Perhaps many of you have already received your complementary copy of the most recent Academic Matters, a product of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations. What you may not have noticed is the excellent, illuminating, accessible, and far-sighted article in it by McGill's Jean-Claude Guédon: Digitizing and the Meaning of Knowledge. I cannot recommend this too highly to anyone who would like to understand, in 2000 words or less, what is happening with scholarship, the web, universities, and libraries.

The comments he devotes to the position of libraries are very insightful, and they apply to law libraries in spades. It is not uncommon for law libraries to have access to multiple versions of the same journal as provided by separate publishers. The overlap is occasioned by the current licencing options available to libraries as they manage various big deals. Our monograph collections are suffering as a result of the duplication of these expensive arrangements. Who suffers? All the legal researchers who have a question that goes unanswered or badly answered because there was 'no market' for the excellent work of scholarship on the topic that was never written. Libraries will buy these works when we are able to reallocate our spending more according to our scholarly and practical judgment, and less at the whim of publishing conglomerates.

Michael is a librarian, webmaster, and researcher at the University of Victoria Diana M. Priestly Law Library. He has an MLS and MA (Medieval History) from the University of Toronto, and is the father of two youngsters.
[click on the author's name for more information]

up

Comments are closed.

SlawTips      

SlawTips Open Access Journals
Wednesday, February 8

There is good leagal content that doesn’t necessarily come in the neat packages that we usually look in.  Though our commercial legal database subscriptions have linked, vetted, edited, and easily. […] »»

Research

SlawTips Use join.me to Get on the Same Page Across the Web
Wednesday, February 8

When you need to collaborate on a document displayed on your screen, it’s great to have a colleague from down the hall come into your office and look over your … »»

Technology

SlawTips Top 10 Financial Errors: #8 Always Assume More Risk Than Needed
Friday, February 3

You should assess whether you can accept the financial risks associated with taking the matter, just as clients will assess whether they can (and will) pay your fee. Spend time at the beginning of the. […] »»

Practice

noted on Slaw    

MLB Selected Case Summaries    

These summaries of selected recent cases are provided each week to Slaw by Maritime Law Book.
More information.

  • Banks and Banking - Liability of banks to third parties - Negligence - General

    The plaintiffs were the former shareholders of a company that failed. They sued the defendant bank alleging that it breached its contract with the company and the plaintiffs and breached a duty ...

  • Actions - Cause of action - General principles - New or extended cause of action - Opening of floodgates

    The plaintiff and defendant worked at different branches of the same bank. The defendant’s common-law husband was the plaintiff’s ex-husband. Over a four year period, the defendant ...

  • Aliens - Definitions and general principles - Immigration consultants

    The Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants (CSIC) had been designated as the sole regulatory body of immigration consultants in Canada from 2004 until June 2011. On June 30, 2011, Bill C-35 came into force, which significantly amended ...

  • Criminal Law - Sexual offences, public morals and disorderly conduct - Public morals - Obscenity - Possession of child pornography

    The accused was convicted of making child pornography available and two counts of possession of child pornography (see [2010] Sask.R. Uned. 197). Subsequently, he was sentenced ...

  • Criminal Law - Procedure - Charge or directions - Jury or judge alone - Directions regarding pleas or evidence of witnesses, co-accused and accomplices

    Rowe was convicted by a jury of five offences. He appealed.

    The Ontario Court of Appeal allowed ...

  • Narcotic Control - Offences - Possession - General

    The accused wished to access marijuana for medicinal purposes but did not have an authorization to possess marijuana issued under the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations. He was notified that a package of marihuana addressed to him had been ...

  • Narcotic Control - General - Legislation - Exemptions - Medicinal marijuana

    McCrady, who had an application pending under the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR) to possess and grow marijuana, was convicted of possession of marijuana (Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA), s. 4(1)). Hearn pleaded guilty ...

  • Criminal Law - Sentence - Trafficking in hashish or marijuana (incl. possession for purposes of trafficking)

    The accused pleaded guilty to one count of possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. He was sentenced to 30 days’ imprisonment to be served intermittently and 11 months’ ...

  • Municipal Law - Powers of municipalities - Particular powers - Imposition and collection of taxes or fees 

    Catalyst Paper Corp. operated a paper mill in the District of North Cowichan. Catalyst objected to the tax rate that it paid compared to residential ratepayers. In 2009, the ...


law foundation icon

The re-development
of Slaw is assisted by
a grant from the
Law Foundation of Ontario

TalkLaw/ParLoi    

This is a listing of a few upcoming events in Canada of interest to lawyers, law students, legal librarians, and others involved in the practice of law.

Clicking on any event in the list below will give you access to more information and to links allowing you to see the full entry and to add the event to your own calendar.

Click this link for a fuller version of the TalkLaw/ParLoi calendar of events and for instructions as to how to add events and calendars to your own calendar.

Switch to our mobile site