Hay in a haystack

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Steven Covey addressing the Drucker Institute live on the web right now (12:30 eastern) Nova Scotia Mental Health Court Hay in a haystack by Shaunna MireauDirector of Knowledge Management and Libraries at Field LLP. I am excited by the daily challenges of managing of the firm libraries, legal research and mentoring students, coordinating knowledge management projects, and close collaboration with the firm's technology team and practice groups. Thanks for reading slaw.ca [click on the author's name to go to email and web page links] on November 5th, 2009 One of my colleagues, found a colourful way to describe his growing disconnect with finding legal information on his own: “It’s like trying to find a piece of hay in a haystack.” A Law Librarian blog post offers an excellent visual representation of this concept: Created by Jessica Hagy, author of Index These two haystack comments make me think of teaching legal research. The topic has been on my mind a lot lately. And recent debate here at Slaw about sources of legal material tells me that others are likely thinking about it too. On the weekends, I am a farmer. There is no hay on my property only straw…but the analogy is similar. I have some chickens and there is straw in their habitat. There are many different lengths of straw, some pieces are wider than others, some shine, some are flat, some have grain attached. The chickens like the straw with the grain attached the most. I am working on a new plan for teaching legal research. I think that the major focus will be on finding straw with grain attached. Respond: Make a comment Share: Email \| Save as PDF \| Print \| Linkedin, Facebook, Delicious, other More: on Legal Research \| by Shaunna Mireau SOME COMMENTS MODERATED If you have not had an approved comment here before, your comment will be held for approval. We are glad to publish comments that address issues raised in the post or other comments on it and contribute to a fruitful discussion. We do not publish comments that seek to promote commercial products. Although we do not require it, we ask that in making a comment you use your full name. You must supply a valid email address, which will not appear with your comment. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website		Special Projects [ TOROG memos – mapping lawyers] Recent Comments Slaw Linkblog Follow Slaw [ on a mobile – via rss – via email – on twitter ] SlawNET Member Login This week's column is on: Law21 The iFuture by Jordan FurlongJordan is a partner with Edge International, providing consulting services to law firms on strategic planning and tactical matters. He's also a Senior Consultant with Stem Legal and principal of its Media Strategy consulting service. Finally, he's an award-winning blogger who chronicles the extraordinary changes underway in the practice of law at Law21: Dispatches from a Legal Profession on the Brink. Formerly editor-in-chief of the CBA's National magazine and a graduate of Queen's Law School, he lives in Ottawa with his wife and two children. [click on the author's name to go to email and web page links] February 3, 2010 For the record, I don’t intend to buy one. At least, not for a few more years and not until the inevitable upgrades, improvements, fixes, and content distribution changes have run their course. But well before the iPad 3.o arrives, the original version will have had a serious impact on the computer industry, on the [...] READ: this column other columns on Law21 past columns on all topics TOROG memos and precedents Documents from the Toronto Opinions Group on third-party opinions. Mapping Canadian Lawyers A cooperative project to locate Canadian lawyers on a Google map. David Cheifetz on Nursing Home Laws Project Edward Prutschi on Courts are not Circuses Steven Matthews on Nursing Home Laws Project David Cheifetz on Nursing Home Laws Project Rita Kaiser on Transitioning to a Legal Researcher Simon Fodden on Nursing Home Laws Project Lawrence Gridin on Courts are not Circuses Josh on The iFuture Connie Crosby on Transitioning to a Legal Researcher Connie Crosby on Courts are not Circuses David Cheifetz on Transitioning to a Legal Researcher Angela Swan on Paragraph Justification Frédéric Pelletier on Paragraph Justification Angela Swan on Courts are not Circuses Connie Crosby on Courts are not Circuses Good and Boring \| Op-Ed Columnist \| NYTimes.com Iceland's meltdown made headlines; the remarkable stability of Canada's banks, not so much.Yet as the world’s attention shifts from financial rescue to financial reform, the quiet success stories deserve at least as much attention as the spectacular failures. We need to learn from those countries that evidently did it right. And leading that list is our neighbor to the north. Right now, Canada is a very important role model. Fraser Speirs - Blog - Future Shock What you're seeing in the industry's reaction to the iPad is nothing less than future shock. For years we've all held to the belief that computing had to be made simpler for the 'average person'. I find it difficult to come to any conclusion other than that we have totally failed in this effort. The iPad and publishers: A survey of early reaction - O'Reilly Radar the device is clearly built for media consumption. Movies, music, books, news -- the bread and butter content that keeps iTunes humming. That's good for Apple, obviously, but it also creates an interesting opportunity for publishers. They've got a new distribution mechanism and a new canvas. We don't need no stinking authority \| The Economist "[I]n the history of the discussion over whether or not the drone strikes in Pakistan are a good idea, I don't think I have ever heard anyone ask where the CIA or the president get the authority for them. Now, reports Spencer Ackerman, the ACLU is asking . . ." Time to stand up for Parliament (Editorial \| The Globe and Mail) It is time the rules governing prorogation changed. Canada's Parliament has shown itself vulnerable to an excessive concentration of power, and hence is hampered in fulfilling its role as the “ultimate sovereign body.” The prorogation of 2008 has now been followed by another, this time simply for partisan tactical convenience. The Prime Minister is misusing the power to shut down Parliament, and in the process destabilizing Canada's democracy. For that reason, prorogation should be made subject to legislative controls. ongoing · On the Blankness of Google "Today, without planning to, I visited the Google home page, then also Yahoo and Bing. They don’t look like each other at all. I think, first of all, that Yahoo is the past, Google the present, Bing the future. And second, that it doesn’t matter much." Duthie Books of Vancouver closing after 53 years (Duthie Press Release) (Jan. 19/10) For 53 years Duthies has provided a good book service to the city, championed BC and Canadian books, encouraged the public to read local writers, and helped to create a knowledgeable reading public...Everybody knows that Independent bookstores have been under pressure from the 'big box' operations for many years now and it is clear that it is not going to get any better; the likes of Chapters, and Amazon are ruthless in their drive for market share and we cannot compete on price anymore. DigitalKoans » Canadian Research Knowledge Network Completes License Agreements Worth $140 Million The Canadian Research Knowledge Network, which has 73 academic institutions as members, has completed three-year license agreements worth $140 million with 14 scholarly publishers. It is estimated that over $40 million was saved compared to institutional licenses for comparable content. A new approach to China (Official Google Blog) (Jan. 12/10) Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different. Google’s Threat Ricocheted Around World, but Skipped Over China - NYTimes.com (Jan. 13/10) Google’s declaration that it would stop cooperating with Chinese Internet censorship and consider shutting down its operations in China ricocheted around the world on Wednesday. But in China itself, the news was heavily censored. Add Slaw Linkblog to your del.icio.us network Subscribe to Slawlinkblog Follow our posts on your mobile Subscribe via RSS: You can subscribe to any or all of the following: the feed for all posts the feed for all comments a feed for a particular category and a feed for posts by a particular author. You can also subscribe to the feed for the comments to any particular post: you will find instructions above the comment entry form after all entries. Subscribe via email: To receive posts: To receive comments: Delivered by FeedBurner Follow Slaw posts on Twitter Here's the title of the most recent post from each of the blogs of Slaw's regular contributors. 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