Canadian Association of Law Libraries Webinar on Copyright and Controlled Digital Lending

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is hosting a webinar on Copyright and Controlled Digital Lending on April 4, 2025 at 1PM EST:

"The dream of shared library collections - whether print or digital - has long been seen as a solution to many of the issues that bedevil libraries of all stripes, including managing costs, limited space, conservation and preservation of print collections. Practical and legal considerations have historically been seen as barriers to shared print or controlled digital lending (CDL) programs. However, recent years have seen growth in the area of shared collections with the birth of a new national level shared print network, North/Nord and experimentation with CDL during COVID-related lockdown. Economic and political uncertainty have given an added sense of urgency to the need to ensure that collections are preserved and accessible."

Speakers include Stephen Spong, Western University; Katya Pereyaslavska, COPPUL and North/Nord; and a representative of HathiTrust.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Draft Conference Program Available

The draft program of the 2025 annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Libraries is now available.

The conference takes place in late May in Calgary, Alberta

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Webinar on Tribunals for Access to Justice in Canada

The Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) is hosting a webinar on April 2, 2005 from 12 to 1PM EST on Tribunals for Access to Justice in Canada: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:

"Canada’s tribunals resolve many of the most important and frequently-arising legal disputes, within specialized spheres of jurisdiction assigned by statutes.  Their potential to outperform courts in delivering speedy and accessible justice has long been recognized, and in many cases that potential is realized.  However, some Canadian tribunals today (especially Ontario’s high-volume tribunals) are afflicted by politicization, delay, and endemic miscarriages of procedural and substantive justice.  This discussion will explore tribunals’ promise as a path toward more accessible justice, as well as the pitfalls on this road."

"In this session, Professor Noel Semple will update CALL/ACBD members on recent research and observations about the significant delays facing litigants at a number of Ontario Tribunals. The session will raise awareness of the importance of tribunals in our justice system, the impacts on litigants, policy and political influences leading to this situation, and the implications on access to justice."

The speaker is Noel Semple, Associate Professor, University of Windsor Faculty of Law.

Report of the @Risk North 3 Digital Preservation Summit

The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL), along with other partner organizations, hosted a summit on Canadian digital preservation at the Library and Archives Canada location in Gatineau, Québec on November 21-22, 2024.

The full report of the event is now available:

"The @Risk North 3 summit (Gatineau, November 2024), organized by the CARL Digital Preservation Working Group (DPWG) and partners, addressed current challenges in the digital preservation arena through presentations by key stakeholders, guided discussions and lightning talks. Areas under discussion included broad themes such as education and training, people strategy, funding and resource allocation, and more focused ones like web archiving, research data, benchmarking, and tools and technologies."

"Across the summit, participants emphasized the need for continued and deepened collaboration between institutions, organizations and practitioners for the purposes of advocacy, knowledge-sharing and skills development. Identifying sustainable solutions, shared infrastructure among them, addressing growing storage requirements and budgetary constraints was a priority. The community could benefit from establishing and sharing best practices, methodologies and workflows around key activities such as benchmarking, and greater mechanisms to facilitate access to resources. Varied and more extensive training, both formal and informal and at all career stages, would benefit individual practitioners and organizations."

"Moving forward, a follow-up webinar to share findings, the creation of a community of practice, and planning for future iterations of the @Risk North summit would continue the momentum and encourage the relationship-building the summit fostered."

Canadian Association of Research Libraries Launches Assessment Community of Practice

The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) recently created a Canadian Assessment Community of Practice (CoP) and is inviting people interested in joining to register by March 17:

"The purpose of this community of practice is to engage library workers based in CARL and non-CARL research libraries, who have a strong interest or functional responsibilities in assessment, an provide a forum to discuss issues, initiatives, challenges and opportunities for collaboration."

"The CoP planning group will support the planning of quarterly community calls and other forms of community engagement for the CoP."

Australian Law Reform Commission Report on Reforming Justice Responses to Sexual Violence

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) recently published its report Safe, Informed, Supported: Reforming Justice Responses to Sexual Violence.

From the press release:

"[The Commission] concluded that the justice system is currently failing to meet the twin goals of access to justice and accountability. The justice system is not supporting those who have experienced sexual violence to seek justice, nor holding those who use sexual violence to account (...)"

"In at least some Australian jurisdictions, between 75-85% of reports to police do not proceed to charge, and even fewer reports proceed to court. Once in court, many people report experiencing the justice system as retraumatising."

"The ALRC’s report shines a spotlight on under-engagement with the justice system as the primary issue that needs to be addressed. If people who have experienced sexual violence do not feel sufficiently safe, informed and supported to access and utilise the justice system, the justice system’s critical role in responding to and preventing sexual violence cannot be realised."

Human Rights AI Impact Assessment Backgrounder Released by Law Commission of Ontario

In November 2024, the Law Commission of Ontario (LCO) and the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) published an AI human rights impact assessment based specifically on Canadian human rights law. 

This week, the LCO published what it calls a Backgrounder that summarizes the benefits, limitations, and choices in artificial intelligence impact assessments.

"This Backgrounder accompanies the LCO/OHRC HRIA [AI human rights impact assessment]. It can be read as both an introduction to the HRIA and a summary analysis of AI impact assessments generally."

"The LCO/OHRC HRIA is based on extensive research on AI regulation and AI impact assessment tools. The LCO consulted with a wide range of stakeholders and key informants, including government officials, lawyers, technologists, academics, NGOs, and representatives from both large and small private enterprises."

"The Backgrounder summarizes the benefits, limitations, and strategic choices inherent in developing a HRIA. The LCO believes that policymakers and stakeholders will benefit from a comprehensive look at of the choices, opportunities, and challenges in this project."

Law Society of Ontario's Great Library Post About Finding US Textbooks

The Law Society of Ontario's Great Library has published a blog post about Treatise Finders (US Legal Research) with useful information on where to find the top US textbooks in different areas of law:

"For Canadian legal practitioners, the need to research American law arises for a variety of reasons: client problems may involve U.S. business or real estate transactions, cross-border litigation, enforcement of judgments, or child custody and access. Researchers may also be looking for persuasive precedents on legal issues which have not been litigated in Canadian courts (...)"

"A quick way to identify relevant American texts is to use a treatise finder. This handy tool, found on the websites of many large U.S. law school libraries, provides you with short lists of recommended texts in all the main areas of law."

Library Newsletters: Should You Send Yours on the First of the Month?

The website Super Library Marketing has a lot of very useful tips on how to promote library services and products.

The site is run by Angela Hursh who was recognized in 2023 as a Mover and Shaker by Library Journal.

A recent post was entitled Rethinking Your Library Email Strategy: The Surprising Truth About First of the Month Sends!

The post links to a video where Hursh ponders the pros and cons of sending out library newsletters on the first of the month, apparently a common practice.

Tracking Trump Presidential Actions

 

PLLIP, the Private Law Librarians Interest Group of the American Association of Law Libraries, has created a list of resources to help people follow the numerous orders by US President Donald Trump as well as the many lawsuits trying to stop him:

"Private law librarians and information professionals have been busy keeping tabs on AI developments over the past two years.  In our spare time (!), many of us are tracking EOs (Executive Orders) too, so we asked PLLIP members for recommendations of sources they use to monitor new presidential actions as well as any resulting court challenges.  Please note that this is not a comprehensive list—it was compiled based on suggestions that were submitted.  Also, this list includes general trackers, but trackers are available for specific topics if you search the web."

There are US federal government sources, associations, law firms, news sources, and law databases.