CNN’s top technology news story today was the beta launch of Google Base, which is an online database hosted by Google to which anyone may upload data. The site includes the following description:

Google Base is a place where you can add all types of information that we’ll host and make searchable online.

You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they search Google Base. In fact, based on the relevance of your items, they may also be included in the main Google search index and other Google products like Froogle

The [Houston Library] Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography (SEPB) presents selected English-language articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet.

This may not be of wide interest to readers of Slaw, but it could be a helpful resource for those who are looking for material on IP or DRM, for example. There’s a decent table of contents to the bibilography and the ability to subscribe to a RSS feed for updates. As well, you can search the bibilography. . . . [more]

Ocean Beach

Originally uploaded by ConnieC.

Hello from San Jose!

I am learning a lot and connecting with a number of people, so I am finding it to be quite worthwhile so far. Last night I discovered the official conference wiki. It uses Social Text wiki software which people seem to like. It includes a link to photos on Flickr which include the conference tag. At this point they will look pretty familiar if you’ve checked out my blog since so far I’m the only one who has added anything in. It helped that I was already using . . . [more]

For those of us who watched Connie Crosby as she blogged & photo-blogged both last year’s CALL & SLA conferences, well… She’s baaa-aaaak! :-)

Live from San Jose at the KM World and Intranets 2005 conference, Connie is pushing her way through the exhibits and taking many photos and session notes along the way.

You too can follow along at home! And really, short of attending, Connie’s conference blogging is fast becoming the next best thing! . . . [more]

CBC Radio’s “The Current” for November 7th had a segment about Google’s digitizing libraries project. There was also a brief discussion about a class action lawsuit in the US that is trying to stop this projects.

You can listen to the archived broadcast at:

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2005/200511/20051107.html

Scroll down the page to “The Current Part 2: Google”
About halfway down the page you will see a link to the streaming video for this segment of the programme. . . . [more]

I have been surprised lately to see a growing number of postings by Canadian law librarians on both Canadian and Australian listservs, seeking help in locating specific Australian cases, often prefaced by the statement that their library does not subscribe to relevant commercial databases. These message are usually responded to by Australian law librarians pointing to AustLII. AustLII is a terrific free resource that provides full-text access to decisions from all Australian courts and tribunals (many of them comprehensive in coverage). It was in fact the progenitor for most of the other “LIIs”, many of which it hosts and . . . [more]

I know that SLAW wasn’t created with the idea of being a venue for posting job advertisements, but as the readers and contributors of SLAW
are just the sort of people we would hope to attract, I hope to be forgiven. Osgoode Hall Law School has vacancies for two full-time librarians, a Head of Public Services who will undertake a major rebuilding of that area here, and a reference librarian. These are the first of several positions that will be advertised over the next two years. Full details on the York University website. (search on “librarian” or “osgoode”). I . . . [more]

Thanks to Alan Gahtan’s blog for the following juicy story: don’t google for an article on “22 ways to kill a man with your bare hands.”

Google Searches Used at Murder Trial
November 12th, 2005

Techdirt has a blog referencing a CRN article regarding use by the prosecution at trial of a murder suspect’s Google searches. Aside from other digital evidence discovered on the defendant’s hard drive by the prosecution’s forensic expert such as emails and incriminating websites that were visited, authorities claim that the defendant looked up the depth and topography of a lake where the body of his

Provocative piece on what Net 2.0 will mean for libraries and their users at Ariadne.

I find even the charts very provocative. Note how much of the evolution would depend on the freeing of information.

What would this model imply for legal information? . . . [more]

On Thursday law librarians in Toronto discovered that the Ontario Gazette from 2000 to 2002 had been removed from its website, whereas the website says:

This site is presented by Publications Ontario as a pilot project to make the Gazette available to the public on the Internet. It will allow you to view all issues of the Gazette, in PDF format only, from the beginning of January 2000.

Some libraries have come to depend upon the electronic version, expecting it to all be kept on the web from January 2000 forward. An email campaign protesting the change to Publications Ontario . . . [more]

I missed this announcement – it’s always good to have sites which are committed to public information about the law.

MONTREAL, Oct. 17 /CNW Telbec/ – Today, Educaloi unveiled the English version of its legal information website, www.educaloi.qc.ca/en , before a gathering of nearly 150 people at the Atwater Market Reception Hall. The Educaloi site contains over 1000 pages of free legal information and hundreds of information sheets on a variety of subjects, including court procedure, family law, employment, housing, criminal law and consumer rights.

Educaloi’s mission of providing Quebecers with clear and accessible legal information. “The Educaloi team has

Made somewhat easier this week because of SLinks:

1. THE SECOND COMING — A MANIFESTO By David Gelernter
2. Merriam-Webster dictionary: new word “google”
3. Wikipedia: verb: to google
4. Googleblog: child named google
5. Oliver Google’s website
6. Legal Information Institute
7. Cornell Law School
8. Wex
9. Wex FAQ
10. zdnet: Microsoft Hits the Books in Britain
11. Blackstone on line
12. Coke on line [pdf]
13. Canada’s Digital Collections
14. Collections Canada: National Digital Inventory
15. Alberta Law Collection
16. Law Library Microform Consortium Digital Project
17. Early Canadiana Online
18. Libraries Information and Preservation Alliance
19. Fortune: Bill Gates is worried
20. zdnet: Web Office
21. gOFFICE
22. Writely
23. Box
24. Inter Alia
25. Time Tracker
26. BBC: happy birthday