance to spend June 23rd in Girona (between Barcelona and the French border) for the Summer Solstice or Revetlla de Sant Joan in Catalan, as important in that region as the St-Jean-Baptiste feast is across Quebec.

Here is a picture of Catalan "castellers" (human pyramid builders) in Plaça de Vi in front of the Girona Ajuntament (city hall). This was at the beginning of the evening's celebrations that included live music performances, fireworks, dancing around bonfires, lots of firecrackers, and many glasses of cava (Catalan "champagne").

The castellers can go as high as 7 stories or levels. The guy on the lower left of the picture below in the dark shirt with the rolled-up sleeves is yours truly. I was standing too close to the group, so one of the organizers grabbed me and "volunteered" me to help consolidate the base of the pyramid:



Oh well, back to real life:

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of June 1^st to 15^th, 2009 is now available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library does not lend materials from this list, which is provided for information only."

But, once the material goes into the general collection, after about a month, the works do become available for inter-library loan to authorized libraries.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

Library Boy On Vacation Until Late June

We fly tonight to Barcelona (Catalunya) for a three-week summer vacation (it is a 10th wedding anniversary gift to Mrs. Library Boy).

Itinerary includes: Barcelona, Montserrat, Girona, Reus, Lleida, Figueres, and many other tiny Catalan mountain villages in the Pyrénées.

Back on June 27th, 2009.

American Library Association Conference Interactive Web Sessions

An indication of a growing trend, the American Library Association (ALA) is holding 10 interactive Web sessions on Monday, July 13, and Tuesday, July 14 as part of its 2009 Annual Conference in Chicago.

Some of the topics covered include:

• customer service
• next generation catalogues
• broadband
• "greening" of libraries

People can register for the Virtual Conference online through the ALA Web site. The cost is $215 (US dollars) for ALA members, $210 for division members, $120 for student members, $145 for retired members, $298 for non-members and $215 for institutional members.

CALL 2009 Conference Presentations Now Online

PowerPoint presentations, bibliographies and papers from the most recent annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries in late May in Halifax have been posted to the conference website.

According to the Chair of the conference program committee Cyndi Murphy, "some speakers did not give us permission to publish; some speakers wanted to edit their papers before releasing them for publication on the website".

So, if there is a presentation in which someone is interested that is not there, she suggests e-mailing her.

Net Neutrality for Libraries Presentation

Earlier this week, Alex Guindon and Danielle Dennie of Concordia University in Montreal made a presentation at the 2009 annual conference of the Canadian Library Association in that same city.

It is entitled Net Neutrality and what it means for libraries and has been made available on the E-LIS site (E-prints in Library and Information Science):

"Net Neutrality, the idea that the Internet should be provided to all without discrimination based on content or applications, has been an important policy issue in the last few years. The focus of the presentation will be on key concepts, historical perspectives, legislative issues, and the impact of Net Neutrality on libraries and their users."

Law School 2.0 Book and Blog

The RIPS Law Librarian blog published an item last week about a new book entitled Law School 2.0: Legal Education for a Digital Age by University of Denver law professor David I. C. Thomson.

The book explores how a new generation of law students approaches learning and how this has consequences for legal education and legal research.

The book has a companion website as well a blog.

RIPS Law Librarian is published by the Research Instruction & Patron Services Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries.

CALL 2009 Conference Materials

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL), which just held its annual conference in Halifax (May 24-27), has posted material related to the event on its website:

• Reports of the CALL committees and special interest groups to the membership
• MP3 of the vendor open forum organized by the CALL Vendor Liaison Committee
• the list of all the recipients of 2009 awards handed out by CALL

Supreme Court of Canada Library: New Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of May 16 to May 31, 2009 is available on the Court website.

The web page explains: "The Supreme Court of Canada Library does not lend materials from this list, which is provided for information only."

But, once the material goes into the general collection, after about a month, the works do become available for inter-library loan to authorized libraries.

It is possible to subscribe via e-mail to receive the list.

Online Federal Consolidated Acts and Regulations Now Official

The Justice Canada website carries an announcement that:

"As of June 1, 2009, all consolidated Acts and regulations are 'official', meaning that they can be used for evidentiary purposes. This is the result of the coming into force on that date of amendments made to the Statute Revision Act, which has been renamed the Legislation Revision and Consolidation Act."