Supreme Court of Canada Statistics 1999-2009

The Supreme Court of Canada has released a special edition of its Bulletin of Proceedings that provides a statistical overview of its activities for the period 1999-2009.

It provides information on leave applications submitted, appeals heard, judgments, and time lapses (time between the filing of a complete application for leave to appeal and the Court’s decision on whether leave should be granted; time between decision to grant leave and the hearing; time between the hearing of an appeal and the judgment).

Firsy Annual Ozzy Awards for Best Supreme Court of Canada Decisions

The Court, the Osgoode Hall Law School blog that tracks the Supreme Court of Canada's activities, recently announced the winners of the First Annual Ozzy Awards:

"A while back, we promised we would compile a list of our top judgments from 2009 in a number of categories. And so, at the risk of diverting the nation’s attention from our top athletes at the Olympics, we present to you the First Annual Ozzy Awards (named in recognition both of our school and the fact that we’re pretty much ripping off the Oscars)."

"Due to the economy, we decided to forego the red-carpet awards gala we had planned in Roy Thomson Hall with the leading luminaries of the Canadian legal profession in attendance in their finest evening wear (maybe next year)."

There are categories for:

• Criminal Judgment of the Year
• Civil Judgment of the Year
• Charter Judgment of the Year
• Concurring Opinion of the Year
• Dissenting Opinion of the Year
• Most Disappointing Refusal of Leave
• Judge of the Year
• Judgment of the Year
  

Study Finds UK Jurors Fair but Baffled by Judges' Instructions

One of the United Kingdom's leading jury experts, Prof. Cheryl Thomas of University College London (UCL), has just completed an extensive two-year long survey of more than 1,000 jurors at Crown Courts in that country and a separate study of over 68,000 jury verdicts.

Prof. Thomas says:

"This research shows that juries in England and Wales were found to be fair, effective and efficient – and should lay to rest any lingering concerns that racially-balanced juries are needed to ensure fairness in trials with BME [Black and minority ethnic] defendants or racial evidence."

"But it is also clear from the research that jurors want and need better information to perform this crucial role. The study recommends that all sworn jurors be issued with written guidelines explaining what improper conduct is, including use of the internet, and how and when to report it. The study also recommends that judges consider issuing jurors with written instructions on the law to be applied in each case. Both changes will help maintain the integrity of the jury system."

The study examined issues such as racial discrimination, jury conviction rates, juror comprehension and improper conduct, juror use of the Internet and media coverage of jury trials.

The UCL webpage also links to news coverage of the study (The Times - Ministry of Justice verdict on juries: confused, erratic - but not racist, Feb. 17; and The Guardian - Jurors 'struggle' to understand judges, study finds, Feb. 17) and to an interview with Prof. Thomas.

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lecture to Law Commission of England and Wales

I picked this up on the website of the Law Commission of England and Wales: the Third Leslie Scarman Lecture by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States (Feb. 11, 2010, London, UK)

Her topic was the interaction between the judiciary and the legislative branch of government:

"(...) I will begin with a question routinely put to nominees for U. S. federal-court judgeships by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee: Does the nominee understand, and will she abide by the understanding, that policy and law making are the domain of the Legislature, while the job of a judge is simply to read and apply the law as written by legislators? That neat divide overlooks the tradition of common-law judging familiar to the many members of the U. S. Senate who hold law degrees. Nor does the description of the respective provinces of legislative and judicial authorities hold true today in civil-law systems, if, in reality, it ever did. Legislation is not uncommonly ambiguous or silent on issues presented in particular cases. And there may be higher laws — national constitutions and instruments of international governance — against which ordinary laws must be measured."

"My remarks on the interdependence or interaction of courts and the political branches of government stay mainly on home turf. They concern the ongoing dialogue between the U. S. Supreme Court and Congress in making and shaping U. S. laws, a dialogue in which the Court speaks through its opinions. But I will essay first a few comparative sideglances, illustrations of judicial contributions to lawmaking drawn from European systems."

How Far Should Social Media Policies Go?

This is an update to my post of February 17, 2010 entitled Comprehensive Database of Organizational Social Media Policies.

On slaw.ca, Connie Crosby posted an item yesterday called Social Media Policy - Where are the Boundaries?:

"The latest episode of the new video podcast Social Mediators by Thornley Fallis PR professionals Joseph Thornley, Terry Fallis and Dave Fleet raises some good questions about employee policies, especially around social media. In it, they talk about whether employees should take care in what they say on their personal lives (notably online) and whether they are always representatives of their companies."

Lawyers Weekly Muses About Future of the Supreme Court

Cristin Schmitz speculates in the most recent issue of The Lawyers Weekly about the future composition of the Supreme Court of Canada.

According to the article, many of the Justices are close to retirement. The mandatory retirement age is 75.

Coverage of Last Week's Google Books Settlement NYC Court Hearing

This is a follow-up to the February 18, 2010 post entitled Google Books Settlement Court Hearing Today.

Last week, a New York City District Court heard arguments for and against the proposed settlement of a class action copyright lawsuit relating to Google's plans to digitize millions of books and create a massive online library collection. A decision is still pending.

ResourceShelf has provided links to coverage of the hearings: The Laboratorium Blog Offers Outstanding Coverage of Google Book Search Fairness Hearing.

Blawg Review No. 252 - Technology Run Amok!!!

Stem Legal’s Law Firm Web Strategy Blog is hosting Blawg Review no. 252, the most recent compendium of interesting stuff from the world of law-related blogs.

This review's theme is "Technology Run Amok":

"It might seem surprising that we’re less than ten years away from the bicentennial of Frankenstein, a landmark of English literature that pre-dated the Industrial Revolution but anticipated its enormous impact on society. For a story that’s nearly 200 years old, Frankenstein feels powerfully modern, in part because it expresses the trepidation and occasionally the fear humanity still feels about the things it creates. From the cotton gin to Google Buzz, we marvel at the machines we invent and congratulate ourselves for our ingenuity. But lurking at the back of our minds is a deep uneasiness over whether we’re getting too good at building things simply because we can, and whether the next invention will be the one that gets away from us — whether next time, we’ll go too far."

Updates on Haiti from International Federation of Library Associations

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) has been compiling information about what the global library community has been doing to help Haitian libraries after the devastating earthquake in January.

European Court of Human Rights: Reforms Announced to Increase Efficiency

The Council of Europe agreed recently at a conference in Switzerland to reform the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The ECHR, which hears complaints from individuals living in any of the member states of the Council of Europe about violations of the European Convention of Human Rights, has a backlog of 120,000 cases.

There is more information from the JURIST legal news website.

The Council of Europe is one of the continent's oldest political organizations, founded in 1949. It groups together 47 countries, and it has granted observer status to five other countries (the Holy See, United States, Canada, Japan and Mexico). Note: The Council of Europe is distinct from the European Union.

February 2010 Issue of Governance and Recordkeeping Around the World Newsletter

The Governance and Recordkeeping Around the World newsletter, published by Library and Archives Canada, "highlights issues pertaining to government and recordkeeping practices in the public and private sector".

The February 2010 issue has just been published on the Library and Archives Canada website. A major emphasis of this issue is Government 2.0

It includes:

• news items from Canada and around the world, including news about Australia's Government 2.0 Task Force and the Open Government Directive in the United States
• announcements of upcoming events (meetings, workshops)
• project and product news in areas such as digitization, archives, electronic privacy, e-discovery and databases
• selected papers and readings

Law Library Associations Holding Joint Study Institute This June in Montreal

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries will be hosting the next Joint Study Institute June 20 – 23, 2010 in Montreal:

"The program for the 2010 Joint Study Institute, Diversity, Culture and Contrasts: Canada's Legal Kaleidoscope, will explore Canada's legal system through sessions on constitutional and parliamentary law, aboriginal law, civil law, the courts and the judiciary, legal ethics. All of these themes will come together in one of the final sessions dealing with sovereignty and the Northwest Passage."

The Joint Study Institute is co-sponsored by law library associations from the United States, Great Britain and Ireland, New Zealand and Australia and is held once every two years in a different country. The goal is to provide an opportunity to learn of the host country's legal heritage and traditions.

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of February 1st to 15th, 2010 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.

Google Books Settlement Court Hearing Today

Search giant Google is in a New York City court today to defend the proposed settlement of a copyright violation lawsuit brought against it by a number of U.S. author and publisher groups.

The case involves Google's plans to digitize millions of books to create a massive online library / bookstore.

Quick background:

• The Fight over the Google of All Libraries: An (Updated) Wired.com FAQ (Wired, February 18, 2010)
• Google digital library faces outcry at NYC hearing (Associated Press, February 18, 2010)
• Google, Publishers Defend Book Settlement; Amazon.com Objects (Business Week, February 18, 2010)

Earlier Library Boy posts about the Google Books Settlement include:

• Google Settles Lawsuit With U.S. Authors and Publishers (October 28, 2008)
• Google Book Scanning Project Settlement: More Reaction and Analysis (February 23, 2009)
• Association of American Publishers on Recent Google Book Project Settlement (February 24, 2009)
• Controversy Heats Up Over Google Book Search Settlement (August 24, 2009)
• Google Book Search Bibliography (September 14, 2009)
• American Library Associations Publish Summary of Google Books Litigation Court Filings (October 6, 2009)
• American Library Association Website on Google Book Settlement (October 26, 2009)
• Guide to the Amended Google Book Settlement (November 30, 2009)
• Canadian Authors Launch Petition Against Google Book Settlement (January 5, 2010)

Canada's Privacy Commissioner Questions Google Buzz

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is worried about the privacy implications of Google Buzz, the search giant's recently introduced social networking application.

Google Buzz adds real-time sharing features found on popular social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to the Google Gmail service.

The problem: Buzz would more or less automatically add Gmail user's most emailed contacts as "followers".

More on the controversy:

• Wrong kind of buzz around Google Buzz (Evgeny Morozov, Foreign Policy, February 11, 2010)
• Google Buzz Already Raising Privacy Concerns (Connie Crosby, Slaw.ca, February 15, 2010)
• Privacy commissioner reviewing Google Buzz (CBC News, February 16, 2010)
• Latest privacy nightmare: Google Buzz in the Workplace (Privacy Compliance & Date Security blog by a Philadelphia law firm, February 16, 2010)
• A new Buzz start-up experience based on your feedback (Official Gmail Blog, February 13, 2010)

Comprehensive Database of Organizational Social Media Policies

Mike Kujawski recently posted an item to the Public Sector Marketing 2.0 LinkedIn Group about an online database containing links to the social media policies of dozens of organizations around the world.

If your library is thinking of creating policies and guidelines for the use of blogs, wikis, social networking sites, this is a good place to look.

Kujawski publishes the Public Sector Marketing 2.0 blog.

University of Ottawa Centre for Law, Technology and Society Conference

The Centre for Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa will hold its official launch conference on March 5.

Called "Taking Stock of Tech: Reflections on Law, Technology and Society", the conference will explore topics such as open government and the impact of social networking on gender equality and privacy.

Preserving Born-Digital Legal Materials - Where to Start?

That's the question asked on LLRX.com by Sarah Rhodes, the digital collections librarian at the Georgetown Law Library in Washington, D.C.

"There is no denying the urgent need for libraries to take on the task of preserving our digital heritage. Law libraries specifically have a critically important role to play in this undertaking. Access to legal and law-related information is a core underpinning of our democratic society. Every law librarian knows this to be true. (I believe it's what drew us to the profession in the first place.) "

"Frankly speaking, our current digital preservation strategies and systems are imperfect – and they most likely will never be perfected. That's because digital preservation is a field that will be in a constant state of change and flux for as long as technology continues to progress. Yet, tremendous strides have been made over the past decade to stave off the dreaded digital dark age, and libraries today have a number of viable tools, services, and best practices at our disposal for the preservation of digital content. "

How Much Does It Cost to Access Justice in Canada?

The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, based at the University of Alberta, has published What does it cost to access justice in Canada? How much is "too much"? And how do we know? — Literature Review:

"This review identified publications related to costs of justice to investigate how costs have been measured and reported especially in empirical research studies. Of 1,500 journal publications, studies, reports, websites and media articles initially identified only 86 (59 in English and 27 in French) proved useful to the review. Of these, many offered valuable theoretical insights, but few offered concrete examples of how and where costs accrued, or suggestions for developing a viable methodology for assessing the cost of justice. Key international empirical studies are considered in detail and critically assessed. An annotated bibliography of key English language references is provided. Separate annotations and discussion of the French literature are also included in an Appendix to the main review."

"The amount of literature devoted to discussions of costs of civil justice leaves no doubt that this is an issue of considerable interest and concern to the justice community, litigants and society at large. The review underlines, however, the current lack of systematic methodological approaches to empirical investigation. There are currently no methodological models for systematic measurement of Canadian costs of access to justice. Previous international research can contribute to developing new methodology but has significant limitations: applicability may be limited in a Canadian context; the most substantial studies are dated; and there are many challenges related to the availability of data and the validity of measurements."

2010 Pricing Trends from Canadian Legal Publishers

This is a follow-up to my post of October 20, 2009 entitled Canadian Legal Publisher 2010 Price Trends.

Last week on Slaw.ca, Gary Rodrigues published an analysis of legal publisher pricing trends for 2010.

In his article, he asks whether current economic conditions, including intensified competition for market share, have changed the picture.

Law Commission of New Zealand Issues Paper on Drug Use

The Law Commission of New Zealand has released an issues paper on Controlling and regulating drugs:

"In 2007 the Associate Minister of Health invited the Law Commission to review the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. This invitation arose partly in response to the debate over the reclassification of benzylpiperazine (BZP) as a Class C controlled drug. A number of significant problems, particularly over the adequacy of the legislative framework to deal with new psychoactive substances, were identified alongside longstanding concerns over the Act’s fitness for its purpose. As a consequence, the Government decided that a broad review of the Act was required. "

"There is concern that the Misuse of Drugs Act no longer provides a coherent and effective legislative framework for responding to the misuse of psychoactive drugs. The Act has become complex. It is difficult to understand and navigate because it has been amended on numerous occasions and is supported by two free-standing but closely linked amendment Acts. All three must be read together to understand how drugs are controlled. There are also problems in the way the Misuse of Drugs regime interacts with other legislation such as the Medicines Act 1981 and the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996."

"Most significantly, the Act’s policy framework appears to be out of step with current drug policy. Although it has been amended numerous times to reflect new developments in drug use, there is concern that the Act is now outdated and does not reflect current knowledge and understanding about drug use and related health, social and economic harms."

The Commission will provide final recommendations to the New Zealand government in July.

JURIST Editor-in-Chief Bernard Hibbitts on the Technology of Law

The most recent issue of Law Library Journal has an article by Bernard J. Hibbitts on The Technology of Law.

Hibbitts teaches law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and is the Editor-in-Chief of the legal news site JURIST:

"Professor Hibbitts argues that contemporary fascination with the law of technology has led us to overlook the fundamental impact of the 'technology of law,' and offers suggestions for creating 'neterate' lawyers more comfortable and conversant with technology itself. He describes how the legal news service JURIST implements many of these suggestions and provides a unique learning experience for its law student staffers."

The essay is adapted from his plenary address at the 2009 annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries, May 26, 2009, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

February 28 Deadline for CASLIS Award for Special Librarianship in Canada

It is still possible to nominate people for the 2010 CASLIS Award for Special Librarianship in Canada.

The Award recognizes and rewards excellence in the field of special librarianship by a member of CASLIS (Canadian Association of Special Libraries and Information Services), a division of the Canadian Library Association (CLA)

"Appropriate professional activities may include research, publishing, teaching, or significant participation in other related professional associations, while examples of Divisional activities include participation in activities benefiting CASLIS or CLA, leadership within CASLIS or CLA, or other noteworthy actions on behalf of CASLIS or CLA. Candidates must be members in good standing in CLA and have actively participated in the Association or Division."

"Nominations for the CASLIS Award for Special Librarianship in Canada must be accompanied by a supporting statement that outlines his/her professional career and the specific achievement(s) that merit granting of this award. Signatures of at least two CLA members must also support any nomination. All nominations and deliberations related to this award shall be considered confidential."

U.S. Federal Courts Tell Jurors Twitter, Facebook and Texting Verboten

Wired Magazine is reporting that the Judicial Conference of the United States, the body that develops policy for federal courts in that country, has proposed new model jury instructions that explicitly ban the use of applications like Facebook and Twitter:

"U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson of Kansas, the chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management, told the nation’s judges in a Jan. 28 memo that the new jury instructions 'address the increasing incidence of juror use, of such devices as cellular telephones or computers, to conduct research on the internet or communicate with others about cases'. "

"Robinson told fellow judges that 'more explicit mention in jury instructions of the various methods and modes of electronic communication and research would help jurors better understand and adhere to the scope of the prohibition against the use of these devices'. "

There has been a growing number of incidents in the United States where lawyers have asked the presiding judge at a trial to disqualify a juror for misconduct or to declare a mistrial because of what jurors have posted on their personal blogs, Twitter accounts or Facebook pages.

There have also been concerns about jurors doing online research, "visiting" a crime scene on Google Earth or following Twitter or blog feeds written by reporters or others during a trial. Another concern: tipping off witnesses to proceedings in the courtroom before they testify.

The issue will be discussed at a panel on May 10, 2010 at the next annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries in Windsor, Ontario.

Earlier Library Boy posts on the topic include:

• Impartiality of Juries Threatened by Web? (October 22, 2009): "Donald Findlay QC, one of Scotland's top criminal lawyers, has warned that the impartiality of the jury system is at risk due to jurors using internet search engines and has warned that the Government cannot continue with its 'ostrich-like' attitude to the problem (...) "
• More Jurors Get Into Trouble for Going on the Net (December 13, 2009): "Last week, a Maryland appeals court upended a first-degree murder conviction because a juror consulted Wikipedia for trial information. Earlier this year, the appeals judges erased a conviction for three counts of assault because a juror did cyberspace research and shared the findings with the rest of the jury. In a third recent trial, a juror's admission to using his laptop for off-limits information jeopardized an attempted-murder trial. On Friday, lawyers for Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon asked for a new trial in part because five of the jurors who convicted her of embezzlement Dec. 1 were communicating among themselves on Facebook during the deliberations period - and at least one of them received an outsider's online opinion of what the verdict should be. "

[Source: Resourceshelf]

Is It OK for Librarians to Accept Vendor Swag?

Law Librarian Blog has pointed to an interesting discussion sparked by Sarah Glassmeyer, who blogged that she thought it was unethical to accept free gifts from vendors - known as swag.

Comparison of Online Tools for Finding Really Old English Cases

I did a presentation a few months ago at my place of work on United Kingdom cases. Part of the session included a quick overview of how to find content from the English Reports, a multivolume series that reproduces old English cases from the 13th century to the late 19th century.

The Stream, the blog published by Courthouse Libraries BC, recently posted The English Reports: A Comparison of HeinOnline and CommonLII on the exact same topic:

"One of my favorite moments on the reference desk is when someone asks for help finding a case from the English Reports. An amazing feat of legal publishing, the English Reports reproduce over 100,000 early English cases from the years 1220 to 1873, many of which continue to be cited in Canadian cases."

"We're lucky in the Vancouver courthouse library, as we have three options for clients: the print English Reports, HeinOnline, and CommonLII (the Commonwealth Legal Information Institute). In the last two years, both HeinOnline and CommonLII have added the full reprint of the English Reports to their mix of databases. Now that those sources have had some time to establish themselves (and for us to use them), I thought a comparison might be helpful."

OpenNet Initiative 2009 Annual Report on Internet Filtrering and Censorship

The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) has released its 2009 Year in Review report that documents instances last year of Internet filtering and censorship initiatives worldwide.

ONI is a partnership between the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, the Advanced Network Research Group at the Cambridge Security Programme at Cambridge University, and the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford.

Earlier Library Boy posts about ONI include:

• Toronto Academics Get Huge Grant to Fight Internet Censorship (February 7, 2006): "The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported yesterday that the OpenNet Initiative has received a $3 million U.S. grant from the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for an international human rights project whose primary goal is to combat state censorship on the Internet."
• Helping Citizens in Repressive Societies Get Around Censorship (February 16, 2006): "The blog Slaw has an item today about Psiphon, a tool developed by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab to help people circumvent government Internet restrictions in repressive countries."
• Internet Filtering Map (June 2, 2006): "ONI has produced an Internet Filtering Map of the world. Clicking on a country of the world and then clicking on its info icon prompts a window to pop up with data on government filtering and/or censorship practices as well as links to additional material."
• New Global Study on Internet Filtering and Censorship (May 28, 2007): "Earlier this month, it [ONI] released the results of a global study of Internet filtering. The Initiative has also produced many country and region profiles on its website. It looked at techiques used by governments in more than 40 countries to block different types of content in areas such as dissent, free expression, human or minority rights, sex, drugs and hate-speech."

Australian Law Reform Commission Releases Final Report on Royal Commissions

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has released its report on royal commissions of inquiry entitled Making Inquiries: A New Statutory Framework.

The report recommends that the Royal Commissions Act 1902 (Cth) be amended and renamed the Inquiries Act to provide for the establishment of two tiers of public inquiry, Royal Commissions and Official Inquiries:

"Royal Commissions should be the highest form of inquiry established to look into matters of substantial public importance. While it was suggested by some stakeholders that the word ‘royal’ should not be used, the ALRC recommends no change to the title ‘Royal Commission’. This is for two main reasons. First, the term ‘Royal Commission’ is very well-known, which means that it is a clear way to communicate to the public the extraordinary nature of such an inquiry. Secondly, the title ‘Royal Commission’ is helpful in that it indicates how the highest form of public inquiry is established—namely by the Governor-General of Australia (...)"

"It is recommended that the second tier of inquiry be called ‘Official Inquiries’. Such inquiries should be established by a minister to look into matters of public importance. The ALRC recommends that a number of distinctions be drawn between the two tiers of inquiry to ensure that each inquiry has the necessary tools to carry out its investigations without inappropriately infringing on the rights of persons involved with, or affected by, its processes. In addition to the way each inquiry is established, the coercive powers that may be exercised by each tier of inquiry is also a key distinction..."

Earlier Library Boy posts about the ALRC's examination of royal commissions include:

• Australian Law Reform Commission to Examine Royal Commissions (April 6, 2009): "The goal is to examine whether less formal, less time-consuming, and more cost efficient forms of inquiry into controversial issues are feasible. Royal Commissions are independent public inquiries that are conducted on an ad hoc basis by an entity commissioned by, but external to, the government."
• Australian Law Reform Commission Releases Discussion Paper on Royal Commissions (August 19, 2009): "The ALRC is recommending ways to ensure that official inquiries have adequate investigatory powers while at the same time ensuring the protection of the rights of individuals concerned. This would put what are now simply 'ad hoc inquiries' on the same solid footing as more formal Royal Commissions."
  

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for the period of January 16th to 31st, 2010 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.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Plans Training Webinars

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) has announced that the Education Committee has a new sub-committee on webinars.

Liana Giovando will head the sub-committee, working with other legal information professionals from law firm, academic and courthouse libraries to develop a program of webinar topics which can be delivered outside of the annual conference.

CALL members who want to help Liana can contact her at lgiovando AT goodmans.ca.

Quebec Report on Global E-Government Trends in 2009

The French-language e-Veille bulletin (e-Monitoring) has just published its Bilan 2009 (annual overview) looking at e-government developments around the world.

e-Veille is produced for the Quebec Ministry of Government Services by the research organization CEFRIO (Centre francophone d'informatisation des organisations).

The document looks at:

• how well governments are adapting to social media
• online democracy
• government broadband plans
• information security
• cloud computing and mobile government

Recent Developments in Civil Justice Reform

The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice, a national organization based at the University of Alberta, has highlighted some recent justice reform projects from California, Manitoba, Ontario, Alberta and England and Wales.

The Forum has created what it calls an inventory of civil justice reforms in Canada. It contains descriptions of reform initiatives from across the country, as well as proposed reforms from law reform commissions, task force reports, and the like. This includes changes to court procedures, legal aid, and public legal education and information programs.

Canadian Correctional Service Statistics Overview

Public Safety Canada has released a document entitled Corrections and Conditional Release Statistical Overview 2009.

The document provides an overview of crime patterns, the administration of correctional services, parole, and the prison population.

Greener Inter-Library Loan Practices

Here at my place of work, the level inter-library loan activity is quite significant. Also, a few months ago, we discussed how to find greener, more environmentally sensitive ways of doing business.

So a recent post on the OCLC Research staff blog Hanging Together attracted my attention. It is entitled "Greening ILL Practices" study completed. It discusses the findings of a three-month study of ILL processes in California:

"The first thing that jumps out from the data is that when a library uses primarily new packaging material for sending out ILL items, the packaging material itself accounts for more than half of the greenhouse gas emissions per package for that institution. Thus, right off the bat, an interlibrary loan unit can cut its carbon footprint nearly in half by re-using packaging material whenever possible (...)"