Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Public Legal Education and the Access to Justice Movement Conference in October

A number of Ontario-based organizations are holding a conference on Public Legal Education and the Access to Justice Movement that will take place in Toronto this October.

Topics to be covered include:
  • Practical and strategic use of technology
  • Cross-sector collaboration and innovative partnerships
  • Public participation in finding access to justice solutions
  • Advancements in public legal education and information
  • Access to justice as a social movement
  • Plain language communication
  • PLEI needs assessments and evaluation
  • Changing relationships between legal experts and the public
  • Training and supporting "go-to" intermediaries 
 A call for proposals will be going out in a few weeks.

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Monday, May 30, 2016

WILU 2016 Library Instruction Conference Begins in Vancouver

The 2016 WILU conference started today in Vancouver. It continues to Wednesday.

WILU stands for Workshop for Instruction in Library Use and is an annual conference devoted to research and innovations in the area of information literacy and library instruction.

The presentation materials from many earlier WILU conferences can be found in the WILU History section of the 2016 conference website.

By the way, many of the materials presented at the American equivalent of WILU known as LOEX are available from the May 2016 LOEX conference held in Pittsburgh.




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Sunday, May 29, 2016

Message from the Chair of the New Canadian Federation of Library Associations

As Canadian libratrian should know by now, the membership of the Canadian Library Association (CLA) voted on January 27, 2016 to dissolve the organization and launch a new federation of Canadian library associations known as the Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA).

The CFLA's new chair Paul Takala has written a message with the latest developments about the new organization.


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Thursday, May 26, 2016

Updated Research Guides From GlobaLex

GlobaLex, the electronic collection created by the Hauser Global Law School Program at the New York University School of Law, recently updated some of its research guides:
  • Nanotechnology and International Law Research Guide: "Nanotechnology is hailed as the next wonder after internet and is referred to as the third industrial revolution. The word ‘nano’ is derived from the Greek word ‘nanos’, meaning ‘dwarf’, ‘very small man’. However, in the study of nanoscience and technology, this word is used to mean a scale of measurement like mile, meter, inch etc. Because of number of reasons, it has turned to be the wave of the future and world community is in a race to take lead in this area. The regulatory discussion on nanotechnology mostly rotates around the study of chemical legislation, environmental law, occupational health and safety, product liability, and consumer protection law etc."
  • Guide to Irish Law

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Wednesday, May 25, 2016

May 2016 Issue of Connected Bulletin on Courts and Social Media

The May 2016 issue of Connected is available online. The bulletin covers news about the impact of new social media on courts.

The bulletin is published by the Virginia-based National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the Conference of Court Public Information Officers.

In this month's issue:
  • California jurors could face $1,500 fine for using Internet
  • Two states add guidance to use of social media to Codes of Judicial Conduct
  • U.K. teens filming crimes for social media might receive harsher punishment
  • Former mayor's old Facebook page must be reactivated

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Tuesday, May 24, 2016

IFLA Bibliography on Impact and Outcomes of Libraries

People are always looking for materials on the impacts of different kinds of libraries.

This recent bibliography from IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) brings together studies that deal with the impact of libraries of all kinds, including special libraries.

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Monday, May 23, 2016

New Legal Citation Guide for Canada

As reported last week on Slaw.ca, a working group of law librarians, lawyers and law professors has been set up to develop a new legal citation guide for Canada:
"There is currently no standard legal citation guide in Canada that has been uniformly accepted by all legal sectors and institutions. In addition to existing published citation guides, various courts, law schools, law journals and publishers have developed and are using their own guides to meet their particular needs."

"The Canadian public has a right to an accessible standard of legal citation that will facilitate, not hinder their access to legal information and subsequently to justice. Members of the group believe that legal citation should be easier and more uniform than it currently is, and that Canadian lawyers should be taught in law school a citation standard that will carry them through to the practice of law and will be accepted by all Canadian courts (...)"

"It is not meant to be a style guide for legal journals or judicial decisions."
The Slaw.ca article contains contact information for individuals interested in being part of the advisory group formed to provide feedback.

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Thursday, May 19, 2016

Updates on Canadian Federation of Library Associations

The membership of the Canadian Library Association (CLA) voted on January 27, 2016 to dissolve the organization and launch a new federation of Canadian library associations.

Here are a few recent updates about the new federation:
  • CFLA Replaces CLA as Canadian Co-Publisher of RDA: "The Canadian Library Association (CLA) announced in the latest issue of CLA Digest that Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA) will take over as the co-publisher of the Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard."
  • CFLA/FCAB: Wordmark/Graphic Identity Challenge: "As operations of the new Canadian Federation of Library Associations/ Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques (CFLA-FCAB) are commencing we are looking for some assistance at creating our graphic identity. We are asking member associations and libraries that have in-house graphics talent to spend a bit of time creating a concept for the Board to review."
  • Update from the Canadian Federation of Library Associations: "The Canadian Federation of Library Associations/Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques is pleased to announced its inaugural and interim board of directors and invites you to join them at their first public gathering to be held during the CLA National Forum in Ottawa on June 2, 2016 from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm Eastern time at the Delta Ottawa."

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Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for May 1-15, 2016 is now available on the Court website.

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

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Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2016 Conference Lightning Talks

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) presented a series of so-called Lightning Talks this morning at its annual conference in Vancouver.

The talks are brief 7-minute presentations on an initiative or project by a CALL member.

In the first talk, Alan Kirkpatrick from the Law Society of Saskatchewan library described his role as CALL's social media coordinator. He has been in charge of the content on the association's Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts since his appointment to the new role in early 2015 .

He explained where he gets material for posts, what very commonsensical standards he follows and how he avoids being swamped. He suggested that developing content was not too hard since he can repurpose material from CALL's journal and newsletter and highlight relevant posts CALL members contribute on a regular basis to blogs and sites such as Slaw.ca.

Audrey Jun from Courthouse Libraries BC was up next to present the work of Clicklaw, a website that serves as a centralized clearinghouse to help the public find useful legal information from more than 30 trusted organizations.

She described the many law librarian skills that come into play in the management of the site, among them info architecture, user needs-based collection development, knowledge sharing, project management, knowledge of substantive law, user testing and community engagement.

Cheryl Murphy and Alicia Loo from the library at the Supreme Court of Canada then explained how the reference team there developed Case Guides as a way of embedding the library in the research workflow of law clerks. I have worked on many of the guides. Each guide provides a centralized list of resources related to upcoming hearings at the Court: noting up information about the lower level appeal case and relevant legislation, suggested research terms that work in different databases, a list of relevant research articles, loose-leaf materials, book chapters and annotated legislation, etc all targeted specifically to a single case.

Jenny Thornhill from the Nunavut Court of Justice followed them with a description of how she has become an editor of judgments. At her court, she has helped develop an official standard for the production of judgments. This involves citation, editing standards, tracking the editing process, evaluating the judgments from the average educated person's point of view, formatting, and  distribution. The experience has created opportunities to build trust, showcase the central role the library can play and engage in the judgment production process.

As part of her role in editing, she has created a "critical information form" where the various partners in the judgement process now include  all the relevant info about each judgment, such as the proper citation, any publication restrictions, the trelease date, etc.

Finally, Kim Clarke from the University of Calgary law library described the Play the Stress Away project to help students cope with stress.









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Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2016 Coxnference - LexisNexis Breakfast

Vendor LexisNexis gave a breakfast presentation this morning at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries in Vancouver.

These conference breakfasts allow major vendors to outline recent product enhancements and to give law librarians a heads up about upcoming products and services.

LexisNexis has started rolling out its new Canadian legal research platform Lexis Advance Quicklaw. We have not yet implemented it at my place of work so it was interesting to be able to have a peak.

Lexis Advance will offer a single cleaner interface for searching across content types. Users can use pre- as well as post-search filters (AKA facets) to narrow by jurisdiction, document type, etc. This type of interface and filtering capability seems to have become standard amongst vendors. Previous conferences have featured demos of single search tools from vendors such as Thomson Reuters, SOQUIJ (Quebec) and others.

One feature that may distinguish the Advance platform is its binational taxonomy covering civil and common law concepts.

Advance also offers a graphical citator interface and an easy-to-use research "map" to retrace the steps you have followed.

Next steps include the ability to drag and drop international search results directly into a research folder and the implementation of a French language interface which does not seem to exist yet.

Other new LexisNexis offerings include additions to the transactional Practice Advisor product line such as step-by-step tool kits listing documents, checklists and flow charts on how to handle various legal tasks, for example all the steps needed to prepare a loan transaction.

LexisNexis is also introducing a news aggregator called Newsdesk (based on the recently acquired Moreover platform). It contains sources from 200 countries and millions of social media feeds and results can be graphed, organized by word cloud or analyzed for social media sentiment.

The Lexis Diligence product will serve the needs of firms that must do background checks on prospective clients. It contains data on a huge number of so-called "politically exposed persons".

The company is also investing in data mining platforms such as Lex Machina that crunches vast quantities of IP information to find patterns in litigation for practitioners, such as how successful different arguments have proven in front of specific judges.

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Monday, May 16, 2016

Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2016 Conference - US Legal Research for Canadians

This morning at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries in Vancouver, prof. Penny Hazelton of the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle offered a whirlwind tour of US legal research.

Her talk was called "Everything you wanted to know about US legal research but were afraid to ask!"

Throughout her talk, Hazelton tried to contrast and compare US and Canadian legal and judicial structures to emphasize similarities as well as key differences.

She first stressed something that law librarians training users need to always explain: the differences in terminology even for the simplest concepts of legal research. Where Canadian jurisdictions have acts, the US system talks of session laws or public laws. Canada's revised statutes can compare to what Americans call Codes (not an exact parallel but close enough), and our noting up becomes their updating.

After describing the process of federal legislative codification south of the border, Hazelton described the best free sources for the United States Code, the subject classification of federal laws, urging librarians to first check out the official Code on the Congressional website at http://uscode.house.gov because of its currency and the incorporation of amendments from the most recent new federal laws.

For federal legislative history, she referred attendees to the collection of histories on HeinOnline and to the Congress.gov website for more recent legislation. Congress.gov has links to bill summaries, debates, Congressional committee reports and other documents related to the progress of bills through Washington.

When it comes to finding judicial opinions, she stressed the need to understand the structure of state and federal courts as well as the many different names under which state-level courts can be known, with some states calling their highest appeal courts "Supreme Courts" and others "court of appeal". She also drew attention to the fact that many lower trial court rulings were never published but only made available via the local courts themselves.

An understanding of how certain states had expertise in some areas of law was also a help in knowing which state appeal courts were likelier to have wrestled with a issue. For instance, Texas courts probably had more to say about oil and gas law, Delaware probably had more important corporate law decisions because many companies incorporated there, etc.

She listed a few of the best free sites for finding jurisprudence, starting with the websites of the courts themselves, although she stressed the need to read any disclaimers on court websites: in many cases, court websites explain that cases there are not the official version, which is found in a print case reporter.

Among the sites she mentioned are Google Scholar, Ravel Law, Findlaw, Cornell's Legal Information Institute, CaseText.

She finished with a few tips:

- use research guides, the best sites for finding them being the websites of the law school libraries at Georgetown, University of Washington and Cornell
- network with American law librarians
- use Google Scholar (though she warned there is no way of knowing how current or comprehensive Google's collections of legal materials are)
- subscribe to HeinOnline which has very rich US collections
- libraries lacking funding should consider subscribing to the major vendors' citators only (Westlaw's Keycite and LexisNexis' Shepard's service) as opposed to their full collections of legal materials since the commercial services are the only reliable sources for noting up laws and cases




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Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2016 Conference - Thomson Reuters Demo

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is meeting in Vancouver for its annual meeting until Wednesday.

This morning, vendor Thomson Reuters held a breakfast meeting to discuss enhancements to its legal information products.

Many of the new features involve the integration of different types of content across platforms.

In terms of searching on WestlawNext Canada, the biggest change will be the ability to do a federated search of WestlawNext content along with the content of e-Reference titles available on the ProView platform.

A master taxonomy will also be used to organize material across content types and platforms. For example, search using the classification for damages for breach of contract in the sale of goods will henceforth retrieve cases, legal memos, Canadian Encyclopedic Digest material as well as e-Reference content.

Along the same lines, subscribers to the Practical Law Canada collection of practice-related material will find content from different sources available when perusing so-called checklists. A checklist on the sale of goods would include tabs for material pulled from WestlawNext, from e-Reference, the CED, forms and precedents, a drafting assistant tool and a subscribing law firm's own internal research memo collection.

Other content enhancements coming "soon" include a new bill tracking tool as well as persistent tables of content for commentary texts. No matter where a user happens to be in a WestlawNext article or secondary text, the user will be able to see exactly where he or she is.

Users of Editions Yvon Blais' La Reference collection of Quebec-related legal materials will also see new features such as new quantum collections and an annotated new Quebec Code of Civil Procedure with commentary on each article from a team of 25 experts and links to associated jurisprudence. The new Code came we into force On January 1, 2016.


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Friday, May 13, 2016

Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2016 Conference Annual Reports

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is beginning its 2016 annual conference this weekend in Vancouver.

Annual reports of committees and special interest groups have been submitted in anticipation of the general meeting.

Here are summaries of some of them:
  • Webinar Sub-committee
    The Committee held 8 successful sessions in the 2015 season with total net revenue reaching $1280.91. So far in 2016, the Committee has held 3 sessions with one more planned for June. The Committee’s estimated net revenue for 2016 so far is $1016.22. 
  • Committee to Promote Research
    The 2016 research grant will be awarded to University of Toronto law librarian Sooin Kim for her research project “The Open Access Impact on Legal Scholarship” in which she will examine to the impact of open access on the use of law journals for research. This study will gather information which evaluates the value of the provision of free access to resources in a stable digital environment. 
  • Membership Development Committee
    The Membership Development Committee (MDC) continued the Educational Visits program in 2015-2016. The program’s goal is to have CALL members promote law librarianship and the value of CALL to library and information students during in-person visits. This year, CALL members visited nine institutions in 5 provinces.

    This year, there were 15 mentoring partnerships established through the Mentorship Program. Thirteen of the mentees are students and two are professionals.

    The MDC also publishes profiles of CALL members on the CALL website as a way of reflecting the many job responsibilities Canadian law librarians have. 
  • Scholarships and Awards Committee
    Aside from the many traditional awards and scholarships handed out every year by CALL, two new awards have been created to honour former CALL members:

    • The first Michael Silverstein Prize (value $1500) will be awarded at the 2017 conference. It will recognize significant contributions to scholarship in primary law and/or legal taxonomy.
    • The Gisèle Laprise Prize (value $1500) will be awarded to the nominee(s) who have made a significant contribution to understanding and appreciation of the civil and common law in Canada. The first of these awards will also be given at the 2017 conference.  
  • KF Modified Committee
    The committee oversees the development of KF Modified (the subject classification for use in Canadian and Common Law Libraries).

    Chair Knight Chair and Sarah Sutherland (CanLII) are in the process of completing their work on the KF Modified Linked Data Project that was initiated in part by a grant received from the Association.

    In November York University emeritus librarian Judy Ginsberg’s writings were made available on the Osgoode DigitalCommons. These articles provide a wonderful window into the history and application of KF Modified by one of the original creators of the classification scheme. 
  • Canadian Law Library Review (CLLR)
    The CLLR is now published on the ISSUU platform which allows for the gathering of usage statistics for each issue of the CLLR. Cumulatively the six issues available on this platform have had 1970 views. This statistic does not show the whole picture as the CLLR is also accessible from CALL's website (Members-only section) and on HeinOnline. HeinOnline shows that the CLLR is accessed regularly by readers outside the association. The editors want to revisit the idea of making the CLLR freely and openly available to act as both a resource for librarians and legal researchers and a publicity vehicle for the association. 
  • Vendor Liaison Committee (VLC)
    The VLC has exchanged a correspondence with Thomson Reuters (Westlaw) about various issues including format, value, pricing models, usability – and proposed solutions. The letter was endorsed by six regional law library associations: Vancouver Association of Law Libraries, Edmonton Law Libraries Association, Calgary Law Library Group, National Capital Association of Law Libraries, Ontario Courthouse Libraries Association, and Halifax Area Law Libraries.

    Association members primarily from central and eastern Canada contacted VLC reporting problems with reconciling invoices, proving payments, correct order fulfillment and obtaining feedback from LexisNexis Canada. The VLC also sent a letter outlining concerns to the company’s representative tasked with exploring customer service issues that arose with the Wolters Kluwer integration and software-related changes.

    The VLC will update CALL's last comparative content analysis of Westlaw and Quicklaw building on a methodology developed by the Department of Justice Library, and is seeking volunteers.

    VLC will also seek input from the membership on what materials they would value being available on the CALL website: best practices, guides, checklists, vendor price forecasts, other resources? 
  • Canadian Abridgment Editorial Advisory Board
    The Canadian Abridgment is a topical compilation of Canadian case digests produced by Carswell Canada. The Board meets at least once a year with the editorial staff of the Canadian Abridgment. It is also responsible for ensuring comprehensive and timely indexing of all published secondary material in Canada in the Index to Canadian Legal Literature (ICLL), which is a cooperative effort of CALL and Carswell.

    Abridgment: 2016 will see the reconsolidation of the Canadian Case Citations, which had originally been slated for 2017. Right now the CCCs have 23 main volumes and 40 supplements. In the reconsolidation, each volume will have only one supplement. There is also some newly-available legacy material from Quebec that will be included in the reconsolidation. The regulations volumes of the Canadian Statute Citations will also be reconsolidated.

    ICLL: New, updated guidelines for the ICLL data collection network are now complete and posted on the CALL website. This will help to raise the profile of the ICLL and to encourage more participation by librarians in the data network.

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Thursday, May 12, 2016

May/June 2016 Issue of AALL Spectrum

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Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Statistics Canada Article on Young Adult Offenders

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat has published an article on Young adult offenders in Canada, 2014 that looks at crimes committed by people between the ages of 18 and 24:
"Together, young adults aged 18 to 24 and youth aged 12 to 17 account for over one-third of individuals accused in police-reported criminal incidents. While rates of youth accused of crime are higher than among adults in general, young adults—those adults aged 18 to 24—were accused of crime at higher rates than any other age group ... Since most offenders first commit crimes when they are young ..., understanding crime among youth and young adults is an important part of finding ways to reduce crime overall.'

"Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), youth aged 12 to 17 who are accused of crime are treated under the law in a manner that takes into account their reduced level of maturity and responsibility. Young people are considered adults under the law once they turn 18, and are entering a period of major life transitions. The Youth in Transition Survey found that, by age 26 to 28, 81% of young adults had participated in some form of postsecondary education and nearly 70% were employed full-time. In addition, about half of young adults aged 26 to 28 were in or had been in a relationship, and nearly a quarter (30% of females and 18% of males) had children ..."

"A number of studies have examined the relationship between age and crime, and the factors that influence whether young people continue to offend (persist), or stop offending (desist) as they enter adulthood ... As noted above, many life transitions reduce the likelihood of offending; however involvement in the justice system—particularly incarceration and long sentences—has been shown to disrupt transitions into the adult roles associated with desistence from crime and is associated with repeat offending ..."

"This Juristat uses police-reported data from the Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR) to examine the nature of crime committed by young adults, and how it compares to crime among youth and older adults. It also examines changes in rates of offending as young people develop from adolescence to young adulthood and transition through their 20s."

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Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Librarian’s Guide to Surviving Conference Season

The library conference season is in full swing.

And there is no better way to prepare than to read this post by University of Saskatchewan librarian Carolyn Doi entitled The Librarian’s Guide to Surviving (and thriving) During Conference Season:
"It seems like myself and all of my library colleagues are out there right now, presenting, networking, and gathering ideas to bring back to the workplace. That being said, not every conference experience is a positive one. Here are some of my tips and tricks for making it through your next conference like a pro!"

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News from Fort McMurray Librarians

The following post appeared recently on the Canadian Librarianship Facebook group:
"We heard from the Librarians of Fort Mac today. All staff and family made it out and the Library is still standing. But what impressed me so much, was that they had the presence of mind to grab the backup servers. That's how Librarians think; information ninja's, heroes, gurus. Libraries throughout the province are making their computers, internet, collections and space available to the displaced people of Ft. Mac freely. They have a place to go to file E.I. and other insurance claims. They have a place to take their children, hopefully taking their minds off their losses, if only for a little while. All of Alberta is coming together in support, with provisions, and with prayer. It makes me proud of the people in this province that I now call home."
So far, the devastating forest fires in Northern Alberta have destroyed some 2,400 buildings in the town.

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Monday, May 09, 2016

Statistical Overview of Self-Represented Litigants

John-Paul Boyd brought together some very interesting data about self-represented litigants in an article published last week on Slaw.ca:
"The demographic information on litigants without counsel available to date reveals a number of interesting patterns: most litigants appear to be 40 years old and older, and people in that age range are involved in litigation at rates far higher than those in younger age groups; although most litigants have lower incomes, a significant number have incomes around or exceeding the average income; and, litigants’ often high incomes match their educational achievements, which often exceed the average. All of this information strikes me as potentially useful when designing services and reforming processes for litigants without counsel."
He looked at studies compiled by the Nova Scotia Department of Justice, the British Columbia Supreme Court and the University of Windsor's Julie Macfarlane who leads the National  Self-Represented  Litigants  Project.

Earlier Library Boy posts on the topic include:
  • University of Windsor Law Prof Finds Self-Represented Litigants Going Through "Real Trauma" (June 6, 2012): "University of Windsor law professor Julie Macfarlane is interviewing hundreds of self-represented litigants in Ontario, Alberta and B.C. about their experiences in the family and civil court systems. As part of her research so far, she has discovered that up to 80 per cent of people in family court and 60 per cent in civil cases represent themselves. This has to do with lower funding for legal aid programs and the greater availability of legal information online. She explained to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday that many people are having a bad experience ..."
  • Study Shows Many Self-Represented Litigants Treated With Contempt (January 3, 2013): "Earlier this week, the Ottawa Citizen reported on a research project being conducted by University of Windsor law professor Julie Macfarlane on the experiences of self-represented litigants in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. According to Macfarlane's preliminary findings, based on interviews with 280 litigants, one common feature is deep frustration with the judicial system, even emotional trauma..."

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Supreme Court of Canada Hearings Calendar for May 2016

The Supreme Court of Canada has published its calendar of appeal hearings for May 2016.

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.

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Sunday, May 08, 2016

American Libraries Journal Publishes Library Systems Report 2016

American Libraries recently published Library Systems Report 2016, an annual report on trends in the library technology industry:
"The Library Systems Report 2016 documents on­going investments of libraries in strategic technology products made in 2015. It covers organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit, offering strategic resource management products—especially integrated library systems and library services platforms—and comprehensive discovery products. The vendors included have responded to a survey requesting details about their organization, sales performance, and narrative explanations of accomplishments. Additional sources consulted include press releases, news articles, and other publicly available information. Most of the organizations provided lists of libraries represented in the statistics reported, allowing for more detailed analysis and validation."
It is written by Marshall Breeding, a well-known library tech expert. He also edits the Library Technology Guides website and produces the annual International Library Automation Perceptions Surveys.

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Saturday, May 07, 2016

Current Awareness Services in Law Libraries

Susannah Tredwell has written an excellent overview on Slaw.ca of the kinds of current awareness services law libraries are providing to their clients:
"This service lets lawyers know about new or proposed developments in legislation, case law of interest, and articles relevant to their practice. It can also function as a business development tool by keeping lawyers up-to-date with what is happening in a specific industry or by letting them know if a client (or competitor) has been mentioned in the news."
The article covers journals and newsletters, legislative tracking, case law, and news alerts.

Tredwell is the Manager of Library Services at DLA Piper (Canada) LLP in Vancouver.

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Thursday, May 05, 2016

Publications Nominated for the 2016 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing

Every year, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) hands out the Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing.

It honours a publisher that has demonstrated excellence by publishing a work, series, website or e-product that makes a significant contribution to legal research and scholarship.

The nominees this year are:
  • BC CLE Online (Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia): CLE Online is the home of CLEBC’s online subscription services
  • Quickscribe 2.0 (Quickscribe Services Ltd.): Quickscribe provides up-to-date consolidated legislation, point-in-time legislation, and the current status of bills, regulations and Orders in Council from British Columbia
  • WestlawNext Canada
  • Cameron, Stuart J. Civil Appeals in Saskatchewan: The Court of Appeal Act and Rules Annotated. 1st ed. (Regina: Law Society of Saskatchewan Library, 2015): With expert knowledge gained over almost 34 years on the Court of Appeal, former Justice Stuart J. Cameron carefully guides users through the sometimes-complicated legislation and rules of the province’s highest court. This welcome resource provides practical commentary on case law and legislation in one comprehensive, easy-to-use guide. Features include: Forms, Practice Directives, Tariff of Costs, Fees Regulations, Tble of Cases, Table of Statutes , Full Index.
The award honours Hugh Lawford (1933-2009), Professor of Law at Queens’ University and the founder of Quicklaw.

The award will be presented to the recipient at a reception during the 2016 CALL Annual Meeting in Vancouver later this month.

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Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Library of Parliament Legislative Summaries

Library of Parliament legislative summaries for some of the federal bills of the current session have started to appear on the parliamentary website.

The summaries contain background and analysis of bills in front of the House of Commons and the Senate.

It is possible to follow the progress of all bills in Parliament on the LEGISinfo website.

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Tuesday, May 03, 2016

Supreme Court of Canada: New Library Titles

The list of new library titles added to the Supreme Court of Canada collection for April 16-30, 2016 is now available on the Court website.

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

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Monday, May 02, 2016

13 Questions With Kathleen Scheaffer University of Toronto Librarian

The librarianship.ca website has a series of librarian profiles called 13 Questions With ...

Here is the most recent one with Kathleen Scheaffer, Librarian, Outreach and Instructional Services Coordinator, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto:
"Career advice – what’s your top tip?
Stay connected and current with the endeavours of your workmates and your mentors. Also, ensure your online presence reflects the professional you wish to exude now and in the future (...)
Proudest moment in your professional life?
Each time a student, colleague, or mentor relays that my contributions have made a positive impact on their research, work, or career."

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 6:37 pm 0 comments

May 2016 Issue of In Session: Canadian Association of Law Libraries' e-Newsletter

The May 2016 issue of In Session is available online.

It is the monthly e-newsletter of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) and contains news from CALL committees and special interest groups, member updates and events.

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 6:30 pm 0 comments

Sunday, May 01, 2016

Update on the Dissolution of the Canadian Library Association

The membership of the Canadian Library Association (CLA) voted on January 27, 2016 to dissolve the organization and launch a new federation of Canadian library associations.

The CLA provided an update about the transition in the latest issue of CLA Digest .

It covers topics such as office leases, the CLA archives, advocacy, CLA position statements, CLA awards, the CLA website, physical assets and services, etc.

Earlier Library Boy posts on the topic include:

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 1:41 pm 0 comments