Canadian Legal Community Helps Haiti Rebuild Justice System

This is a follow-up to the Library Boy post of January 31, 2010 entitled Canadian Lawyers Launch 'Judicial Red Cross' for Haiti.

The most recent issue of The Lawyers Weekly is reporting on Canadian efforts to help Haiti with the reconstruction of its justice system after the devastating earthquake that struck the Caribbean island a few months ago:

"More than four months after the massive earthquake that killed nearly 250,000 people, left 1 million others homeless and leveled the capital, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the Canadian legal community is slowly beginning to shift its focus from providing emergency response to helping Haiti lay the groundwork towards the reconstruction of a justice system that will 'avoid the excesses of the past'."

"In the past two weeks, an agreement was signed with the Barreau de Port-au-Prince to help put in place legal aid for victims. The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada organized a roundtable with a host of organizations that reached agreement to collaborate together to assist with judicial reform in Haiti. And the Barreau de Montréal stepped up efforts to develop a long-term project aimed at providing Haitian lawyers with professional development."

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act

The Library of Parliament has published a legislative summary of Bill S-10: An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act:

"Bill S-10 seeks to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) to provide for minimum penalties for serious drug offences, such as dealing drugs for organized crime purposes or when a weapon or violence is involved. Currently, there are no mandatory minimum penalties under the CDSA. The bill also increases the maximum penalty for cannabis (marihuana) production and reschedules certain substances from Schedule III of the Act to Schedule I."

"The bill contains an exception that allows courts not to impose a mandatory sentence if an offender successfully completes a Drug Treatment Court (DTC) program or a treatment program, under subsection 720(2) of the Criminal Code, that is approved by a province and under the supervision of a court. These programs are designed to assist certain individuals who are charged with drug-related offences (should they meet certain eligibility criteria) to overcome their drug addictions and avoid future conflict with the law. The DTC program involves a mix of judicial supervision, social services support, incentives for refraining from drug use, and sanctions for failure to comply with the orders of the court.'

AALL Spectrum Article on Library Marketing to Prove Your Value

The June 2010 issue of AALL Spectrum, the monthly publication of the American Association of Law Libraries, is now available.

One of the articles is Public Relations: Bite-Sized and Buzzworthy (subtitle: "Two books from the American Library Association can help you promote your library’s value"):

"Over and over, we are reminded that the number one challenge faced by all types of libraries is communicating value to their parent organizations. Another obstacle is overcoming the natural aversion to the 'M' word — marketing. When asked what we are doing for public relations, we find it difficult to give an answer because it all seems overwhelming."

"Fortunately, the American Library Association has come to the rescue with two recent publications that you can use to promote the value of libraries and librarians: Bite-Sized Marketing: Realistic Solutions for the Overworked Librarian by Nancy Dowd, Mary Evangeliste, and Jonathan Silberman, and Building a Buzz: Libraries and Word-of-Mouth Marketing by Peggy Barber and Linda Wallace."

"Both books offer practical yet powerful tools for librarians to use in designing public relations campaigns. The solutions, ranging from simple to complex, come with detailed instructions."

Earlier Library Boy posts on the same topic include:

• Law Library Branding and Recruitment (February 15, 2006): "Why should libraries care about brands? Because whether it has been given careful thought or not, every institution has a brand. Whether the brand is strong enough to be favorably remembered by clients is another matter. This article will give you the tools to identify your brand and to understand how useful it can be in your marketing efforts."
• Newest Issue of AALL Spectrum: Marketing, Preservation and Katrina (January 30, 2007): "The February 2007 issue of the AALL Spectrum (American Association of Law Libraries) is available online. Among the offerings ...: 'Public Relations: Marketing Inspiration - How to move the law library to the center of your organization’s culture' (...) "
• New Articles on Marketing and Impact of Law Libraries (November 13, 2007): "The November 2007 issue of AALL Spectrum, a publication of the American Association of Law Libraries, contains 2 articles that are related to marketing: 'Public Relations: Selling Law Librarianship' ... 'Perspective: What is Your Impact on Society' (...)"
• Blog Series on How to Increase Your Value in Your Workplace (March 4, 2010): "The SLA Blog has started a series called 'Alignment Steps' that contains advice on how librarians and information professionals can prove and increase their value in their workplace."
• Law Librarians Can Prove Their Value Through Training (March 10, 2010): "(...) the January/February 2010 Law Librarians newsletter put out by legal publisher Westlaw has published an article entitled 'Law Firm Economics and the Librarian—Bring Value Through Training'. The lessons can apply beyond the context of private law firm libraries (...)"
• Proving the Value of the Special Library (April 8, 2010): "On his Stephen's Lighthouse blog, Stephen Abram has written a post about the 'Value of Special Libraries' (...) The post describes various studies that demonstrate the impact of information specialists and special libraries that include entities such as government, courthouse, law firm, medical, scientific libraries."
• Best Practices to Demonstrate the Value of Your Law Library (April 10, 2010): "Deborah Copeman from the library of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society and I have put together a document on best practices to demonstrate the value of the law library. It is based on contributions from members of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) who responded to a survey we sent out earlier this year ( ...)"

Amnesty International 2010 Annual Report

The international human rights groups Amnesty International released its 2010 annual report a few days ago.

According to the press release, the world is suffering from a "global justice gap":

"A global justice gap is being made worse by power politics despite a landmark year for international justice, said Amnesty International today in its annual assessment of human rights worldwide."

"Launching Amnesty International Report 2010: State of the World’s Human Rights, which documents abuses in 159 countries, the organization said that powerful governments are blocking advances in international justice by standing above the law on human rights, shielding allies from criticism and acting only when politically convenient (...)"

"The International Criminal Court’s 2009 arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir, for crimes against humanity and war crimes, was a landmark event demonstrating that even sitting heads of state are not above the law. However, the African Union’s refusal to cooperate, despite the nightmare of violence that has affected hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur, was a stark example of governmental failure to put justice before politics."

"The UN Human Rights Council’s paralysis over Sri Lanka, despite serious abuses including possible war crimes carried out by both government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also stood as a testament to the international community’s failure to act when needed. Meanwhile, the recommendations of the Human Rights Council’s Goldstone report calling for accountability for the conflict in Gaza still need to be heeded by Israel and Hamas"

"Worldwide, the justice gap sustained a pernicious web of repression. Amnesty International’s research records torture or other ill-treatment in at least 111 countries, unfair trials in at least 55 countries, restrictions on free speech in at least 96 countries and prisoners of conscience imprisoned in at least 48 countries."

Funding Extended for UK Scholarly Resources Site Intute

This is a follow-up to the Library Boy post of December 20, 2009 entitled Bad News for UK's Intute Scholarly Resources Site.

That post reported that "Intute, a British-based directory of scholarly resources for the higher education world, is losing its funding from JISC, the body that provides financial support to UK colleges and universities for digital technology projects ..."

Intute covers many topics, including law.

JISC recently announced that it will continue funding Intute to help it maintain its catalogue until July 2011:

"JISC will fund us to carry out maintenance activity to keep the Intute catalogue running until July 2011 (...) The Intute website and database will not disappear in July and some staff will remain at the end of a helpdesk line to work with you as things change throughout the year. It’s unlikely that we will add anything new to the database and we’ll remove the 'suggest a site' link soon, however what’s already in the catalogue will be maintained and broken links fixed."

"But we’re not giving up just yet. We want the legacy of Intute to live on. Our discussions on this so far include facilitating a community generated catalogue of websites and working with other organisations in the sector to find a new home for Intute content. Its early days for this work but as leads turn into viable projects we will post updates here."

Constitutional Reference to Supreme Court of Canada on Proposed Canadian Securities Act

The Canadian government has referred its bill to create a national securities regulator to the Supreme Court of Canada for a determination as to its constitutionality:

"Under section 53 of the Supreme Court Act, the Governor in Council can refer important questions of law or fact to the SCC for an opinion. The SCC will then provide an opportunity for interested parties to make written and oral arguments. After considering the question(s) and the arguments of the interested parties, the Court will render an opinion and, to the extent possible, will provide an answer to the question(s) posed by the Governor in Council (...)"

"The Government has referred the following question about the proposed Canadian Securities Act to the SCC: Is the annexed Proposed Canadian Securities Act within the legislative authority of the Parliament of Canada?"

(...)

"The Government believes that the proposed Canadian Securities Act is a valid exercise of Parliament’s jurisdiction, and will argue that position before the SCC. The Government’s position is supported by a large number of existing legal opinions by experts and constitutional scholars"

The Department of Finance has posted background material on the issue, as well as links to the proposed legislation.

Th governments of Quebec and Alberta are furious, as they see the creation of a national securities regulator as an intrusion into the area of provincial powers.

More on the controversy:

• Flaherty outlines securities watchdog plan (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, May 26, 2010): "On Wednesday, [federal Finance minister] Flaherty said a single regulator would be better able to fight fraudsters such as Earl Jones and Vincent Lacroix, whose schemes cost investors hundreds of millions in recent years (...) If approved, the new regulatory body would oversee securities trading and serve as a financial watchdog across the country. Canada is the only country in the G20 without a national securities regulator, and Flaherty has called the current system of separate regulators an 'embarrassment' to the country."
• National securities regulator worth recalcitrant provinces’ fury (Globe and Mail, May 27, 2010): "The Canadian Securities Act that Jim Flaherty introduced Wednesday has infuriated the governments of Quebec and Alberta, who believe Ottawa is messing around in their jurisdictions. The fierce opposition that the two will put up as the legislation is reviewed by the Supreme Court and then debated in Parliament could further damage the Conservatives’ modest hopes in Quebec while simultaneously angering the Alberta base. The Tories have, in the past, alienated one constituency or the other; it is quite an accomplishment to anger both at once. Yet Canada needs a national agency to regulate capital markets. Trades cross borders – not just provincial, but national. New forms of trading are proliferating around the globe. Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has voiced the need for a single regulatory regime."
• Keeping up with Joneses of fraud (National Post, May 27, 2010): "There's a flow chart in the government's back-grounder for its new Canadian Securities Regulatory Authority that shows how the planned single regulator will be, in the words of Homer Simpson, 'Judge Judy and executioner.' Investigations into securities-related criminal matters that are currently handed off to police by the patchwork of provincial securities commissions will be enforced by the new super regulator. Armed with more resources, expertise and a raft of new evidence-gathering tools, this promises to be the Dirty Harry of regulators -- which may be a good thing, depending on whether you think large, vaguely unaccountable bureaucracies should be given the equivalent of a .44 Magnum (...) In his [Minister Flaherty's] view, a national regulator will add the 'pillar that's missing' to Canada's financial edifice. He suggested that cases such as the recent Earl Jones fraud scandal might have been avoided if the new regulator had been in place to protect investors (...)The blatant attempt to cast the existing Balkanized regulatory system in a poor light had the predictable consequence of infuriating Premier Jean Charest, who was in full-on Captain Quebec mode. 'To claim an event like Earl Jones would not have happened if there was a national commission is completely beside the point,' he said."
• Valeurs mobilières - L'agence unique verra le jour en 2012 - Flaherty dépose son projet de loi qui irrite le Québec [Securities - Single agency will see the light in 2012 - Flaherty introduces his bill that irritates Quebec] (Le Devoir, May 27, 2010): "Pendant que le gouvernement Harper en était hier à présenter son projet de loi sur une commission nationale des valeurs mobilières qui remplacerait ni plus ni moins les agences provinciales par un régime canadien, Québec évoquait rien de moins qu'une «invasion» du fédéral dans un de ses champs de compétence (...) La proposition fédérale met la table à un nouvel affrontement politique, car, en vertu de l'article 92 de la Constitution canadienne, le domaine des valeurs mobilières est de compétence provinciale. Le ministre Flaherty est cependant convaincu que les juges de la Cour suprême, auxquels il devait envoyer le projet de loi hier, lui donneront raison." [While the Harper government was introducing its bill to create a national securities agency that would basically replace the provincial agencies with a national scheme, Quebec was referring to nothing less than a federal invasion of one of its areas of control ... The federal proposal prepares the way for a new political clash, because, under s.92 of the Canadian Constitution, securities fall under provincial jurisdiction. Minister Flaherty, however, is convinced that the justices of the Supreme Court, to whom he would submit the bill yesterday, will agree with him. ]
  

Federal Anti-Spam And Privacy Amendment Bills Presented

Yesterday, the federal government presented two long awaited bills in the House of Commons:

• Bill C-28 - Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act
• Bill C-29 - Safeguarding Canadians’ Personal Information Act

Slaw.ca has already published analyses of the legislative proposals:

• FISA - New Anti-Spam Bill Introduced (David Canton, May 26, 2010): "One thing I find interesting is that the volume of the messages does not seem to be important. In other words, 1 email or text message to 1 recipient can be considered spam. One of the exceptions is a message 'that is sent by or on behalf of an individual to another individual with whom they have a personal or family relationship, as defined in the regulations.' (...) We will have to consider carefully how it applies to what we as lawyers and our clients do that will be caught by this. To some extent, the regulations will be important. For example, will a 'personal relationship' include a situation where I meet someone at a social or networking event or meeting who might be a potential client, and then follow up later with an email to that person? When the bill gets passed (from what I’ve seen there is a good chance it will be), and the regulations get drafted, we will have to take some time to figure out in more detail how this affects things that well intentioned businesses (and lawyers) do that they don’t consider to be spam."
• Overview of Proposed PIPEDA Amendments (David Fraser, May 26, 2010): "Bill C-29 is the long-awaited government response to the five year mandatory review of PIPEDA [Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act] and contains a number of very significant amendments that, if passed, will alter the landscape of privacy law compliance in Canada. At a very high level, it provides mandatory breach notification for security breaches related to personal information, attempts to clarify the confusing “lawful authority” provisions in Section 7 and also facilitates the disclosure of customer and employee information in connection with business transactions. This post will attempt to summarize the significant amendments ..."
  

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Bill C-21 on Fraud Sentencing

The Library of Parliament recently published a legislative summary of Bill C-21: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (sentencing for fraud):

"The intent of the bill is to 'help crack down on white-collar crime and increase justice for victims' through measures that include a two-year mandatory minimum sentence for fraud over $1 million, additional specified aggravating factors for the court's consideration in sentencing, a new type of prohibition order, new obligations on the judge with respect to restitution orders, and a new type of impact statement to consider in sentencing"

US Federal Courts YouTube Video About Law Librarians

As I mentioned last week, the US federal judiciary has launched its own YouTube channel.

One of the videos on the channel is about the numerous law librarian careers available in the judicial system.

The quote I like best:

"It's exciting when you see that the research that you may have handed to a law clerk or a judge is now being cited in a court opinion".

Library of Parliament Publications on E-Government and Open Data Initiatives

The Library of Parliament recently published 2 documents on open data initiatives in Canada and other countries:

• Government 2.0 and Access to Information: 1. Recent Developments in Proactive Disclosure and Open Data in Canada
• Government 2.0 and Access to Information:
  2. Recent Developments in Proactive Disclosure and Open Data in the United States and Other Countries

From the intro of the first document:

"In addition to operating the traditional request-based system where a member of the public asks for a government document and receives a hard copy (or an electronic one), increasingly, governments are moving many of their documents and data online, where members of the public can search for material themselves."

(...)

"Another term frequently used in this context is 'Government 2.0,' which refers to the integration of new-generation digital media technologies into government structure and operations."

"Many municipal and local governments, including some in Canada, have started rolling out 'open data' web portals that provide raw government data to the public. The governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia all made major announcements regarding the launch of open data and other proactive disclosure initiatives in December 2009. Some countries, such as Mexico, India, Finland and New Zealand have had proactive disclosure systems in place for some time."

"This paper will provide examples of the proactive disclosure systems that are developing or already in place in Canada. A second paper in this series will look at the development of proactive disclosure systems in the United States and selected other countries."

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary on Refugee Reform Act

The Library of Parliament recently published a legislative summary of Bill C-11: An Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Federal Courts Act (Balanced Refugee Reform Act):

"The bill makes a number of changes to Canada’s in-land refugee determination system. Some of the more significant changes include: the provision that the first-level refugee determination decision-maker is a public servant and is no longer appointed by the Governor in Council; the implementation of a refugee appeal division for some claimants; changes to humanitarian and compassionate provisions; and limited access to Pre-Removal Risk Assessments and Temporary Resident Permits. The bill also increases the number of Federal Court judges (...)"

"In 1985, the Supreme Court of Canada decided in Singh v. the Minister of Employment and Immigration that the Charter protects refugee claimants; this decision has been instrumental in setting the standards for procedural fairness that must be met in such cases."

"In this context, governments strive to operate a refugee determination system that is fair and upholds Canada’s legal obligations, while at the same time minimizes the risk of abuse and is reasonably efficient and cost-effective to administer. Asylum seekers whose claims for protection are deemed eligible are offered the opportunity of a hearing by the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), a quasi-judicial federal body. Following an initial interview before an immigration officer, claimants for refugee protection proceed to a hearing before a panel of the Refugee Protection Division of the IRB. Unsuccessful claimants are removed from Canada; however, they may apply for a judicial review and a stay of their deportation order to the Federal Court of Canada."

"The IRB currently faces a number of challenges in finalizing a large volume of refugee claims. Some, such as the upward trend in asylum claims lodged in industrialized countries over the last number of years and increasingly complex or mixed migration flows, are global in scope. Others are particular to the Canadian context, and include the delay in appointments and reappointments to the IRB over the 2004 to 2008 period, the backlog of 63,000 pending refugee protection claims, and the amount of resources available to the IRB to administer claims."

Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute - Deadline for application

The 11th Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute (NELI) will be held in Emerald Lake, British Columbia from December 2 to 7, 2010.

The Institute's mission is to assist professional librarians to develop, strengthen, and exercise their leadership skills so that they may be better equipped to formulate, articulate, and achieve the future changes required by libraries into the 21st century.

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is prepared to sponsor one association member as a nominee to the Institute. CALL is prepared to fund the $1,600 registration fee and up to $1,000 in travel costs.

The deadline to apply to obtain CALL sponsorship is Monday, June 14, 2010

Public Safety Canada Research Summary on Effectiveness of Drug Treatment Courts

The most recent issue of the Weekly Checklist of Canadian government publications refers to a research summary done by Public Safety Canada on the Effectiveness of Drug Treatment Courts.

These are courts that seek to divert non-violent offenders who are drug abusers into treatment programs. There are some 1,700 drug treatment courts around the world, including here in Canada.

Public Safety Canada looked at 96 existing studies to evaluate them:

"This study highlights the issue that there are very few methodically-sound studies on which one can assess the effectiveness of drug courts at reducing recidivism (...)"

"Although reductions of 4 to 8% in recidivism were found, these findings must be tempered by the generally poor methodologies used in evaluations of drug treatment courts and the quality of treatment. "

(...)

"Program evaluators and agencies that provide funding support for drug treatment programs should insure that methodologically sound evaluations are conducted in order to draw more reliable conclusions on the effectiveness of drug treatment courts."

The Weekly Checklist includes a listing of book and serial titles which have been released during the previous week by the Parliament of Canada, federal departments, and Statistics Canada.

US Federal Judiciary Gets Its Own YouTube Channel

The U.S. Federal Judiciary launched a radical redesign of its website recently.

As part of the redesign, it even created its own YouTube channel.

Earlier Library Boy posts on law-themed YouTube channels include:

• European Commission Launches Eutube (July 2, 2007): "The European Commission has just launched eutube, the YouTube space for news and announcements about European Union policies."

• University Law Lectures on YouTube (March 31, 2008): "The YouTube video sharing portal has created a special section with videos from higher education establishments worldwide."
• Official European Union Website Gets Makeover (September 22, 2009): "Europa – the European Union’s official website - has just had a makeover (...) the layout has been simplified and the site has been divided into 6 main themes: ... Take Part! (online debates, blogs, YouTube videos)"
• UK Law Reports Get Their Own YouTube Channel (October 28, 2009): "Videos include interviews with the Law Report editors, a history of the ICLR, a video on the process of how a case goes from trial to official report, and a brief introduction to case law research using both online databases and hard copy reference works."
• Law Library of Congress Now on YouTube (January 10, 2010): "The Law Library of Congress has started making content available on YouTube (Law and the Library) and iTunes. In iTunes, search for Library of Congress and then select the "Law and the Library" iTunesU series."

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 May 1st to May 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.

Statistics Canada Article on Processing of Divorce Cases Through Civil Courts

Statistics Canada has published The processing of divorce cases through civil court in seven provinces and territories in the most recent issue of its Juristat publication:

"All divorces in Canada must go through a civil court in order to be legally recognized. In Canada, the civil court system is divided between the federal and provincial and territorial governments. Divorce cases are governed by the legislation contained in the federal Divorce Act and can be handled by two types of civil courts: superior courts and unified family courts. Superior courts hear cases related to federal statutes, including divorce cases. Unified family courts are specialist courts that only deal with issues involving family law and may hear matters under both federal and provincial-territorial legislation."

"In divorce proceedings, the federal Divorce Act applies to custody, access and support issues. Provincial and territorial legislation determines these issues for married and unmarried parents seeking separation, and divorcing parents who choose to have these issues determined under provincial legislation during their divorce proceedings (...)"

"Using data from the Civil Court Survey, this article examines divorce cases as they proceed through the civil court system in seven provinces and territories (Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, which represent 66% of Canada’s population). Some of the key aspects associated with these cases are examined, including the volume of cases, the number and type of case events and the length of time taken to process cases. Where relevant, the analysis in this article compares divorce cases to all other family court cases including property division, custody, access and support under provincial law, adoption, child protection, civil protection, enforcement, family estate matters and guardianship."

PACER Database for US Court Documents Gets a Remake

The PACER website (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) has a new look.

PACER is and "electronic public access service that allows users to obtain case and docket information from federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts" in the United States.

Resourceshelf describes the changes.

Market for Continuing Legal Education Expands

The May 21, 2010 issue of The Lawyers Weekly examines the expanding continuing legal education market in Canada (Continuing legal education market heats up, by Luis Millan):

"Nearly two years after mandatory professional development timidly made its first appearance in the Canadian legal landscape, educational offerings by law societies, in-house legal departments and non-profit legal organizations are seemingly proving to be a hit with lawyers, ostensibly at the expense of the private sector who have yet to make a serious dent in the marketplace."

"Widely expected to proliferate next year after Ontario joins the ranks of British Columbia, New Brunswick, Quebec and more recently Saskatchewan as the latest jurisdiction to compel practitioners to hit the books, the market for continuing legal education is rapidly evolving. Thanks to a long and flexible list of activities that meet the criteria for mandatory credit hours, ranging from participation in continuing professional development courses and study groups, to teaching, writing and mentoring, lawyers have a bevy of choice. And apparently, the majority are keeping close tabs on their pocketbook."

New Format and Design for Slaw.ca

There has been a major redesign over at Slaw.ca, the cooperative Canadian law blog (to which I occasionally contribute):

"We’ve added some new functionality, particularly when it comes to choosing how you subscribe to Slaw. Just take a look at the column to your right to learn about all of this."

"And we’ve added a new left column for, well, our new Columns. Starting today, we’re bringing you a fresh column every day, written by experts on the topics — Legal Publishing, the Practice of Law, Legal Information, Outsourcing, Legal Marketing, Justice Issues, Legal Technology, and e-Discovery"

Law Library Journal Articles on Communications and Collaboration Tools for Law Librarians

The most recent issue of Law Library Journal features 2 articleson technologies law librarians should know about:

• Collaboration Versus Communication: Selecting the Appropriate Tool (Darla Jackson, Oklahoma City University Law Library): "Although communication and collaboration are often used synonymously, there are differences between the two. Ms. Jackson discusses those differences, suggesting some of the attributes of tools that support both functions. She concludes with a review of some currently available technological products and considers whether the features of these products make them effective communication or collaboration tools." - the article looks at tools for web-based conferencing, Internet phone service, networking, and online document creation and sharing. The author also discusses issues relating to security, ease of use, and integration with existing tools such as Sharepoint
• Back and Forth: Twitter (Phillip Gragg, Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center Library, and Christine L. Sellers, Library of Congress): "Welcome to our new column, in which two law librarians (...) debate a current topic. Sometimes we agree. Sometimes we disagree. The column affords the reader the perspective of two librarians; one with a background in firm and government libraries and another with a background in academia. We plan to explore a variety of topics, from technology to education to core library services. The format of the column is a dialogue between two individuals that we
  hope will stimulate thought and debate within individual readers and amongst
  their colleagues. "
  

New Legislative Summaries from the Library of Parliament

The Library of Parliament has recently published a number of legislative summaries about bills before the House of Commons or the Senate.

Here is a sample:

• Canada–Colombia Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act: "Bill C-2 implements three agreements and their respective annexes signed by Canada and the Republic of Colombia (Colombia) on 21 November 2008. The first of these is a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) between Canada and Colombia. The Canada–Colombia FTA (CCOFTA) provides for the liberalization of various types of economic activities: trade in goods, trade in services, foreign investments, and government procurements. The two other agreements dealt with in the bill are side agreements to the FTA: the Agreement on the Environment between Canada and the Republic of Colombia ('Environment Agreement') and the Agreement on Labour Cooperation between Canada and the Republic of Colombia ('Labour Agreement'). The Environment Agreement seeks to ensure that each party enforces its environmental laws; the Labour Agreement seeks to ensure that the domestic law of both states respects basic labour rights and is duly enforced. The latter agreement also provides for the possibility of resorting to arbitral panels to settle trade-related disputes that involve a persistent pattern of failure to comply with obligations under the Labour Agreement, an option that is not created in the Environment Agreement."
• An Act to amend the Constitution Act, 1867 (Democratic representation): "Bill C-12 is designed to address a distortion in the manner in which population growth is reflected by growth in the number of elected representatives assigned to each province. The Bill seeks to remedy this distortion by enacting a new formula for seat readjustments in the House of Commons. As with the formula presently employed to readjust the number of members seated in the House, Bill C-12 prescribes a formula that readjusts seats after each decennial census, while also apportioning any newly created seats to the province or provinces that experienced population growth from one decennial census to the next."
• Ending House Arrest for Property and Other Serious Crimes by Serious and Violent Offenders Act: "The bill amends section 742.1 of the Criminal Code, which deals with conditional sentencing, to eliminate the reference to serious personal injury offences. It also restricts the availability of conditional sentences for all offences for which the maximum term of imprisonment is 14 years or life and for specified offences, prosecuted by way of indictment, for which the maximum term of imprisonment is 10 years."
• Increasing Voter Participation Act: "The proposed legislation builds upon the increasing use of advance polling by Canadian voters. On the day Bill C-18 was introduced, its sponsor stated that 'Increasing the number of advance polling days means giving Canadians more opportunities to vote and will help to increase voter participation.' Since 1997, the percentage of voters who cast their vote in advance polls increased from 5.4% in 1997 to 6% in 2000, 9.2% in 2004, 10.5% in 2006 and 10.9% in 2008. Bill C-18 is based on the premise that additional advance polling days will increase voter turnout, which has been declining since 1988 (see Table 1). In this vein, the 58.8% voter turnout for the last general election of 14 October 2008 marks a record low."
• An Act to amend the Criminal Code (investigative hearing and recognizance with conditions): "Bill C-17 proposes amendments to the Criminal Code (the Code) that would reinstate anti-terrorism provisions that expired under a sunset clause in February 2007. It also provides for the appearance of individuals who may have information about a terrorism offence before a judge for an investigative hearing and contains provisions dealing with recognizance with conditions and preventive arrest to avert a potential terrorist attack, all of which are provisions that are substantially similar to original provisions in the Anti-terrorism Act that came into force in 2001. It also contains a five-year sunset clause and requires the Attorney General and the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness to issue separate annual reports that include their opinions as to whether these provisions should be extended."
• Act to amend the Criminal Code and another Act (Serious Time for the Most Serious Crime Act): "The bill amends provisions in the Criminal Code regarding the right of persons convicted of murder or high treason to apply for early parole. This is done through the elimination of the so-called 'faint hope' clause by which those given a life sentence for murder or high treason could apply for parole after having served 15 years of their sentence."
• Act to deter terrorism and to amend the State Immunity Act: "The bill creates a cause of action (i.e., grounds to sue) that allows victims of terrorism to sue individuals, organizations and terrorist entities for loss or damage suffered as a result of acts or omissions that are punishable under Part II.1 of the Criminal Code (the part of the Code dealing with terrorism offences) and which have been committed by these individuals, organizations or entities. It also allows victims of terrorism to sue foreign states that have supported terrorist entities which have committed such acts, in certain circumstances. The victim's loss or damage can have occurred inside or outside Canada but must have occurred on or after 1 January 1985. If the loss or damage occurs outside Canada, there must be a 'real and substantial' connection to this country. Bill S-7 also amends the State Immunity Act to create a new exception to state immunity, the general rule that prevents states from being sued in Canada's domestic courts. However, the new exception serves to remove state immunity only when the state in question has been placed on a list established by Cabinet on the basis that there are reasonable grounds to believe that it has supported or currently supports terrorism."

Are Web 2.0 Media Making Publication Bans a Thing of the Past?

This came up during a panel discussion at the recent annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries.

The panel was about Twitter and Blogging in the Courtroom (Monday, May 10, 4PM in the conference program) and it discussed the impact of new social networking technologies on trial procedure and juror behaviour.

One of the participants, Ottawa Citizen reporter Glen McGregor, who liveblogged the recent criminal trial of Ottawa mayor Larry O'Brien, asked whether publication bans would be possible today if another Bernardo trial were to take place.

And then this appeared in my inbox yesterday: Internet raises news issues for court publication bans:

"When a judge in Brockville, Ont., imposed a publication ban in a domestic assault case last week, the local newspaper obeyed, reporting the suspect's age and hometown, but withholding his name."

"Just before the ruling came down, however, a Facebook site went up identifying not only the suspect's name, but posting three pictures of him."

"More than 1,000 people have since joined that group."

"The case highlights what experts say is an emerging legal conundrum: How effective are publication bans in an age when information about cases can be uploaded with a few key strokes and zapped around the world? Do publication bans even apply to social networking sites?"

LLRX.com Article on Forensic Evidence and the CSI Effect

The website LLRX.com has published an article by Ken Strutin on Forensic Evidence and the CSI Effect:

"There is a question about whether impressions created by the media in its treatment and portrayal of forensic proof as either irrefutable or absolutely necessary for conviction is truly impacting the outcome of criminal cases."

"A growing body of research is examining this "CSI effect" from the defense and prosecution perspectives (...) For example, juries might be overly impressed with and uncritical of fingerprint or DNA test results or contrarily have unrealistic expectations about the need for such evidence or its accuracy and reliability"

By an interesting coincidence, one of the articles to which Strutin refers was written by Michigan state judge Donald E. Shelton, one of the 3 speakers at a panel I helped organize at the recent annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (the panel was about the impact that the use of social networking media by jurors, lawyers, and reporters has on courtroom process).

And the debate over the existence of a "CSI Effect" is one of the topics the Association's group of courthouse and law society libraries wants to consider for a workshop at the 2011 annual conference in Calgary.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2010 Awards

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) hands out a number of awards and recognitions every year in a variety of categories.

Many of the winners were announced earlier this week at CALL's annual conference that ended today in Windsor, Ontario:

• the Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing was given to the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society portal about the Annotated Nova Scotia Civil Procedure Rules
• Denis Le May, former law librarian at the Université Laval in Quebec City and a past president of CALL, was awarded Honoured Member status for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of the the profession
• Ted Tjaden, National Director, Knowledge Management, at McMillan in Toronto, and author of Legal Research and Writing (Irwin Law, 2004) won the Denis Marshall Award of Excellence in Canadian Law Librarianship

Innovation Gallery at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference

Last night, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) organized an "Innovation Gallery" at the University of Windsor as part of its annual conference in Windsor, Ontario.

The Innovation Gallery was described as a "poster session on steroids": visitors could go from room to room to see digital presentations about new projects and initiatives undertaken by CALL members.

Here are a few I was able to catch:

1) Access CLE at the Great Library (Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto)

Olcay Atacan presented Access CLE, the Law Society's e-commerce portal for ordering continuing legal education materials

2) Annotated Nova Scotia Civil Procedure Rules

Deborah Copeman and Susan Jones of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society in Halifax demonstrated the Annotated Nova Scotia Civil Procedure Rules. It is fully indexed, links to forms, can output results in PDF or Word format, contains "educational notes" that explain the Rules, and has a table of concordance to the old rules. It uses technology supplied by LexUM, the legal informatics lab at the University of Montreal.

3) Training Librarian's Toolbox

This is an idea from Liana Giovando, training and reference librarian at Goodmans LLP in Toronto.

It is currently a prototype on Google Sites and the idea is to create an open source repository where CALL members could share their training materials. It is a work in progress with a lot of potential. During the 2009-2010 year, the Courthouse and Law Society Libraries Special Interest Group of CALL (of which I am co-chair) had asked members to contribute training materials so we could compile a list. That list of a static document. Liana's idea is a) more interactive, b) dynamic, and c) uses technology to its fullest potential.

4) Legal Research Literacy Using Blended Learning and Learning Community Strategies (University of Ottawa)

Julie Lavigne, coordinator of the legal research program at the Brian Dickson Law Library, explained this project.

The blended learning part involved developing a number of web-based self-instruction modules embedded in courseware used by students. The modules deal with search strategies (Boolean, keywords), using secondary legal sources, the rules of legal citation, and finding Ontario laws and regulations.

The learning communities part involved the creation of a course in legal writing and research for upper year students who would also act as teaching assistants and mentors to first-year students.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference - Vendor Updates

Vendors held a "demo session" yesterday afternoon at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) in Windsor.

Here are some of the enhancements and new products announced.

1) LexisNexis Canada

• the first edition of the Haslbury's Laws of Canada encyclopedia will be complete in 2010
• major enhancements to Quicklaw include the addition of links to Halsbury's and to law journal articles to the case citator and of regulations in the statute citator
• France's Jurisclasseur will be added to Quicklaw
• Quicklaw is adding a new Quebec doctrine module to include Jurisclasseur Quebec, treatises and LegisPratique
• LexisNexis Canada is now on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

2) Canada Law Book

• in the summer, it will launch Employment Spectrum, containing legislation, cases, commentary, summaries and dismissal notice periods (organized by salary, years of experience, age etc.)
• it is introducing mobile applications - Blackberry access to Ontario Annual Practice and B.C. Annual Practice
• the first CLB e-Book is coming out this month: David Whelan's "Finding and Managing Legal Information on the Internet". There will be a networkable version as well as a companion blog

3) Carswell

• the 4th edition of the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest will be complete by the end of the year (220 new volumes) and 88% of CED content now links to Canadian Abridgment digests (100% by the end of the year)
• Westlaw Canada enhancements will include ResultsPlus (results will show suggested related analysis from the CED and eventually from facta and commentary)
• some noteworthy new content on Westlaw Canada: expert profiles, quantum services and updated court rule annotations in the Litigator product; the inclusion of more tribunal decisions in case and statute citators; information about citation frequency for case law results (KeyCite limits will now include a limit by citation frequency)
• after an e-Book pilot with the "Practioner's Income Tax Act" (Blackberry), more e-Book offerings are forthcoming
• additional loose-leaf titles are being added to the e-Reference Library

4) AZIMUT

• the daily Jurisprudence Express and Droit du travail express bulletins have now become the Express 2.0 current awareness tool. Digests covering a variety of legal areas are available, offering jurisprudence, legislative news and doctrine (commentary)

5) CCH

• now on Twitter
• new content includes: a new Window on GST/HST and an International Financial Reporting Standards for Canada
• many of the existing e-products have updated online commentary (products such as Canadian Labour Law Reporter , Canadian Family Law, etc.)
• new or updated tables of concordance on products such as Estate Administration Guide, Family Law Guide, Commercial Law Guide, Employment Pension and Benefits Guide, etc.
• the Canadian Health Facilities Law Guide is now online
• there are e-Book versions now for Annotated B.C. Securities Legislation, Annotated Ontario Securities Legislation, Bennett on Bankruptcy and more

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference Meetings

The 2010 annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is underway in Windsor, Ontario.

Some highlights from this morning:

1) the Courthouse and Law Society Libraries Special Interest Group (SIG) held its annual business meeting. You can find the SIG's annual report on the CALL website.

At the meeting, a number of members briefly described some of their projects of the past year.

The Hamilton Law Association library has created a Facebook page to disseminate information about continuing legal education materials, training seminars and new titles.

The Nova Scotia Barristers' Society library has created an annotated version of the rules of civil procedure of the province which is fully indexed and searchable.

The Carleton Country Law Association library launched a new website, a library blog and Twitter feed and created a database of Association conference papers.

The Law Society of Upper Canada Great Library launched a webinars series, created a reference procedures wiki and is testing (beta version) a new discovery tool that will offer one-stop searching of the catalogue, CLE materials and federated search.

The Supreme Court of Canada library completed a move of a large part of its treatise collection from the sub-basement to the floor where researchers actually work. As well, a wiki is being tested where reference questions and answers are gathered.

2) this spring, the Committee to Promote Research did not receive any applications that met the criteria for the CALL research grant. Thus, as in the past, the committee will conduct another competition with applications due October 15, 2010.

The Committee is interested in sponsoring a session at next year's CALL conference, which will be held in Calgary. Ideas that were discussed at the meeting include: statistical literacy and/or other topics relating to quantitative research methods, bibliometrics trends or a session on how to apply for research grants (a how-to session)

3) the Vendor Liaison Committee (VLC) also met this morning.

It appears to have been a very busy year for the VLC. The committee's major ongoing initiative is to advocate for usage statistics reporting standards for legal information vendors. The work this past year has focused on identifying the most desired elements librarians would like to see available in usage statistic reports. The VLC has also conducted a survey on the financial outlook of law libraries for 2010 and the final results will be available soon.

Global Development of Free Access to Legal Information

The first issue of volume 1 of the European Journal of Law and Technology recently published an article by Graham Greenleaf entitled The Global Development of Free Access to Legal Information.

Greenleaf is a Professor of Law at the University of New South Wales and Co-Director of the Australasian Legal Information Institute.

The article describes the origins and evolution of the growing international movement to make legal information freely accessible through Internet portals such as CanLII (Canadian Legal Information Institute).

[Source: Law Librarian Blog]

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Annual Reports

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is holding its annual conference in Windsor starting this weekend.

Many of the association's committees and special interest groups (SIGs) have published their annual reports in preparation for the event.

Here are some highlights.

1) Courthouse and Law Society Libraries SIG

Its annual report is on the CALL website.

2) Academic Law Libraries SIG

This SIG has organized a preconference workshop proposal on U.S. legal research. During the year, it continued the Academic SIG Facebook Group and its newsletter. The newsletter is released three times a year, and the Facebook Group is updated with a new item approximately once every two weeks. The newsletters can be found on the SIG webpage.

3) Copyright Committee

CALL participated in the federal Copyright Consultations in July/August 2009 on Bill C-61, which died on the order paper when Parliament was prorogued.

A copy of CALL's submission is available online on the consultations website.

On the committee's to do list for 2010-2011:

• Update CALL Copyright Committee page
  
• Update CALL Copyright Information Link page
  
• Monitor Bills; and developments in Copyright law as they may pertain to Law Libraries
  

4) Vendor Liaison Committee (VLC)

Once again the committee had a busy and productive year with meetings held to cover general vendor related issues and meetings that focused on our usage statistics initiative.

The committee's major ongoing initiative is to advocate for usage statistics reporting standards for our legal information vendors. The work this past year has focused on identifying most desired elements we would like to see available in usage statistic reports.

There have been several strides toward achieving this goal. VLC members identified the information vendors that offer electronic legal material and should be targeted for standard usage reporting. The committee members have also identified all of the requirments that we see as necessary in a usage report, as well as identified which features are met by existing systems.

As the issue of usage reports is universal to law libraries, we have opened lines of communication with our BIALL (British and Irish) and AALL (American) vendor related committee colleagues. A collection of reading material on Usage Statistics has also been added to our committee page.

Since the 2009 Conference, the Vendor Liaison Committee has achieved a number of objectives:

• Continued our annual communication with the membership about price increases
• Prepared and posted guidelines: Using CALL-L for vendor issues. The message re-educates about our critical path document: Librarian-Vendor Relations Best Practices checklist, which has been updated with some additional resources from Toronto Association of Law Libraries Publisher Liaison Committee.
• Posted several information pieces to the VLC Committee Page including:
  Annual Report 2009
  Pricing Trends 2010
  Report on the Vendor Demo Presentations CALL 2009
  Financial outlook CALL libraries March 2009
• Continued gathering financial outlook data for Canadian Law Libraries
• Sent reminders to publishers about the CALL- VLC code of good practices for loose-leaf publications
  

5) Education Committee

The committee launched a Leadership Learning Series, starting with a pre-conference session in 2008, A Law Library Leadership Institute. This was followed by a 2009 conference session: Making Some Room: Strategies that Turn New Staff into New Leaders. The 'next in a series' follow-up this year will be a conference session: Inspiring Leaders. The committee had decided that a full scale pre-conference workshop each year might be too heavy in the leadership area – so would target for one every 3 years or so, with a continuing series of workshops in between.

This was the first full year for the mentoring program, which kicked off at the 2009 conference. Plans are in place for mentors and mentees to meet at the 2010 conference, and for an evaluation of the year to take place.

This past year also saw the launch of a continuing education initiative. With input from the Executive, it was decided that 4 or 5 webinars could be held each year, on a variety of topics, with a variety of presenters. The first webinar will be held in May, following the CALL conference; publicity for the webinar will occur at the conference.

6) Committee to Promote Research

At the May 2009 conference, the tenth annual Research Grant was awarded to Mary Hemmings for her project, "Legal Visual Semiotics: 18th Century Satirical Prints as Primary Sources."

During the year, Kirsten Wurmann, 2007 Research Grant recipient, published the results from her project, "Public Legal Education Bibliography", in (2009) 34:5 Canadian Law Library Review 232. Nancy McCormack and Nicole Eva published "If You Could Do It All Again: Job Satisfaction and Law Library Workers in Canada" in (2009) 34:5 Canadian Law Library Review 241 - the results of their research supported by the 2008 Research Grant.

Publications of Research Grant recipients and other research by CALL/ACBD members are listed on the Research Databank webpage

The committee advertised for the 2010 Research Grant, but did not receive any applications that met the criteria for the grant. Thus, as in the past, the committee will conduct another competition with applications due October 15, 2010. This year, due to budget constraints, the Executive allotted $2,000 for the Research Grant instead of the usual $5,000.

7) KF Modified Committee

The KF Modified classification schedule continues to be updated on a quarterly basis with 87 new pages issued last year. Due to some time constraints the 2nd and 3rd quarter updates were issued simultaneously this year. This delay facilitated the completion of the revised KF Modified form tables (completed and issued in the 3rd quarter). In addition a new optional expansion for KF385.ZB5 which enhances the classification area on Quebec civil law was issued in the 4th quarter update.

The promotion of KF Modified remains on the forefront of the Committee’s agenda.

• The KF Modified Blog was launched in December 2009 and serves as a place to disseminate and gather information about KF Modified and legal classification.
• "KF Modified and the Classification of Canadian Common Law" was published in v. 34, no. 5 of the Canadian Law Library Review.
• The Committee is considering a name change that will broaden the scope of KF Modified for use in any common law library. This will be discussed at the next Committee meeting in Windsor.

The Chair continues to explore the possibility of providing KF Modified in an electronic format. There are a number of options under consideration with the preferred solution being the creation of a database driven version in XML. A brief proposal for institutional support was submitted to the CALL President in November 2009.

Two additional enhancements have been completed and are under review: Nationality & Citizenship; Immigration.

The next areas scheduled for updating and improvement are: Indians. Native Peoples. Aboriginals. Inuit, and Labour Law. Future areas under consideration include: Taxation; Environmental Law; Access to Information/Privacy; and Internet law. The Committee hopes to continue to make progress on all of these initiatives in the coming year.

8) Oral History Project

The CALL/ACBD Oral History Project was established to conduct interviews with founding members and others instrumental in the association’s creation, in order to capture its history as it approaches its 50th anniversary. Six oral histories have been completed to date, and the following material deposited in the association archives, housed at the University of Manitoba Archives and Special Collections:

• Marianne Scott, President 1963-1969 - 3 tapes (closed); edited transcript (2008, 78 p. plus index)
• Margaret A. Banks, Treasurer, 1964 -1966; Constitution & Procedural Adviser; CALL/ACBD Historian - 2 tapes (closed); 1 diskette; 2 transcripts (1987, 151 p.; original deposited in the Ontario Archives: 1 edited transcript, 2005, 62 p.)
• Shih-Sheng Hu, Treasurer, 1966-1969 - 3 tapes; edited transcript (2006, 64 p.)
• Roger Jacobs, President, CALL/ACBD, 1971-1973; President, AALL, 1981-1982 - 2 tapes; edited transcript (2006, 89 p.)
• Viola A. Bird, President, AALL, 1971-1972; author, Law Library Resources in Canada (1975) - 1 tape; 2 edited transcripts (1 electronic) (2005, 39 p.)
• Pamela Hardisty, President, CALL/ACBD 1975-1977 - 1 CD; edited transcript (2009, 29 p.)

An oral history with Guy Tanguay, President, 1973-1975, is due to be completed this spring. One additional history is planned for 2010.

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 April 16th to 30th, 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.

R.I.P. Law Librarian Extraordinaire Margaret Banks

Margaret Banks, one of Canada's most prominent law librarians, died last week. She was 81.

Simon Chester has more on slaw.ca.

The first book on law librarianship I ever read was her Banks on Using a Law Library: a Canadian Guide to Legal Research, 6th ed. (Scarborough, Ont. : Carswell, 1994).

It is still on the shelf near my desk at the office.

New Request Form for Supreme Court of Canada Records

There is a new form available for people who want to request court records from the Supreme Court of Canada.

Fees may apply for services such as photocopies.

Since Feb. 2009, the Court has a new Policy for Access to Supreme Court of Canada Court Records.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Launches Webinar Series

As part of its continuing education efforts, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) has launched a webinar series.

The first webinar to kick off the program will be held Wednesday, May 19th: "Getting Started with Online Conferencing" (in other words, a webinar about webinars).

Times: 10 am BC/11 am AB & SK/12 pm MB/1 pm ON & QC/2 pm NB, NS. PE/2:30 NL

The webinar will be conducted by Laura Quinn, Executive Director of Idealware.

According to the announcement:

"We’ll talk about the features that can help you conduct meetings or trainings over the Web – desktop sharing, slide shows, chat functionality, polls, voice conferencing, and more. Then we look at some of the free and affordable options, such as Glance, DimDim, Yugma, GoToMeeting, ReadyTalk, and Adobe Connect. We’ll close with some tips and tricks about conducting training via the web."

"The agenda includes:

• What is an Online Conference?
• Components and Features
• Shared Visuals (documents, desktops, and videos)
• Audio Conferencing
• Interactivity
• Archiving
• A Selection of Vendors
• Desktop Sharing (Screenstream, TeamViewer, Glance)
• Inexpensive and Unproven (WebHuddle, Yugma, DimDim)
• More Established (GoToMeeting, WebEx, Adobe Connect, ReadyTalk, Elluminate)
• Tips for a Successful Online Conference"

This first webinar in the series is free to CALL members.

To register, contact the CALL office: office AT callacbd.ca

May 2010 Issue of the Journal du Barreau Now Online

The May 2010 issue of the Journal du Barreau, the monthly publication of the Quebec Bar Association, is now online.

Feature articles cover such themes as:

• hunger and the right to food
• mental health and access to justice
• labour mobility for lawyers between Canadian jurisdictions
• a pilot project in family law to ensure non-represented parties have access to a courthouse lawyer
  

AALL Spectrum 10th Annual Architecture Series

The May 2010 issue of the AALL Spectrum features a number of stories about law library renovations, redesigns and relocations.

From the introduction:

"Not surprisingly given the down economy, the 10th edition of the Annual Architecture Series received far fewer submissions than last year, with none coming from public or governmental law libraries. Also disappointingly, a law firm that had
completed a very clever remodel had to withdraw its submission—firm management objected because, contrary to initial plans, the remodel did not include new furniture."

"Nonetheless, the stories that follow are a rollercoaster of updating, relocating, and even completely overhauling libraries. One library moved across the street, while another moved 30 miles to its new location. Regardless of the distance, the building and remodeling projects in this issue continue to demonstrate the exceptional problem solving abilities, creativity, and communication skills of law librarians as they work with administrations to plan new or remodeled spaces and map the complex steps of relocation. Viewing these experiences through our colleagues’ eyes can inform and inspire us to make better use of the space in our own libraries."