2013 Law via the Internet Conference on Island of Jersey

The 2013 Law Via the Internet conference will take place in late September 2013 on Jersey, one of the Channel Islands.

The conference brings together people from the Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) from different countries and continents that together form the Free Access to Law Movement.

The conference "tracks" will be:

• E-Learning: distance, blended, open, mobile, gaming, MOOCing and more?
• Online legal information – starting from scratch
• Legal knowledge in the age of the semantic web
• Communicating our work: journals, blogs and other ways of publishing about open access
• Privacy v open government in legal publishing
• Emerging patterns of information access and usage
• Technological development and free access to law

The goal of the LIIs is to maximize free access to public legal information such as legislation and case law from as many countries and international institutions as possible. CanLII, the Canadian Legal Information Institute, and Lexum, which publishes the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada online, are prominent members of the movement.

Online Registration Open for CALL 2013 Conference

It is now possible to register online for the upcoming 2013 conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries.

The conference takes place in Montreal from May 5 to May 8, 2013 at Le Centre Sheraton Montreal. There is a pre-conference workshop on May 4. More details are available from the conference program.

British Columbia Law Institute Consultation Paper on Common-Law Tests of Capacity

The British Columbia Law Institute has published a Consultation Paper on Common-Law Tests of Capacity.

From the press release:

"The consultation paper examines legislative reforms to judge-made rules governing when a person is determined to have the mental capacity to carry out a transaction or enter into a relationship. It was prepared with the assistance of a ten-person, all-volunteer project committee, made up of some of the leading lights in this area of the law (...)"

"The consultation paper contains 31 proposals for reform on how tests of mental capacity operate when someone wants to make a will, to designate a beneficiary under an insurance policy or retirement plan, to make a gift, to nominate a committee, to enter into a contract, to retain legal counsel, to marry or enter into a spousal relationship, or to separate from a spouse."

For many of the issues, the paper examines the situation in other jurisdictions in Canada and in other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, the US and the UK.

The Institute is seeking responses to the Consultation Report by June 15, 2013 for consideration before making a final report.

Statistics Canada Report on Violence Against Women

Statistics Canada today released a report on police-reported data about violence against women in Canada.

Among the highlights:

• about 173,600 women aged 15 years and older were victims of violent crime in 2011. This translates into a rate of 1,207 female victims for every 100,000 women in the population
• there was a decrease in police-reported attempted murders and physical assaults against women between 2009 and 2011. However, the rate of police-reported sexual assaults against women increased in 2010 and remained stable in 2011. Following nearly three decades of decline, the rate of homicide against women has been relatively stable over the past decade
• in 2011, the five most common violent offences committed against women were common assault (49%), uttering threats (13%), serious assault (10%), sexual assault level I (7%), and criminal harassment (7%). 
• women were eleven times more likely than men to be a victim of sexual offences and three times as likely to be the victim of criminal harassment (stalking)
• men were responsible for 83% of police-reported violence committed against women. Most commonly, the accused was the woman's intimate partner (includes both spousal and dating) (45%), followed by acquaintances or friends (27%), strangers (16%) and non-spousal family members (12%). This contrasts violent crimes against men, where intimate partners were among the least common perpetrators (12%)
• about half (51%) of female victims of intimate partner violence suffered some type of injury

Quebec Bar Association Report Card on Democracy and Rule of Law

For the second year in a row, the Quebec Bar Association has written an evaluation of the state of democracy and the rule of law in the province of Quebec and in Canada.

Overall, the Quebec Bar concludes that the impartiality and independence of the justice system in Quebec and Canada are enviable. However, the association notes the existence of a number of trends that show that the rule of law is a fragile thing.

These trends include:

• the abusive and repeated use of omnibus bills as a way around democratic debates and the normal legislative process ("Le recours abusif et répété à des projets de loi omnibus afin de modifier de façon significative des orientations législatives, et contourner les débats démocratiques et le processus législatif habituel")
• fraud and corruption in construction and public contract tendering in Quebec
• access to justice, which is increasingly unaffordable for many citizens

To evaluate the degree which a society respects the rule of law, the Association based itself on four internationally recognized criteria:

1. government and its officials are subject to the law. All are equal before the law and courts/tribunals are impartial and independent
2. the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms is guaranteed
3. the law is predictable (laws are clear and public)
4. the justice system is accessible

March 1 Ottawa Learning Fair for Information Management Specialists

The Canadian Library Association’s Government Library and Information Management Professionals Network is holding an Information Management Learning Fair on Friday, March 1, 2013, 10:30 am to 2:00 pm, at 365 Laurier Avenue West, Ottawa:

"Representatives from participating organizations will be available to answer questions about their programs."

"Participating Organizations (confirmed):

• ARMA-NCR Chapter
• Canadian Library Association
• Dalhousie University, School of Information Management
• University of Ottawa, School of Information Studies
• University of Toronto, iSchool Institute
• Western University, Faculty of Information and Media Studies"

February 2013 Issue of Governance and Recordkeeping Around the World

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

The February 2013 issue has just been published on the LAC website.

It includes:

• news items from Canada and around the world
• announcements of upcoming Canadian and international events (meetings, workshops, seminars)
• project and product news in areas such as digitization, archives, open source, e-government, access to information and Web 2.0 initiatives
• selected papers and readings (white papers, presentations, reports)

To Whom Does the Pope Send His Resignation Letter?

In Custodia Legis, the blog of the Law Library of Congress in Washington, has an interesting post on Canonical Rules on the Resignation of a Pontiff, and the Election of a New Pontiff (part 1 of 2 posted yesterday). It is written by Dante Figueroa, Senior Legal Information Analyst at the Law Library of Congress:

"Since the last papal resignation was nearly 600 years ago, this month’s announcement took the world by surprise and resulted in many questions. I will address several of the most important juridical questions arising from Pope Benedict’s resignation, for which there are responses in current Canon law, as well as other questions for which there are no canonical rules or precedents."

Some of those questions are:

• To whom does the Pontiff present his resignation?
• What title will the outgoing Pontiff have?
• What role will former Pope Benedict have in the government of the Holy See?
• Who administers the Holy See in the interregnum (between the Papal resignation and the assumption of the new Supreme Pontiff)?
• What administrative acts may be carried out during the Sede Vacante [vacancy], and who may order or supervise them?

The next post by Figueroa will explain the canonical rules governing the election of the future Pope.

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 1-15, 2013 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.

CLA Government Library Network Interview With Two Ex-McGillites Now in Australia

The CLA Government Library and Information Management Professionals Network, part of the Canadian Library Association (CLA), has launched 13 Questions With..., a new series on its website that will profile a member of the Canadian library and IM community every week.

This week's interview is with Megan Fitzgibbons, Librarian, University of Western Australia Law Library, and with Yusuke Fitzgibbons, Assistant Professor, Edith Cowan University, in Perth, Australia.

As the intro explains:

"Megan and Yusuke moved to Perth, Australia in December 2012. Prior to that, they were both affiliated with McGill University in Montreal – the McGill University Library (Megan) and McGill’s School of Information Studies (Yusuke)."

Upcoming Job-Hunting Webinars from Canadian Library Association

The Canadian Library Association (CLA) has a number of upcoming job-related webinars this winter:

• February 25, 2013, 7PM Eastern: The Job Interview - Projecting Competence, Confidence and Fit With Organizational Culture: "It’s one thing to produce a superb resume and expertly crafted cover letter. Going in for the grilling is quite another challenge. Fortunately, there is help. Ulla de Stricker distils her own experience and the best advice out there into a set of tips for convincing the potential employer you are the perfect candidate … and for diagnosing whether the employer’s culture is a good fit for you. Specific attention is paid to 'difficult' questions and the professional way to respond to them."
•  March 6, 2013, 2PM Eastern: Cover Letters – Do They Do Us Justice? (rescheduled from Feb. 11, 2013): "Ulla de Stricker will show information professionals how to turn their cover letters into effective sales instruments. Come see how 'ineffective' cover letters – the standard ones you may be using right now? – get transformed into powerful sales tools. You will be amazed how stripping out weak verbiage and using confident language makes a difference!"

Cost is $25 per webinar for CLA members, $35 for members of other professional organizations, and $40 for non-members.

Library of Parliament Publication on Canada’s Approach to the Treaty-Making Process

The Library of Parliament recently made available an update to its research publication about Canada’s Approach to the Treaty-Making Process:

"In Canada, the negotiation, signature and ratification of international treaties are controlled by the executive branch of the federal government, while Parliament is responsible for the implementation of such treaties at the federal level. This paper explores Canada’s approach to the negotiation, signature, ratification and implementation of international treaties at the federal level, including a description of power over international affairs, the treaty-making process itself, various compliance mechanisms, and the federal-provincial/territorial relationship with respect to international treaties (...)

"Very little authority is explicitly laid out in the law or the Constitution - much relies on royal prerogative, tradition and policy. Today the House of Commons has been granted a louder voice prior to official ratification. This enhanced role for Parliament is an important one, although it must be remembered that this is a policy, not law, and can be easily revoked or bypassed when necessary. Parliamentary committees can also play an important role when it comes to monitoring compliance with the international treaties and conventions signed by Canada. This role may be carried out by listening to civil society, business, academic, government and international voices, and issuing recommendations to help Canada live up to its international obligations."

Interview With Library of Congress Librarian in the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate

In Custodia Legis, the blog of the Law Library of Congress in Washington, has been running an interview series featuring members of the library staff. The series started in late October 2010.

There are close to 100 posts in the series.

This week's interview is with Rick Fitzgerald, a Librarian in the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access Directorate of the Library of Congress:

"How would you describe your job to other people?"

"I am responsible for the bibliographic records for the web archives and the cataloging work. Managing web archives is quite challenging; there are a lot of moving interconnected parts and those involved need to rely on each other to make sure these parts are in sync."

"Recently, my colleagues and I have spent a lot of time thinking about the scope of a website – for collecting, for seeking permissions as well as for providing end-user access. In many cases, it is not just a simple URL! "

"We are also in the process of incorporating the web archive records into the Library’s metasearch. This presents new opportunities as well as challenges. It will eventually provide a new discovery experience for collections in the Library of Congress Web Archives such as the Legal Blawgs Web Archive, as well as opportunities for linking Congress.gov to Congressional web archives."

CLA Government Library Network Interview With Emily Yearwood-Lee, Legislative Library of B.C.

The CLA Government Library and Information Management Professionals Network, part of the Canadian Library Association (CLA), has launched 13 Questions With..., a new series on its website that will profile a member of the Canadian library and IM community every week.

This week's interview is with Emily Yearwood-Lee, Acting Manager of Reference, Legislative Library of British Columbia.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries March 11, 2013 Webinar on Integrating Private Knowledge and Public Legal Information

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) will host a webinar entitled Tastier When Mixed: Integrating Private Knowledge and Public Legal Information on March 11, 2013 from, 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT [scroll down to the last item in the webinar list].

The speaker will be Ivan Mokanov, Executive Director at Lexum and Chief Editor from 2003 to 2009 at the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII):

"Librarians are often at the intersection of their organization’s private knowledge and the public legal information available out there. The session will explore how those two types of information can be integrated in order to leverage their value."

"Practical illustrations will include:

• Using publicly available citators to structure private knowledge
• Including public resources in private enterprise search tools
• Crawling the public resources to bring back relevant information
• Current awareness tools"

"The practical illustrations will show how to achieve those goals through the use of APIs (Application programming interfaces)."

The webinar costs only $45.20 for members and $67.80 for non-members. A recording will be available to registered participants. There is an online registration form on the CALL website.

New Collection of Legal Materials from Open Access Repositories

Publisher bepress recently launched The Digital Commons Network that "brings together scholarship from hundreds of universities and colleges, providing open access to peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work" [About page]

One of the subsets is the Law Network, which already has more than 100,000 articles from 170 institutions. The institutions all seem to be U.S. universities.

It is possible to sign up for free to follow all new legal scholarship, content in a specific practice area, from a specific institution or author.

This appears to be an interesting complement to the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). The SSRN Abstract Database has abstracts on over 466,400 scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers and an Electronic Paper Collection currently containing over 378,900 downloadable full text documents in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. One of the SSRN subdivisions is the Legal Scholarship Network (which does have Canadian content).

[Source: WisBlawg, University of Wisconsin Law Library]

Funding Help Available to Attend CALL 2013 Annual Conference

Members of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) can apply to the Eunice Beeson Memorial Fund for financial assistance to attend the organization's annual conference.

The Fund can help cover travel and/or accommodation expenses. Applicants are responsible for paying for the registration fee.

The application form is available on the CALL website. The deadline for the 2013 conference is March 1, 2013. The 2013 conference takes place in Montreal, May 5-8.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2013 Conference Program

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) will be holding its 2013 conference in Montreal from May 5th to 8th and the program has been posted on the CALL website.

Sessions include:

• a pre-conference workshop on Leading Teams Through Change
• Thriving on Chaos (Winds of Change): The Future of Law Librarians
• Please Don't Make Me Think: User Testing a Faceted Search Engine
• Continuing Professional Development: Options for Legal Studies
• Competitive Intelligence: Definition, Issues and Its Application in a Law Firm
• Project management: Technology challenges, Knowledge Management, Content Quality, and Effective Communication
• The Future of Articling in Canada: Its Impact on the Profession
• Teaching, Learning, and Working with Mobile Technology
• Librarians Under Pressure: Stress Management Secrets Shared 
• Librarians as Trainers: Coping with Interruption and Interaction in an Era of Social Media
• Keeping Track: Evolution of the RDA Standard
• Soft Skills for Librarians: Self-Management Explained 
• Lost In Translation? Québec Legal System for non-Québec Librarians
• Return on Investment 101: Demonstrate Your Value
• Land of Confusion: EBooks' License Negotiation Demystified

CALL Student Groups to Meet at Montreal 2013 Conference in May

This is a follow-up to the January 23, 2013 post entitled Dalhousie’s School of Information Management Launches CALL's First Student Group.

Last November, the executive of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) approved the creation of the new Student Special Interest Group or SIG.

So far, the SIG has two student run branches, one at Dalhousie University’s School of Information Management in Halifax and one at the University of Western Ontario's Faculty of Information and Media Studies.

The SIG aims to encourage student membership within CALL and to promote Legal Information Management as a possible career path.

The SIG will be holding its first official meeting at the annual CALL 2013 Conference in Montreal on Sunday May 5, 2013 from 1:00 – 2:00.

At the meeting attendees will chose SIG Chair(s), discuss how to create branches of the CALL Student SIG at other library and information studies schools, and hear a few short presentations by professionals with advice for students seeking careers as Law Librarians. 

Winter 2013 Issue of Law Library Journal Now Available

The Winter 2013 issue of Law Library Journal is available on the website of the American Association of Law Libraries.

Among the many articles, the following attracted my attention:

• How Federal Statutes Are Named: "Given the number of public laws enacted since the First Congress began work on March 4, 1789, 1 it is no surprise that some effort has been made to assign names to statutes, since mere sequential numbers, much less volume and page citations to the Statutes at Large, are hard to remember (...) Referring to legislation by public law number or title number injects further ambiguity because the reader may not know whether the intended reference is to the original statute or the statute as subsequently amended. On the other hand, that can be said even of narrative or descriptive titles (...) The obvious answer: giving the statute a name that is easy to remember. But what name shall it be?"
• "Information is Cheap, but Meaning is Expensive": Building Analytical Skill into Legal Research Instruction: "Law students and new attorneys must have well-developed analytical skills in order to find information that is pertinent to their legal problems and to become competent legal researchers in today’s information-rich environment. Law librarians and legal research instructors can help develop students’ analytical skills by asking them to participate in activities that encourage metacognition about processes that are critical to information seeking."
• Practicing Reference . . . Bitten by the Reading Bug: "Is reading books about law helpful to law librarians? Ms. [Mary] Whisner [Marian Gould Gallagher Law Library, University of Washington School of Law, Seattle] discusses why and what she likes to read, and makes recommendations about books others might find interesting."

Halsbury's Laws of Canada Legal Encyclopedia Completed

Simon Chester reported yesterday at Slaw.ca that Lexis-Nexis Canada has completed the final volume of Halsbury's Laws of Canada, its Canadian common law legal encyclopaedia:

"Halsburys is testament to the vision of Slaw's own Gary Rodrigues who launched the effort seven years ago thus: ' With Halsbury's Laws of Canada, customers benefit from a powerful resource that appropriately and inclusively deals with each provincial jurisdiction and federal law, ' said Gary Rodrigues, [who was then] vice president, Publishing, at LexisNexis Canada. ' It truly is a national publication designed to provide Canadian legal professionals with comprehensive and relevant legal information'. " 

In 2012-2012, Gary Rodrigues wrote 4 Slaw posts about the major Canadian legal research encyclopedias. At my place of work, I regularly use all of them. The posts are:

• The "Great Encyclopedias" of Legal Research (July 14, 2011)
• Halsburys Laws of Canada (August 15, 2011)
• The Canadian Encyclopedic Digests (December 1, 2011)  
• The New Juris Classeur Quebec (December 7, 2012)

CLA Government Library Network Launches Series of Weekly Librarian Profiles

The CLA Government Library and Information Management Professionals Network, part of the Canadian Library Association (CLA), has launched 13 Questions With..., a new series on its website that will profile a member of the Canadian library and IM community every week.

The first profile is that of Pilar Martinez, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Edmonton Public Library and President of the CLA.

South of the border, In Custodia Legis, the blog of the Law Library of Congress in Washington, has been running an interview series featuring members of the library staff. The series started in late October 2010.

Latest Issue of Feliciter on Digital Rights Management

The February 2013 issue of Feliciter, the monthly journal of the Canadian Library Association, is now available online in 3 different formats:

• Online flip format
• PDF (7.7 MB)
• Screen Reader & Mobile (HTML) 

The main theme of the issue is digital rights management.

Articles on the subject include:

• Guest Editorial - Shifting Tides: How the Re-emergence of DRM Impacts Libraries
• Digital Locks and Canadian Research Library Collections: Implications for Scholarship, Accessibility, and Preservation
• Pick Your Digital Lock Battle: Is It the Law or Licenses We Should Be Worried About?
• Canada’s E-book Withdrawal: Digital Rights Management and the Canadian Electronic Library
• Public Libraries and E-books: After a Tumultuous Honeymoon, Seeking a Stable Marriage
• Copyright and Digital Rights Management: Dealing with Artificial Access Barriers for Students with Print Disabilities

Supreme Court of Canada Hearings Calendar for February 2013

The Supreme Court of Canada has published its calendar of appeal hearings for February 2013.

To find out more about any particular case, the Court's website has a section that allows users to find docket information, case summaries as well as factums from the parties. All you need to do is click on a case name.

Perspectives on E-Books

Here are 3 recent blog posts dealing with e-book trends in different kinds of libraries:

• Perspectives on the future of e-books in libraries in universities (TSLL TechScans, January 17, 2013): "This article reports research into the perceptions and predictions of academic librarians regarding the future role and development of e-books, and e-book collections and services.  A number of recent studies reported in the literature review indicate increasing interest in e-books.  Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 academic librarians, in seven case study libraries.  Most interviewees anticipated a significant growth in the size and role of e-book collections in academic libraries over the next five years.  The actions and policies of each of the key stakeholder groups, e-book vendors (publishers and aggregators), academic libraries and users are viewed as pivotal to the future use of e-books in universities."
• EBook Business Models - A scorecard for public libraries (American Library Association, January 25, 2013): "The Digital Content & Libraries Working Group (DCWG) began documenting and describing attributes of various licensing arrangements libraries may have with publishers in the August 2012 report Ebook Business Models for Public Libraries. Now we are pleased to share The Ebook Business Model Scorecard, which more fully examines the variables often seen in ebook license agreements or contracts. At the same time, the variables, when considered as a whole, can help libraries conceptualize licenses holistically instead of fixating on one aspect of a contract in isolation."
• Réfléchir aux livrels (ALA et IFLA) (Culture Libre, January 30, 2013): "Deux rapports à lire absolument sur le sujet des livres électroniques (livels). Dans un premier temps, l’American Library Association poursuit sa réflexion sur les contrats d’accès en lançant un “Ebook Business Model Scorecard” (PDF, en 8p.), un tableau de bord qui permet d’analyser et de comparer les termes des licences d’accès à des livrels (...) Sur le même ordre d’idée, le site InfoDocket recense certaines réflexions autour du prêt numérique entamée par l’IFLA (fédération internationale des bibliothèques)."

Earlier Library Boy posts about e-books include:

• Canadian Study on E-Books in Research Libraries (June 1, 2008): "The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) recently published a study entitled E-Books in Research Libraries: Issues of Access and Use. The report includes: A literature review; A review of e-book licenses and comparisons with print; An examination of differences between access and use of print books and e-books and impact on scholarship; An outline of the issues of access and use of e- books in Research Libraries..."
• Blog Series on Law-Related E-Books (October 13, 2009): "Eugene Volokh, a law prof who contributes to the collective Volokh Conspiracy blog, has completed an multi-part series on the future of legal publishing and the trend towards e-books."
• Highlights from Recent Issues of Canadian Association of Research Libraries E-Lerts (February 6, 2011): "The Canadian Association of Research Libraries sends out a weekly E-Lert bulletin with links to stories about library trends, e-resources, copyright issues, digital collections etc. Here are some highlights from the past two issues (...) From research and pilot programs, digitization efforts and financial support for vendors, libraries have helped prepare the way for e-books. But now that the consumer market for e-books has taken off, are libraries in danger of being marginalized? A standing-room-only panel discussion on Saturday, January 8, at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Diego, looked at the challenges and opportunities e-books hold for libraries. It was [Brewster] Kahle’s concerns about the developing e-book market that seemed to resonate most with librarians "
• New White Paper on Skills Needed By Today's Law Librarians (October 17, 2012): "The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) have co-published a white paper called The New Librarian that looks at the new skills that today's law librarians need to have or acquire to do well and survive. It is full of examples of how law librarians in different contexts are facing up to the challenges of constant change. The table of contents: (...) The Challenges of E-Books in Law Firm Libraries by Bess Reynolds of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP"

January-February 2013 Issue of Canadian Bar Association National Magazine

 The January-February 2013 of National, the magazine of the Canadian Bar Association, is available online:

• A pathway to justice?: "Public interest litigants usually face a tough battle for standing, as the long fight to strike down Canada’s prostitution laws has shown. In 2008, the Supreme Court of British Columbia denied anti-violence advocate Sheryl Kiselbach and a group representing Vancouver sex workers the right to bring a suit challenging the prostitution-related provisions of the Criminal Code. Neither party was at risk of being charged under the provisions in question, the government argued. But Kiselbach and the Downtown Eastside Sex Workers United Against Violence (SWUAV) took their case to the Supreme Court of Canada, which last fall upheld the appeal granting them public interest standing to pursue their Charter challenge."
• Nay on say: "As companies around the world prepare for their annual springtime chat with shareholders, some Canadian boards may be sighing with relief. Unlike their peers south of the border and across the Atlantic, firms here can still choose whether to consult with shareholders about how much to pay their chiefs. And this voluntary regime is unlikely to change any time soon."
  
• That’s entertainment!? : "Digital downloading, MP3s, iPods, iPads, YouTube, Netflix, e-books — in just over a decade, the world has completely revolutionized the way it consumes entertainment. Music lovers are online instead of at the record store. Kindle e-book sales have overtaken paperback sales on Amazon. And the market for on-demand web television is growing. So what does it all mean for entertainment lawyers? A lot. And it starts with their evolving client base."
• Time for a new trade strategy? : "As Canada starts working on the second phase of its Global Commerce Strategy, trade experts say that the Harper government has to take a careful look at its strategy for negotiating trade agreements."
  
• The art of negotiation : "Negotiation is the most important skill people use all the time, says Charles Craver, who teaches the subject at George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. Yet few lawyers have been trained in the art of the deal. Here are some tips from Craver and three other experts on how to succeed (...)"
  
• Legal education: Two solitudes: "Few more enduring metaphors have been offered for the Canadian experience than the one coined by Hugh MacLennan in his eponymous novel. Whether it is used to describe relations between Quebec and “the rest of Canada”, or to capture the relative invisibility of the Aboriginal peoples to urban Canadians, or even to typify the divide between Bay Street and Main Street, there aren’t many formulations as good at instantly conveying meaning in our country than to speak of two groups sharing space, but living in communal isolation. That is why the most apt way to describe relations between the legal profession and Canadian law schools today is to say that, just like MacLennan's characters, we live in two solitudes."
• and more 

February 2013 Issue of AALL Spectrum

The February 2013 issue of AALL Spectrum, a monthly publication of the American Association of Law Libraries, is available.

Among this month's selection of articles:

• The Art of Making Law Library Video by L. Cindy Dabney (Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington): "Videos can be an excellent marketing tool for any library. They can entertain your audience, market to them, and educate them. At the 2011 AALL Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, I attended a workshop called Producing Library Videos: A Hands-On Experience. The program, which focused on making good library videos, was given by Todd Shoemaker of Merge Films with Joy Shoemaker, head of research services at University of California, Irvine, and Ellen Augustiniak, web services librarian at University of California, Irvine. As “outreach services” librarian, marketing is something that I’m very interested in—as is education—so videos seemed to fit perfectly into my job."
• Survey Savvy: The truth about benchmarking by Christine Stouffer and Umit Ertin (Thompson Hine LLP in Cleveland):"Now, does your organization benchmark? That answer is resoundingly clear: You bet it does. Benchmarking, or comparing one’s business model, decisions, budget, staffing, and profits against similar organizations, is a common practice. It can be as simple as talking to one’s counterpart at another firm or as sophisticated as using a detailed survey compiled and published by an independent or commercial entity. The fact is we are all being compared with similar organizations when it comes to our work, our staffing, our compensation, and other factors. Surveys have become ever more popular in law firm libraries, so let’s take a look at what law librarians need to know about the increasingly ubiquitous law library benchmarking survey."
• Negotiating and Complying with Electronic Database License Agreements by Ingrid Mattson (Moritz Law Library at The Ohio State University in Columbus) and Linda-Jean Schneider (Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in Philadelphia): "Two programs held at recent AALL Annual Meetings, Getting to Yes for Your Library: Negotiating Vendor Contracts in Your Favor (...) and Walking the Tightrope: Licensed Data Access and Restrictions (...), tackled specific licensing terms and provided insight into the process of handling electronic database licenses in law firms. Inspired by these programs, the authors incorporate tips and tricks from the programs as part of a broader conversation about understanding your library users so that you can effectively implement license compliance strategies."